Living in Asia

Before you go:

Make sure your parents (especially mother) has an e-mail address, has a means to access it regularly, and that they know how to access their e-mail. Hotmail and Yahoo are the most popular. However, Lycos and Mail.com have the best storage.

E-mail is very important, as no-one uses fax machines in East Asia, and telephone calls are expensive. E-mail is often more convenient, and you don't have to answer a myriad of questions like: "Are you wearing clean underwear?"

Having access to chat programs can be important, too. This gives you the chance to connect more directly with your folks in real time. Most Internet cafes in East Asia will allow you to install whatever program you prefer. But usually they will have ICQ and MSN Messenger pre-installed. Establish an account before you go, and one for your folks, and make sure that they can use it, too.

Internet phone calls can be made. This is you calling from your PC to a regular telephone. Perhaps the best is 'Skype'. You need to set up an account, a credit card to put you in credit, and it can cost you as little as a few cents per half hour. However, it seems Skype works best on Windows XP computers, and tends to crash others after about fifteen minutes. Otherwise, ICQ can do it, too.

Keeping contact with the folks is important as they can help you get through the 'new-job blues', and Homesickness: Beating the Blues. Also, there will be business arising that you may not have expected that your parents need to handle on your behalf. In my case it was tax, furniture removal, university matters, banking and other things.

japan, korea, taiwan, asia