Calling Home

After you finally meet your child and hold her in your arms, you’re going to want to share the wonderful news with your friends and loved ones back home in the U.S.A. Now, before you leave, is the time to decide exactly how you are going to accomplish this.

Will you phone? If so, how? Don’t count on your U.S. cell phone – most U.S. cell phones won’t work anywhere else in the world because of differing network standards. Will you just call from the phone in your room and charge it to your hotel room? If you do, be prepared for some astronomical charges – an acquaintance who went this route made a 10 minute phone call from Thailand to North Carolina and was charged $20!

If you plan on making any phone calls while you are overseas, be sure to buy a pre-paid international calling card before your trip, or rent a cell phone for use abroad. Rates on these pre-paid cards and phones are very reasonable – some cards from discount clubs such as Sam’s or Costco have rates as low as 35 cents a minute (quite a bit better than $2 a minute!). Just be sure you buy the international pre-paid card. And be sure to look up the country codes you’ll be dialing before you leave home. Better yet, write them down and put them in your wallet (and your travel journal)!

If you don’t plan to phone home, will you send e-mail instead? E-mail is a very cost-efficient way to communicate with the folks back home. And as an added bonus, you can attach digital photos so they can see your new little darling in (almost) real time. If you opt for e-mail, will you bring a laptop computer along with you? If so, that uses up one of the few carry-on bags you’re allotted by the airlines. If you don’t want to bring a laptop computer along with you, try to find out if there cybercafés close to your hotel (or maybe even in your hotel). Here’s a tip: Go to your favorite Internet search engine and type in your destination city name plus “cybercafé.” You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at the number of hits you get.

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