Our scientifically advanced alarm clock

At some point in the past ten years, I was either given or went and purchased the Oregon Scientific alarm clock pictured to the right. It's a pretty cool contraption in that it converses with satellites and makes sure that the time is always spot on (if this REALLY matters or not is beyond the scope of this post). There is a button on the back that allows the user to change between the four time zones found in the United States.

This picture was taken at 11:08 a.m. When we first arrived, I manually set the clock to Moroccan time, and it was fine for a few days (enough time to re-establish communication with its satellite friends). Then one morning, the alarm didn't go off, and the clock said that it was 4:00 a.m. rather than 8:00 a.m. I searched through an online user guide and did some Google searches, but apparently this clock works as designed only in the US. There is a "Lock" switch on the back that fixes the time and deactivates all of the buttons, but this would be pretty annoying when the alarm is buzzing in the morning and can't be turned off without "unlocking" it.

So, we put the clock in Eastern Standard Time mode, set the alarm for 3:30 a.m. and added four hours to the time whenever we consulted the clock. This approach burned us in Barcelona, since they are actually five hours ahead of EST. We had plans of buying large quantities of tofu, maple syrup, oatmeal and other delicacies that we can't find here, but I set the alarm incorrectly, and we ended up rushing around and grabbing a taxi to the bus station just to make our flight. And just as we were getting used to things, along comes Daylight Savings Time, which is not celebrated in Morocco. Amazingly, two mornings ago I woke up with the feeling that something was off, checked my watch and found out that it was 7:30 even though our alarm clock said 2:30. Crisis averted.