After class on Tuesday I went to the Idriss supermarket to get some more groceries. On the way back I stopped by a cell phone store where I managed to get a new Lebanese SIM card for my cell phone which I had finally managed to unlock the day before. Previously I had mostly been at odd ends when trying to find people to go to dinner with because not everyone has my devotion to the internet or were near their computers and thus there was often a delay.
Cell phones here work a bit differently. You pay a certain amount (I paid $22) and you get that money for a month or so. There is a per minute charge or charge for texts. At the end of the month you need to buy more/recharge your card and any unused money does not roll over. However you are not charged for calls that you receive or missed calls which has lead to a missed call culture here, which I find fascinating. Essentially here, you never pick up your phone on the first ring or so. If it is going to be a missed call, the caller will hang up after the first or second ring. This can be a general or a prearranged signal. One missed call can often be a prearrange ‘I’m here’ signal for a planned meeting or something like “I will missed call you when I’m ready to go’. Two missed calls might mean I need to talk to you, but I don’t have any minutes. Apparently this is also very popular in India, according to Wikipedia, which included a link to an article about it. I find the whole missed culture very interesting and an ingenious way of getting around paying a lot for cell phone minutes.
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