Hello from England :) Help with time zone differences?

[LittleSpoonJenny]

Hi I'm Jenny
Me and my boyfriend are 290 miles apart currently :/
Both from Southampton, live 5 minutes away at home, went to the same college, went from friends to lovers
Since September 2011 Ive been in London, hes been in Newcastle.
But soon he will be off to sea for 4 months as part of his course, he could be on a ship sailing round the US on shift at different times of the day
But we have coped so far, and we are determined to make it work
Has anyone got any tips on coping with the time zone difference?
Ive been inspired by the LDR website and all of the wonderful couples here.
Thank you all so much.
xxx

[DollOnAMusicBox]

Welcome to the forum!!!

I'm on the East coast of the US, and my boyfriend is in South Wales. That makes 3500 miles and 5 hours between us. We both face different struggles with the time difference. For him, his biggest challenge is finding the time and energy to spend with me. He's often in bed before I'm even home from class. And many nights he falls asleep while we're talking just because he pushes himself so hard. On my end, I do an awful lot of "waiting around." (For example, tonight he's out at the cinema with friends and I'm here just waiting to hear from him).

If your SO is staying in one time zone, you'll become amazed with how quickly you gain your "skill" of looking at your clock and knowing what time it is for him without counting it out on your fingers xD Though it sounds like he'll be traveling?

My best advice would be to communicate even when you're not both in front of the computer screen at the same time. Little one liner texts, or emails, or IM's are little treats. Right now we're working on having a joint calendar on google calendars so its easier to manage not only our individual lives, but our together time as well. Good luck!

[leonsfangirl]

Hi Jenny, I'm Jennie. Welcome to the forums

It's something that will take a few days to get used to but it'll be ok. You can get tons of apps that give you the time in different time zones (I have 1 on my Ipod and one on my blackberry) so if i'm having a day where my brain has up and gone (i call them weekdays) i can check.
Find a really good text plan if you can, it makes all the difference to me and my Canadian other half.

[elina]

Newcastle! ♥ My boyfriend's from Newcastle I love that place, it's so gorgeous.

Anyway, welcome to the forums! I don't really have tips on the time differences, as our time difference was only two hours. Sometimes we had to make some compromises as well though, like I stayed up longer so we could talk longer and he woke up earlier to talk to me and so on
Just try and set times for when you'd be able to talk.. and there's always texts/emails if your SO will have access to the internet.

I'm sure you'll be fine. And 4 months, that might seem really long, will probably fly by and you'll soon be back in each others arms
In the meantime, we're all here to support you!

[Captivated]

I'm in Texas and my fiance is in Worcestor, England - 6 hours away He's incredible at staying up late - will stay up until almost 2 am every night just so we can chat or Skype for an hour or two when I get home from work. And then he has to wake up at 8 am! Since he's ahead of me, there's just so much I can do I wake up early on weekends to chat with him but for the most part he's the one who really sacrifices his time so that we can communicate.

I agree with a poster above that said to message each other - even if it's a short one - to each other. Email, Facebook - it all helps. Replies might come back after a couple of hours but at least you've communicated daily. And just stay strong - it's a temporary move, right? Just keep that in mind

Good luck!