In the US, “prime time” is the two hours of the evening when all the top shows are on TV. In the northeast, where I’m from, prime time is from 8 – 10 pm. Not that I ever watched that much TV (aside from Seinfeld) when I lived in the US, but at least there was the potential that I could actually watch something if I was interested.
However, prime time here in Malaysia appears to start at 10 pm. Actually, it seems like pretty much everything is pushed back a few hours according to my inner clock. When we leave the mall at around 9 pm, crowds of people, many with small children are streaming in. When we are finished with dinner at 8 pm, people are lined up waiting for tables. And, of course, when we leave the movie theater at 10 pm, we can see the families waiting for the next show as we’re on our way out.
I’m guessing that the reason people are up so late is because it’s so hot during the day that they’d rather go out later at night. But for some reason I can’t get my internal clock to shift. By 10 pm I’m ready for bed. Napping doesn’t help, and I certianly have no hope of ever watching any of those prime time TV shows…
My brain appears to be hard-wired to be awake from around 7 am until around 10 pm and there is apparantly nothing I can do about it. Alex, on the other hand, would prefer to spend all of the daylight hours asleep, so he can stay up all night. What are your “normal” waking hours?
Image: http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b21/motownbmw/Web%20Page%20Pictures/BlueEye.jpg
No fixed timing. Had been a nocturnal person lately but desperately need to readjust my internal clock.
By the way, that is one reason I can’t get used to the UK. Everything closes at 6pm, 8 pm in a larger city and 4 pm on a sunday!!
I am such a night person. Unfortunately, the bell rings for my first class at 7:30 AM, so I’ve had to learn how to go to bed early and wake up early. I still get completely and totally off schedule during weekends and holidays. What time does your school start?
Ditto what Preya said. Thankfully I can get by on 6 hours sleep, though, since other people in the bed don’t have to get up until much later in the morning and make it hard for me to go to sleep in a timely fashion. Can you tell I find this a little bit irritating?
mrbherng,
We had the same problems when we lived in Germany before we moved to Malaysia – so hard to get used to! It was basically impossible to do any shopping. Ever. Which was quite good for my wallet, but still annoying….
Preya,
We have to be at school at 8am here in KL. Next year it will be 7am in BKK. 8am is OK, but I think 7 is going to be rough!
Teacher A,
Tell me about it! Alex is freelance right now and he can just sleep and sleep in the morning. I like to turn on all the lights when I wake up, and then feign sorrow for waking him up. Lucky devil…
I like to go to bed early- this was evident the other night when BZ and I went to a 9:30pm movie, and I spent the whole first 15 minutes of it wondering how I was going to be able to stay awake for the whole thing! Luckily, I did–by the way, there was a dad with a 6-year-old (I think) girl at the same movie!! I still don’t understand the late lifestyle here. I worked in a mall when I was in high school, and on Sat. we closed at 7:00pm, and 6:00pm on Sun. So one Sunday I was at the mall here, and it was getting close to 6:00pm…I got a little worried, assuming that they would close soon. However, when I asked the salesgirl what time they closed, she replied that they don’t close until 10:00pm! On a Sunday! How much does that suck for the people who work there? And have you ever been at the mall on a Sunday night? It’s PACKED! Apparently, Malaysians do not share the American habit of taking it easy on Sunday nghts to help rest for the coming week- unless they start their relaxing at 11:00pm, which is quite possible. The good thing about my early schedule is that when I go shopping on weekends before noon, there are never many people there and there is ample parking!
In bed by 8:00 (sometimes 9:00), read a little bit, and then sleep….that’s my normal bedtime, adn I love it!