Hello, I'm Mike Prasad.

If you don’t know already, I’m embarking on what will be an awesome trip today with some fellow geeks to Asia for the Geeks On A Plane trip. I’m actually writing this from SFO, awaiting my flight out. Anyway, whenever I travel internationally, I usually call my credit card companies to let them know so they don’t decline my random transactions from wherever I am. It’s not always necessary but I find it does help. A funny thing happened when I called Wells Fargo though.. (and for the record, I like Wells Fargo). The conversation went something like this:

ME: Hi, I’ll be traveling internationally and I’d like to let you know so I’ll have full use of my cards.

REP: Thank you for calling. Which cards will you be traveling with?

ME: <redacted>

REP: Thank you, and where will you be traveling to?

ME: Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, Singapore, and Tokyo.

REP: Very good, I will notate on your account that you will be traveling to the Middle East..

ME: …

REP: <typing>

ME: Um, technically, that would all be travel to Asia..

REP: Oh! ok.

Now I don’t claim to be an expert in Geography, but really? I guess now I can’t say anything when one of my more snarky international friends quip about how “Some Americans don’t know their place in the world, even when they are given a map.”