Phone numbers in Kyrgyzstan are six digits long; sometimes they write them as two sets of six digits, sometimes as three sets of two. My phone number this summer can be written 52 25 48 or 522 548. I've chosen the first way because I think it's easier to remember.

All phone numbers have a three digit area code, which in my case is 703, so my number can be written 703 52 25 48 or 703 522 548.

Now we get to the tricky parts. If I call you on my cell phone, your cell phone will show this as my number: +996703522548. What's going on there? Let's break it down into groups:

The plus sign means that what follows immediately is the country code, which in the case of KG is 996. Then you have the area code, then the phone number.

When my colleague the other day wrote her own phone number, she wrote it like this: 0551 575 757. That rather confused me. You know how in the States you dial 1 before dialing a long-distance number on a land line? It turns out that in KG you dial 0. Her number is actually 551 575 757.

So, what do you do when saving a number to your cell phone contact list? There are several ways to go about it. First off, you can include the country code and area code (and use no spaces), which is what I do because I have used the same phone in multiple countries, and my contact list is saved on the phone, not on the SIM card: +996703522548. If your cell phone number is a KG number, then you don't need to include country code, instead you can use the zero: 0703522548.

Unresolved issues: what if your phone has the same area code as the number you are calling? Have to figure that one out.