title: Date formats in ActiveRecord / Rails 3
body: <p>In my model, I have a departure_date and a return_date.</p>
  
  <p>I am using a text_field instead of the date_select so that I can use the JQuery datepicker.</p>
  
  <p>My app is based in the US for now but I do hope to get international members.</p>
  
  <p>So basically this is what is happening.  The user (US) types in a date such as 04/01/2010  (April 1st).</p>
  
  <p>Of course, MySQL stores it as a datetime such as 2010-04-01...</p>
  
  <p>Anyway, when the user goes to edit the date later on, it shows "01/04/2010" because I am using a strftime("%m/%d/%Y) which doesn't make sense....so it thinks it is January 4th instead of the original April 1st.</p>
  
  <p>It's like the only way to accurately store the data is for the user to type in: 2010-04-01</p>
  
  <p>I hope all of this makes sense.  What I am really after is a way for the user to type in (or use the datepicker) a date in their native format.</p>
  
  <p>So someone in Europe could type in 01/04/2010 for April 1st but someone in the US would type in 04/01/2010.</p>
  
  <p>Is there an easy, elegant solution to this?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks for any suggestions.</p>