My breakfast - coffee, cheese, baguette, french magazine with dictionary 
I just came across this posting from http://fromtheartofit.wordpress.com . It’s about social networking and perhaps, the way it involves us even deeper into our friends’ lives. Even if we live close to them, we know far more than we would had we just to rely on conversations over coffee or quick snippets over emails.
I don’t like to think too deeply about technology, but since I’ve been away from life in NYC and my friends and family in the US for the past 4 months, it’s strange to me that I don’t feel so far away as I’d thought. I know all the barbecues my friends go to, where my roommate’s band is playing, who’s going on vacation, who’s sick of their job, who’s spending all their time on the internet at work again…. And let’s face it. SOmetimes it’s TOO much…Sometimes you see things you don’t want to see. But there are more good things than bad I think. There are people I’ve met at my Odyssea Language school here in Montpellier (and many people in general) that I may see maybe only once more in my entire life. But I am forever connected to them on Facebook. If I find myself in Barcelona, or Italy or Switzerland or Germany or Taiwan, I’ll send them a note so we can hang out again, and it will make those places I visit that much better. I never have to worry about losing their number or email, and I’ll always have the photos.
But for my american friends, I have to say that I would much rather hear about their life in real conversation in real time. BUt it’s just not possible and I knew that before I came here. And this internet connection thing, seeing as it’s all that I have, really isn’t so terrible.
My life is something that, yes, I live somewhere else, but that in-fact exists in a way still in New York. When I moved here, I thought I’d be moving far away, that I’d be leaving something behind…but behind what..it’s still there isn’t it?
In Montpellier, I’ve found myself surrounded by so many people for whom, living abroad for a little while, is just absolutely normal. In fact, the world has just become a lot smaller. I don’t just live in NYC anymore, I live in a much larger community. University students in Europe rarely finish school in only 4 years. Anyone taking a few language classes finds it rather customary to travel to the UK to work in a pub for a few months, or go to Barcelona for a semester to study Spanish. France is chocker-block full of Germans, Germans, Germans, who come here in droves to study French (their english is already presque parfait).
It’s only us in the USA, who think that crossing the ocean is like boarding a space ship for Mars. There were too many people who, when I told them I was living abroad for a few months, looked at me and wished they did the same. So, what? Do it already?! I’m almost 30 years old. I no longer have a career, and I have barely real savings (okay that does kind of suck, but it’s VERY french, oh la la :), but what would I have done if I hadn’t moved here? I would have gone on thinking that the grass is always greener wherever I am not. And that is NOT true. The world is the same everywhere, and NYC is pretty freakin’ sweet, so I’m now finally happy to go back.
It’s just the friends that make the places you live different. The friends and the language…
In France, they use social networking slightly differently. If you don’t have a car, you can try www.covoiterage.com - where you can hitch a ride with a stranger for an addition of a couple of euros for gas. If you want to go to a club and none of your friends are up for it, it is altogether normal to make a little posting on an internet site advertising your desire to go out. You end up finding like-minded people who will meet you at the club so you don’t have to be alone.
Of course, I’m sure this is followed by all kinds of things like buying drugs or having one-night stands. But in France, everyone’s just kind of all in the same community anyway. This is just like Online Dating on Speed. (Don’t worry mom, I won’t be trying it).
