keep in touch!

[Carpathian rainbow...not my photography]

Since I have to write a paper, I think I will post on my blog. I'll choose a couple of topics from that other post and write about them. Because writing for no grade is always better than writing for a grade.

Keeping in Touch: wow, I have immediately gotten off topic. I typed those words and then decided to capitalize them. But you don't capitalize the In because it is a preposition. Which made me think of when I learned that you are supposed to capitalize Is but nobody does because it is such a small word. But everybody should because it is just another verb like all the others, and shouldn't be left out cause it's small.

So, about keeping in touch. The nature of my entire life has meant that there is always somebody I am keeping in touch with, who is not in the same geographical location as me, but with whom I do not want to lose contact. Especially since leaving Kazakhstan and then coming to college and then my family moving (meaning, in the last five years).

There are a variety of ways to keep in touch. When I was little my family sent faxes to my grandparents. That is pretty old school. Phone calls cost $3.50 per minute when we first moved overseas. Then was the advent of email. None of this really affected me until seventh grade when I went on furlough. I emailed back and forth with my friends in Kazakhstan for nine months, from my parents' email address. I think I remember adding something to the end in white font so that my parents wouldn't read it...and telling my friend to highlight it so that she could. I'm sure it was top-secret.

In 10th grade I got an email address (yahoo...have since switched to the superior gmail) when we came back to the US. I emailed back and forth with friends still in Kazakhstan. This long-distance relationship culminated in me going back to KZ to visit them for their graduation from high school. That was back when I was good at keeping in touch.

When I came to college I got my own laptop and a Facebook account. WHOA. The world is now open. Anyone that is not on Facebook, I can basically not stay in contact with.

[in Ukraine]

A year after that my family moved to Russia. My family are email freaks. We email a lot. I do it the least of all of us, but that is a big way for us to stay in touch. That was also when we really harnessed the beauty that is Skype. That year was also when I discovered Gmail chat (G-chat, for short). No more instant messenger!

[in Russia]

Around this time I also started blogging. In January or something I bought a webcam. DOUBLE WHOA. How awesome is it to see the person you're skyping with and to have them see you. I show them my room. They show me theirs. Amazing. And really great for keeping track of growing siblings.

[in Peru]

So anyway. There's also letter-writing, which I have done sporadically. Also notice I haven't included phone on here. I do talk on the phone, but it is not my favorite. I don't know. It's good for people who are in the US but not in Norman.

[in Russia]

But keeping in touch is really hard. I never know how to do it. And with friends or family with whom I keep in touch currently residing in Russia, Ukraine, Peru, Sweden, all over the US, and other places, it is just hard.

[in Ukraine, VA, OH]

Skype is my preference. It's hard to beat for nearness to reality. G-chat is hard to beat for convenience. Facebook is hard to beat for stalking, and knowing what people are up to without actually talking to them. But oh how I sometimes wish that everybody were in the same place.

[out my window in L'viv...not my photography]