My facebook news feed is a perfect combination of almost everything I need to stay as home-sickness free as possible while living far-far away from my dear motherland.
Entertaining, informative, gossipy. I love it. I just love it. Forget the morning paper, my news feed is all I need. Sound pathetic? I could get why you would think it's a bit pathetic. But, if you stepped into my corner for a weekend or two, you'd get it.
Now, when you're abroad you miss everything. The staples of friends and family, and food of course (what I would GIVE for an after-bar run to Taco Bell every weekend)... but there's lots of things I miss while away that might not even cross your mind.
I think it's fair to say that it's a normal thing to have friends. Think about what you usually do with those friends. Your list might include sports like drinking, er... I mean... biking, or going to the movies, or shopping, for example. What that list should really say is "talking about people we know." So, what do I miss? Gossiping. I miss gossiping about family, friends, acquaintances and people I don't honestly care about... Like... neighbors or dogs or whoever, and, surprisingly enough, since you know these people from high school or sports or because they are your mom's friend's son, it's all interesting!
Here, since I don't have an extensive web of people I know well enough to gab about, I get that gab from facebook. I get my sense of home- of knowing more than a handful of people at once- by reading updates on people I know though facebook. You would be surprised that your sense of home- more than places and food- is your sense of knowing a shit load of people who all happen to be in the same place!
Another thing I get from facebook? Weather updates! As a Minnesotan, we know how important the weather is. It's either too humid, too cold, too frozen or too perfect (only for a couple of days a year, that is). Yesterday, I know it started snowing because of facebook. 12,000 complaints of white beatifulness falling from the sky, and everyone is complaining. Now, I know you have to deal with it for the next... 4-ish or so months... but man, that first snowfall can also be breathtaking. A breath that hasn't been taken from me in three years, now. Via facebook, all of a sudden I can curl up in my bed, call my parents on skype, have them point the webcam out of their window, and ·vuala·, I'm in Minnesota.
Without technology, I'm not sure how I could handle being so far, far away...
Entertaining, informative, gossipy. I love it. I just love it. Forget the morning paper, my news feed is all I need. Sound pathetic? I could get why you would think it's a bit pathetic. But, if you stepped into my corner for a weekend or two, you'd get it.
Now, when you're abroad you miss everything. The staples of friends and family, and food of course (what I would GIVE for an after-bar run to Taco Bell every weekend)... but there's lots of things I miss while away that might not even cross your mind.
I think it's fair to say that it's a normal thing to have friends. Think about what you usually do with those friends. Your list might include sports like drinking, er... I mean... biking, or going to the movies, or shopping, for example. What that list should really say is "talking about people we know." So, what do I miss? Gossiping. I miss gossiping about family, friends, acquaintances and people I don't honestly care about... Like... neighbors or dogs or whoever, and, surprisingly enough, since you know these people from high school or sports or because they are your mom's friend's son, it's all interesting!
Here, since I don't have an extensive web of people I know well enough to gab about, I get that gab from facebook. I get my sense of home- of knowing more than a handful of people at once- by reading updates on people I know though facebook. You would be surprised that your sense of home- more than places and food- is your sense of knowing a shit load of people who all happen to be in the same place!
Another thing I get from facebook? Weather updates! As a Minnesotan, we know how important the weather is. It's either too humid, too cold, too frozen or too perfect (only for a couple of days a year, that is). Yesterday, I know it started snowing because of facebook. 12,000 complaints of white beatifulness falling from the sky, and everyone is complaining. Now, I know you have to deal with it for the next... 4-ish or so months... but man, that first snowfall can also be breathtaking. A breath that hasn't been taken from me in three years, now. Via facebook, all of a sudden I can curl up in my bed, call my parents on skype, have them point the webcam out of their window, and ·vuala·, I'm in Minnesota.
Without technology, I'm not sure how I could handle being so far, far away...
