Wow, tomorrow it will be my blog-birthday, three years of MilkJam!(Photo, MilkJam 3 years old circa 2005)
What an adventure for a blog which started off as a bet (I lost), a different name (remember Karina Takes France?? yeah, you old school peeps do!) and a way to keep in touch and share pictures - pre-Facebook - with family back home (tap, tap, any family read this anymore??) it's been a long ride!
I never would have imagined all the things that could, and have, come out of writing a blog! I've made wonderful new friends and have kept a journal longer than any other time in my life. It's so funny to look back and see the old posts!
It's crazy how the internet has changed our lives. Looking back over these past few years I've gone from no internet except in the schools where I worked, to dial up internet with Wanadoo (now Orange), to the Freebox when it offered free calls worldwide! and now to Neuf. I've moved apartments more times than I'd like to count but the blog address has always been the same, mistake and all!
How things have changed. My parents must have had a totally different experience living abroad in Switzerland in the late 70's/early 80's when letters were sent back and forth across the pond taking two weeks at time and only two phone calls were made in four years (once to announce my birth!). Do we, this internet generation, have the same experience as our parents did? Could we have dealt with these culture differences had we not had the internet? The ability to easily communicate with other expats who can understand us, to call home whenever we like, to find all those ingredients we long for from home?
Is there any "abroad" anymore or is globalization something that we now take for granted? When expats can now get a slingbox and watch American TV on a French TV or order English books from Amazon that arrive the next day in your mailbox?
Just something that's been shifting around in my head as I hear of new assistants coming... things oddly seem so different than 5 years ago when I first arrived, there seems to be this expectation that you can control your new environment even before arriving and that leaves me feeling uneasy as if the unknown is too known...
Or maybe I'm just a big fat procrastinator who is not working when she should be! :-)
7 commentaires:
Happy birthday to your blog!!
Hoping to be friends with you since you're a teacher/lecturer.
Hey, you're right about all these things!! But I like it this way... Funny, your text reminded me of some scenes of Sex and the city...you're a writer too!! Nice procrastination...
hehe I remember this photos !
happy birth-blog-day
Thanks ladies!
Ambre, i wish i were a writer when it comes to my memoire!! :-) thanks for the compliment though!!
Benette - i miss my official MSN photographer... come back soon and take more pictures :-)
It's crazy how fast the time passes, eh? I remember Karina Takes France, I think that's what you're listed as on my blog...oops! And, I know what you mean about it being a lot easier of a transition for the newbies coming over to France. I like it and I don't. In any case, I try to help people out when I can because I know what it was like coming over here pretty close to clueless as a student and then as an assistant. I wish that I had had somebody to help me then and that's why I try to help now. Ok, I'm babbling yet again, anyways, just wanted to wish you a very happy blogiversary to you, to you!
Happy Blogiversary xx
Leah - I agree, I try to offer as much help as possible to the newbies, especially concerning paperwork! it's such a mess out there as we both know! it's just the trying to recreate America before even leaving the country that bothers me, but to each his own I guess! What I wouldn't give for a dinner at Baja Fresh one day...hummm tacos... ;-)
Emily - I couldn't figure out which Emily you were, how many times have you changed blogs? lol thanks for the bday wishes!
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