iWrite...

There are many things about foreign exchange that are considered both pros and cons. You learn what is important to you, why your life back home is different from the one that others around the world are leading. Every one of my friends said that what my host family though of technology was “not a normal German thing” but it was normal for my family so I had to deal. They were against technology, or to be exact, they thought most of it would kill you. None of the four children got a cell phone, they shared a computer with the family, we had one hour of internet access on weekdays and one and a half on weekends, computer time ended at seven, to watch TV we had to ask and get the program approved, and movies were reserved for “family nights”. That was annoying. Before going to Germany, technology was my life. It still is, in a different way. It has always been my number one recourse for entertainment, but now it is something else. It is my connection to the people I love. My friends made me make a Facebook before I left and I’m so glad I did. That was newsfeed for life in the US last year and cell phone for the text messages I couldn’t get from my friends in Germany. Other amazing things were there like answers to our Chemistry homework which only one person understood and pictures of family and friends back home. Skype was just about the best thing in the world there, it tamed my homesickness and allowed me to feel like I was back home, if not just for an hour, so I could vent about the weird rules my host family had. Now, everything is flip-flopped. Skype is where I can compare notes with Charlotte, who traded lives with me for a year, and have just a regular conversation with my friends all at the same time even though one is in Germany, one is in Brazil and one is in Ecuador. Facebook now floods me with messages about clubs and keeps beeping from chats from people all over.  I realized last year why so many people hate the technological advancements of our world; they are loud, they keep people inside on days when the sun shines, they create a new aspect in the social culture, where people talk less and type more and they can, according to my host mother, give you cancer and kill the environment. But they can also keep families in touch, help you keep friends, make education easier, and most of all they create a world where you are just one click away from talking to, or even seeing someone that means the world to you.