Something A Bit Different.

As anyone who's abroad at the moment can tell you, it's a bit of a weird feeling: knowing you've got a home in your new city, but that it's by no means permanent. That whatever home you make for yourself will, in a matter of months, be left, maybe never to be seen again. So I suppose what I'm trying to say is, that everyone in your Old Home will still be there, and will still be your friend or your lover or someone you bump into around uni or whatever. That however your time abroad feels, whether you're happy or unhappy or permanently excited and inspired or dragging yourself through every day like it's a chore, it's inevitable that you'll be delivered back to the people in Old Home. So I wanted to do a post in celebration of keeping up contact with people back in Old Home!

It's so, so easy to keep up with people while we're away this year, with Facebook, email, Skype, snail mail, this stupid little blog, and I think this level of communication makes the whole experience so much smoother, and kinda takes the pressure off a bit. I mean, yes, I'm 3,500 miles away from, oh, every single friend and family member I had prior to September, but when my dad can email me to ask where I've hidden the DVD of Some Like it Hot, or me and Annabel can paint our nails together on Skype, it doesn't seem like such a big deal I'm not right there. Whatever people want to say about technology (like it's a dirty word), it definitely makes a difference when you're living away from Old Home.

But then there's post. Getting snail mail in my little mailbox downstairs is one of the things that will 100% guarantee a smile on my face. Since coming here, I've had post from best friends, family, ex-boyfriends, people I'd never expect to write to me, people I forced to write to me etc etc. I've received cards, postcards from New York and the Grand Canyon, letters, a wedding invitation, a pencil case, a brooch, a post-it note with a 'would you rather' on it, a personally spraypainted potentially Kandinsky-inspired (?) postcard that I've probably stuck the wrong way up. And I'm quite sure it won't end here.

My parents visited this week, and brought some blu-tack with them so I could turn some of my bits of paper into a wall collage. I really hope it keeps growing, I love finding something colourful in my mailbox :) Letters did not make it onto the wall for the purposes of privacy.

So, in short, if you've got someone's address, write them a letter or send them a postcard or make some cool ting to brighten up their day. Thankyou to everyone who takes the time to do a Skype catchup, an occasional Facebook inbox message, a long email, a blog comment or some post in my mailbox. U iz good.
xx