As I wrote my earlier blog entry this afternoon I was interrupted by a familiar sound in our apartment, the SKYPE “ring” coming from our computer. It was my mother calling from Armenia. We chatted for 20 minutes about nothing particularly important. Between SKYPE, Google chat, Google video and Google phone our home computer is used more as a telephone than any other of its applications.

After speaking with my mother I thought how nice it was to be able to speak about “nothing particularly interesting”. While I’m living far away it’s nice to have chats with my family members about the simple day-to-day activities that we commonly shared when I was living at home. It also reminded me of the year 2000 when I moved to the United States for a year of study. At that time the above mentioned computer applications were simply a ripple in some computer geeks mind.  During the year I spent in Texas I spoke with my family once a month for no more than 15 minutes. In Texas a 20$ (16euro) calling card only bought 30 minutes of time to Armenia. Last week I bought a 5 euro card (my grandmother doesn’t have a computer)  that allows me to speak to Armenia for 300 minutes or the US for 660.

In short, it is nice for all of us that moved across oceans (or maybe just the Oder River) to immerse ourselves in German language and culture while still having multiple ways to stay engaged with our families and culture.