computers

While I lived in France I did not have a computer. This didn't really bother me. I was living in a foreign country everything was exciting and new. I would use the 'mediateque' to check my email twice a week. It was on my way home from where I worked. Twice a week was fine for me. I did what I needed to do. If I was really in a pinch and NEEDED to do something on the internet I could pay for it at a cyber cafe. In Geneva I would go for weekends without the internet because my computer stayed in the office. I also did even have access at my residence until I had lived there for months. I did not seem to mind this limited access. Yet, once I returned to the US, somehow internet became a part of my everyday activities. I could not live for more than three hours without checking my email (both my personal and my work account), facebook, and couchsurfing. Luckily, I never took up twitter. Even going to work for 8 hours was a challenge for me.

Then my computer broke. Luckily, a friend lent me a computer so that I could finish the work I was contracted to do for the World Council of Churches. Then a few days after Easter, after my project ended, she needed her computer. I was computerless. I was going to give in and buy a computer, but a friend of mine said "My boyfriend can fix it." Three weeks later he has my computer and I am at the library. He is working on it, but it's in 'bad shape'. We'll see if he can fix it or not. We'll see if I buy a computer in the next few weeks, amid the many other things I have to buy (bedroom furniture, a car and perhaps a plane ticket).

Yet, all of this to say that perhaps not having access to the internet 24/7 is a good thing. I've used a phone book twice in the past three days! I have called and talked to people rather than using the internet to show me the information I wanted. I have spent much more time with my Aunt and Uncle. Perhaps not having a computer has been a blessing. Perhaps.... but somehow I still want one.