Internet Friends

I started to ask if I am the only one who thinks of the people I have read about in their blog posts as friends, but then I realized that I have seen similar thoughts on those very posts. It just seems so strange when I am talking to someone in person and I say, "I have this friend who lives in Reynosa and the other day she had trouble with the police and the narcos just trying to get home." or "I have this friend who is pregnant with her second baby and just two years ago she was saying she couldn't imagine having one." Sometimes I quote this guy I know who studies Spanish and Chinese and is like a really cool teacher we all wish we had had in high school but never did. There are so many of you out there that I read and feel like I know. I used to wait for that wave of homesickness, of culture shock, to hit but it hasn't. I think one reason is that I have so many friends that are in the same boat.

Here in Texcoco I have only met one other American, and I have one student who speaks English well enough to speak slowly with me in English, my husband doesn't speak more than a few phrases in English, so all my English use is here on the computer. I talk to my oldest daughter almost daily, and my dad once a week or so, my mom doesn't chat so we trade emails a few times a month, and then there are all my friends- Leslie(food, farmville and kids), Rita(glad you are in Texas now), Lindy(she so looks like Chino), Amanda(s)(babies and babies), Melissa (really want a tat), Chrissy (and Keith), etc. and teacher Bob (love all your research). If I didn't read all these little blogs about you all I would feel really isolated, but as it is I feel like I am part of a really cool, caring group of friends who are so interesting. Just want to say Thank You all for sharing a part of your lives with me.