Wonders of modern telecommunication

My only previous experience living abroad for longer than a few weeks was the 1996-97 academic year I spent living in Florence, Italy. My phone contact was limited to a weekly call to my parents, using my AT&T calling card, which undoubtedly cost them a small fortune. At school we had a handful of computers that shared a dial-up Internet connection, and we had a single email address for all 22 of us students to use. We encouraged our college friends in the U.S. to put the recipient's name in the subject line so that whoever logged on first each morning could move the incoming emails into the student's folders in Eudora. Nobody else back home had email, so I went to the post office and stood in line to buy aerograms. And the occasional postcard:

Actual postcard sent from Italy

Fifteen years later, I'm in middle-of-nowhere rural Costa Rica, but I can talk to Holly every day over Skype for free. I have unlimited calling to any phone in the U.S. for less than $3 a month. Granted, my Internet connection is dog slow (it's via 3G) so video chat is pretty jerky. But holy crap, I can video chat. And email anybody I know. And post pictures of stuff I see so that my friends can see it too.

It really is amazing how different the experience is when you can stay connected.