Thankful for Skype

One of the many things that has made this entire overseas transition much easier/smoother has been Skype. We love Skype.

It's amazing to think that, 50 years ago, to get any communication from someone living on this side of the ocean to that side of the ocean, you would probably send a letter, carried by boat, which would take maybe 6 weeks to get there. And then, a return trip for the response. So, we're talking about something like 12 weeks just to have a conversation!

And then 20 years ago, I guess you could make long distance phone calls... but even then, it would be somewhat expensive ($0.50/minute?) and the quality would be pretty mediocre.

Nowadays, thanks to Skype (and yes, a couple other offerings of similar technology - but we really just Skype), I'm able to have realtime audio and video conversations with friends and family. Just turn on my microphone, turn on the webcam... and we can start talking. And the audio quality for high-speed-internet users is pretty good... often clearer than cell phones and landlines. It's been great to be able to see our family and catch up with them regularly (got to wish our dad's both Happy Father's Day - this time, we got the date right). And it's always refreshing to be able to see and hear from good friends.

Thanks to these modern technological conveniences like Skype, we don't feel so far away after all.