Digital Life

I know, I know - I haven't posted anything on here in forever, but I have been gone from home since the middle of April with only about a week back in between trips - so I haven't been able to write much about my Dutch life!  But today I was inspired - inspired by my new digital life.  I am back home next week, so watch out - the blog will be on fire again!  LOL!

What I have really noticed since I have moved overseas just how important technology is to me and the role that it now plays in my life.  I have always been a fairly connected person, and do enjoy my technological gadgets (ie. iPad, iPod, Blackberry, computer, etc.), so I shouldn’t really be too surprised at just how important they are to me now and just how much I use them..

With the joy of technology – primarily FaceTime, I am able to keep in touch and even see people (mainly my family).  But also with that technology, I was able to take my cousin and aunt on a “tour” of my house – pictures are one thing but to walk thru the house and show them real time what it looks like is completely different.  Then, just last week when I was in Beijing, my mom FaceTimed me!  Who would have ever imagined that #1 I would be in China and #2 my mom and dad would be able to see me and talk to me there.  I also quite regularly FaceTime with my cousin and her kids and I can watch them grow up and see how they change – they are some of the people that I have missed the most since moving but knowing that I can still easily see them and talk to them, makes it easier!

I have also had to learn how to manage a lot of different facets of my life digitally and often through electronic communications.  My work travel has had me spending a fair bit of time in Asia which puts me 14 hours ahead of Alberta, so most of my awake and working hours are after hours for most businesses and when people are sleeping – so email it is!  Case in point – I need to get my car serviced, so 2 weeks ago I spoke with a lady at the Audi dealership in The Hague (it is only a 6 hour difference) to make an appointment.  Somewhere along the way I wrote an email address down wrong (ugh!!!) but since managed to send it to the general service email address.  Since then, I have been communicating back and forth with a new person.  Most recently they asked for when my last service was (in Calgary) – hell if I know and that information would be back in The Hague – assuming that I kept it.  So, instead, I fired off an email to Glenmore Audi, asking for that information.  When I am asleep tonight in Malaysia, someone in Calgary will look up that information and send it back to me, at which point, I will let Wittebrug Audi in The Hague know - and somehow it all works out!

Or my dentist appointment.  I will be back in Canada for a few weeks this summer and while I am back, I need/want to go to the dentist, so I have booked my entire appointment online, through my dentist’s website.   Throw into the mix international banking!  What did people do before email money transfers?!  I booked a holiday with a girlfriend and sent her the money via email.  My tenant – she pays me her rent via email.  I guess the old school way would have been with cheques but given how often I am away from home, Lord only knows when and how I would have ever have deposited them.

Overseas living (and travelling) really forces you to embrace a digital life.  As much as I would love to see everyone in person and do many things either in person or over the phone, it is not always possible or practical, so the digital life it is.