When cyberspace and the real world collide...

Since I first discovered the internet when I was an exchange student in Kumamoto, it has become a bigger and bigger part of my life. For someone like me who lives in a foreign country where I stand out like a sore thumb and people actively seek out my friendship because they want to study english or because being friends with a "gaijin" (the endearing term many Japanese people use for (mainly) white foreigners.. but that is another post)the internet is a very important resource. It is also my main source of English reading material. Through the internet I have found so many people with similar experiences to me and so many like-minded souls who I probably would not have encountered in any other way. Before I left JET in 2003 I joined an internet forum for women married to men from a different culture to their own and through that forum I have met many many wonderful women who are some of my closest friends, both in cyberspace and now in real life. I also joined a yahoo baby group when I fell pregnant with Joey and although every other member is in the US and our daily lifes are very different, we all bonded as a result of the babies. It is weird to think that some of the women I feel I have grown closest to over the past few years are people I have never even met! My husband thinks it is whacko but as more and more of the people become real to him, he is beginning to understand how important the computer is to my survival in Japan. My friends "inside" the computer are always there for me. One amusing example is when I took a pregnancy test with Joey and it was positive. The women on FWC found out before my husband did because I couldn`t get in touch with him but many of them were online at that time! Anyway, I have talked about this before to a certain degree so I will shut up and get to the point of this post. Yesterday one of the wonderful women I met through FWC came to visit from Nagasaki. We hung out during the day and although it was the first time we met in real life, it felt like hanging out with an old friend, which in a way I was because we have spoken online almost every day for nearly 3 years now. It was a lovely day and then in the evening two other foreign wives came over (one whom I met in real life originally and one who I met through a foreign wives mailing list) and we had the funniest evening I have had in a LONG time. I don`t think I have laughed so much or so hard for a very very long time. In the end everyone was here until really but it was so much fun and time just flew by. I have decided that nights like last night need to happen in my life more often!! After my friend left this morning I had lunch with my Japanese friend who is moving on sunday and then I had my last lesson with my little student who I have been teaching for almost 2 years because his Mum decided that group lessons might be good for him (and I agreed) Today has been a day full of goodbyes so I am feeling very sad and depressed. I always seem to get like this at the end of March but today I have a particularly bad case of the sayonara blues. I am sure I will feel better tomorrow!