I have been thinking about how interesting it is to live in the world at this time. You can pick up and move and leave everything and everyone you know and then arrive in a new place and live totally alone for a long time. It used to be that when you moved you had to make contact with someone in the community, be it a landlord, a realtor, or a neighbor. You depended on those neighbors for information and contacts. We moved to Massachusetts three weeks ago and we have not met anyone (except our bishop and ward clerk). We have done all our setting up of accounts online. When we have to go somewhere we look for directions online. We paid bills online, dealt with the movers via email, figured out where the church was online, and set up my class management program online--and I haven't even signed a contract yet!
It is amazing to me how completely detached from personal contact you can be and still lead a successful and relatively uneventful life. There is no doubt that the internet makes things more convenient, but I wonder what the cost is of being so unconnected with your community. On a happy note, the friendliest people in the world can be found at your public library. That is where I have enjoyed myself the most since we moved here. Massachusetts people are friendly, but not as friendly as in North Carolina. It's taking some getting used to, but any transition takes time. I am homesick for North Carolina and impatient to have Massachusetts feel like home.
