Today officially ends the seven day, highly successful battle of the blogs. Obviously I will keeping writing almost every day, but it won't be with the intention of "facing off" if you will, against my dear friend Sam in China. By the way, I'd like to thank Sam right now for his enthusiasm and healthy competitive spirit throughout the past week. 

This blog off has gotten me thinking yet again about long distance communication and its evolution into what it has become today. Globalization has got me feeling "globalized," which was an affect of studying abroad that I had not fully anticipated. In any given day I have the potential to communicate with my friends who are spread out throughout the world: China, France, Italy, Spain, and of course all parts of the US are right at my fingertips thanks to Skype video chat and Facebook. During this blog battle I felt especially in the loop with Sam and his life, despite the fact that I will never see what he is experiencing with my own eyes. 

Obviously, globalization is a mixed bag of pros and cons. However, in respect to long distance communication, I couldn't be happier to have all of these resources available to me so that I don't completely sacrifice a year of my life in Seattle. It also gives me hope that I will be able to maintain these new friendships I've established in Chile while I'm gone for the summer as well as when I return back to the States next year. The world to me is simultaneously getting bigger and smaller at the same time due to improved technology and yet my own personal realization that not everyone lives the same way that I am used to. Sounds obvious I know, but sometimes certain things don't become true until a person experiences them for him or herself. I think that is really why I decided to come to Chile, to see and sense another culture and lifestyle for myself to make it real. I apologize if it wasn't as inspired as it perhaps could have been. Sometimes, I come to the most basic, obvious conclusions that remain noteworthy in my eyes because they finally clicked somewhere in my developing brain. Hope everyone whose reading this is doing well and good night.