A Welcome Note: On Filling the Gaps

Dear Friends and Family:

Although I haven't added any posts since the summer of 2007, this blog continues to be a warehouse of my thoughts and experiences from my time abroad.

Andrew

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

On Writing


Dear Friends and Family:

I can’t quite pin it down yet, but there is definitively something inherent in an abroad experience that provides all force required to overcome the usual inertia of writers block. For someone who has made several failed attempts to keep journals in the past, I am finding it effortless and gratifying to jot down my daily thoughts and activities. Perhaps, I have been so concerned with the final product in the past that I was unable to let myself go; perhaps my atrocious handwriting, which more closely resembles the Linea B metro graffiti, rendered me unable to reflect upon my illegible scrawl, effectively eliminating my audience and therefore any real incentive to put pen to paper; but perhaps—and I am becoming ever more convinced of this theory—it is simply the lack of easy communication with my usual contacts that has propelled me to write. Although I have a wonderful Italian host family and plenty of students with whom I can converse throughout the day, dialogue with friends and family from home is limited, due to the time difference and cost of communication. So here I am typing away on my laptop, actually able to decipher my words, displayed neatly and efficiently in Arial, size 10.
Don’t feel obligated to read this blog by any means as I know you are all very busy, but for those of you who make it past the subject line and can find the time in your hectic schedules to shoot me a quick email update about your lives, I will be forever grateful. Ciao!

Andrew
Thanks for visitng!