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The world was, I thought, connected. I could email friends, I kept my bank account in the US and most everything (at the time that was deposit and getting checks) I could do from the UK with no problem.
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But I remember the pain of finding out the UCLA football scores. I would have to wait until the Monday issue of the International Herald Tribune and hope they remembered to put our score in. Sometimes I would have to check on Tuesday or Wednesday instead (at the time, it was owned by the Boston Globe and the NY Times, 2 papers not known for college football coverage). Oh sure, I could email friends, and wait until Monday when they were back in the office to cheeck. And this was 1990 - no one had e-mail at home. I was lucky to work for Xerox who had it at all.
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24 years later, that time seems like the Iron Age. I can watch live UCLA sports if I want. Even here - where T-Mobile's "free international data" doesn't work yet (it did in Mexico and Turkey, but Bosnia Herzegovina is a stretch) my hotels all have free wifi. Ed and I faced time the other night until we didn't have anything to say (Trevor is sad, but doing okay).
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In Enngland, I was lucky to get 4 channels (pre Channel 5) - now in Bosnia I can watch USA SciFi, Comedy Central or TCM if I want!
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All of which makes this trip very special. I cannot thank my husband enough for letting - nay encouraging me to go. Bosnia is connected to the West, it is true. But it isn't quite the West. The mosques, the people. I drove today through a landscape that was almost Austrian Alpine. You know, fields in the mountains, with those 3 story chalet houses - and then in the middle of this Apine scene is a mosque. And very much the way we thought ott them before 9/11. As a unique and polite people.
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Muslums in Bosnia are a lot like Mormons They don't drink, they are always polite and a little prresecuted - and still they are hard to comprehend. These goofy kids who grow up to be more devout adults. My best guess here is that the "undevout" drop out rate for guys growing up is probably the same for Muslums in Bosnia and Mormons outside of Utah.
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Pus ca change? right?