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11 January 2008
Isabelle and DeDe were up late last night after their visit to the internet cafe. They spent some time looking at a book DeDe packed along for Rachel's schooling. It is a Wisconsin history book. They enjoyed reading about the French-Canadian influence on Wisconsin history. By the time DeDe got up today, the oatmeal was gone. So again, she had to fend for herself. Toast and a bowl of very boring cereal were washed down by a cup of French vanilla cappuccino. (DeDe packed one box of a cappuccino mix because she knew that was something she'd really like to have over here, and she didn't know if it would be readily available.) Before breakfast was cleaned up, we received a call from the internet company. Dave was guided through the steps to set up the Internet, and we were so thrilled to finally be in touch with the western hemisphere! Hurray! DeDe took some time to set up some web albums using Picasa. Isabelle had a ball chatting with a number of her friends. Then Rachel called a classmate using SKYPE, and Isabelle called her father. Shortly after they had disconnected, Dave's laptop started ringing! It was a friend of DeDe's, calling from Boston to say hello. She had just sent the web album links, and her friend, Kim, a computer-wise gal, thought she'd see if she could catch us on SKYPE. So they enjoyed catching up on things, and Rachel got to talk to Kim's daughter, Sydney. If you're not familiar with it, SKYPE is a very inexpensive, if not free, method of internet phoning. You buy a headset or phone (10-12 US dollars at Wal-Mart) that connects into your USB port, and download SKYPE for free. To call from computer to computer is free. Calling from computer to landline is only €0.017 per minute (that's 2.5 cents!). We used it to call our kids last spring while in France, and it was so great! Clear connections, and we didn't have to rush the conversations. Later, Dave tried to call his mother. Nel had surgery last week and there was a scary point where she had some issues with her heart rhythm, so we've been praying for her, and Dave was looking forward to talking with her. After we got our fill of connecting with family and friends, Dave took Ian, Addison and Nathan for a walk up the hill to explore the University of Malta campus. This is not the college he's working at, but it happens to be conveniently placed across the highway from us, so he's wondering if he should work to make a few connections there. It's too bad his Fulbright wasn't there, it would save him long trips on buses each morning and afternoon. Isabelle made supper tonight, and then we sent the kids off to bed. Resting up for, hopefully, some serious exploring this weekend.
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