The wonders of Facebook...

The great thing about St Andrews is that there is definitely an international feel about it, you just need to look at the Fresher's group on Facebook and you can see that people are coming from all over the world. So, that is my first point really, how people from all four corners descend on this (tiny if you look at global proportions) town to have their university education, it truly is magical.

My second thing is to profess the wonder that is Facebook (or any other social networking site, but for this specific purpose Facebook is the ultimate master). Within seconds you can find your future classmates, there are already 639 members on the Fresher's group, 639 students of the class of 2012 are already in some kind of contact with each other. Then comes along accommodation allocation, you get the e-mail (University Hall by the way!) and there is flurry of activity. Everyone wants to know who is where and if they can find their future roommate or neighbour. I've already found around 12/13 who are in the same hall and 3 who are on the same floor, one guy who is 6 doors down from me. It's crazy how around 2 months before we all move in we can chat, 'chew the fat' to quote good old Holden, and get to know each other.

Also the fact that quite a few of these new hall acquaintances are American has also made the whole time difference thing come more to forefront for me. When speaking on the internet, or on the phone your concept of distance gets a bit mixed. You know that this person is thousands of miles away, but for some reason if you have a direct conversation with them the distance seems illogical. Or maybe it is just me!

But the distance then becomes logical again when you look at the time difference at the sending of messages through various Walls and other channels. Whereas I may be typing in the mid-morning, say 10.30 am, the person who I'm sending the message to will most probably be asleep be it, 5.30am in Washington D.C. or 2.30am in California. And yet all those barriers are broken down, that message that I left after my breakfast will be waiting for the person after their breakfast, when it will be afternoon for me.

One my friends in Art College did her final project on the passing of time, 'Tempus Fugit' it was called, 'Time Flies'... It certainly does in the 21st Century, the increasing web of communication demolishes all walls of time, the world is most certainly alive 24 hours a day.