<p>Binxclan and Doddsgang got to meet! We took a short trip this week. Spent a day in France, a day in Heidelberg … and along the way managed to meet up with Doddsdad, Doddsmom, and Doddskiddos. They took us on base, and we got to enjoy a bit of American culture for an evening, including hamburgers at Chilis, Baskin-Robbins ice cream, and English speakers all over the place! </p>
<p>We got a tour of their lovely, huge, new home, too. They’ve lived there only a month, and already have it all pulled together! Doddsmom must have a lot more power than Binx! (Or energy. Or both. Probably both.) When their kids are gone, they can open a bed and breakfast. Doddsdaughter made us all hot chocolate, which was wonderful on that bitter cold, snowy evening. Don’t want Doddsdad to lose his reputation – he did offer us a choice of wines. But the hot chocolate was perfect.</p>
<p>And we enjoyed their company, too. Binxson is 2 years older than Doddsson who is 1 year older than Binxdaughter who is 2 years older than Doddsdaughter. Got that? After a brief warm-up, they all seemed to get along just fine. We all found plenty to talk about, everything from college search and “what does he/she want to be?” (pretty unanimous – everybody wants to be rich) to sharing experiences about living in a different culture. Congrats to Doddsson who already has one college acceptance in the bag! </p>
<p>It was funny when I tried to explain to my kids ahead of time that we were going to visit friends on the other side of Germany … that we’d never met. All those lectures about internet friends must have soaked in. And Doddsparents had the same problem. Doddsdaughter was convinced that we were there to kidnap her and drag her off to Turkey or Greece or somewhere. (She’s cute enough that it’s tempting.) It didn’t help that my H called her Michelle, which isn’t her name… (He wasn’t supposed to let her new identity slip out like that… <evil grin=“”>.) Poor child is probably having nightmares.</evil></p>
<p>We managed to stay at Chilis till closing – Importing a bit of German culture – restaurant meals that last all evening. Then they guided us through the snow and sleet right to our hotel, which I don’t think we would have ever found otherwise. We hope Doddsgang can find time to come this direction sometime, and let us show them Bavaria.</p>
<p>Reminds me of when I told my wife (definitely not a CCer) that while we were down under in Paradise, we were going to have dinner with “a woman I met on the internet” (cheers).</p>
<p>I have to ask you all a question. This is the one and only internet forum I contribute to (that’s a neutral term of course…) in any substantial way. Is it common for people to meet eachother from forums? Or is it caused uniquely by the remarkable commonalities and overall niceness of the people here?</p>
<p>Alumother…I don’t participate on too many forums other than CC. I have met several people from CC in person. I used to be active on a particular travel forum related to my favorite island, and many folks on that very friendly forum with regulars for many years, have met up several times on trips. There is one other forum I have posted on over the years, and have met people from that one (other parents). </p>
<p>AlumMother, I’ve met people from three completely different fora. I started meeting writers I’d met on line more than 20 years ago and it just seemed to be the natural thing to do, especially as it was facilitated by periodic conventions where people would meet anywhere from panel discussions to readings to the hotel bar to publisher parties. That experience taught me one of the truisms of meeting people on-line: <em>nobody</em> looks like the vision you’ve put together in your head.</p>
<p>CC, I think, facilitates meeting people because the shared experiences are relatively proflonged and intimate (not <em>that</em> way!) as on-line relationships go. Both TheMom and D have gotten used to meeting CC’ers even though they don’t participate themselves and there were times during the application/visit process that we relied upon the kindness of strangers first met on CC.</p>
<p>I’ve met several posters on another forum for Girl Scout leaders - mostly at national conventions and other such gatherings. I haven’t met anyone on these boards, but there are one or two of my daughter’s classmates who post here that I know. I hope to cross paths with some of the posters - my family is also getting curious!</p>
<p>OTOH the smudge lives in horror that she will be recognized by y’alls kids on campus. “Some of them know MY first name?”. Well, uhhhhhhh…mmmmm…not all of them . Just some of my friends’ kids. LOL.</p>
<p>'Mudge, my D and some of her classmates have had the “My Mom talks to your Dad on College Confidential” discussion, accompanied by eye-rolling. However, I note that my D is pretty quick to volunteer or comment when I run a question/scenario/comment/situation by her.</p>
<p>Even without the first name, I fear the goat-herding 5’11" Texas-drawling gal is sunk in the “under cover” department, curmudgeon. But don’t tell her.</p>
<p>Plenty of time for her to alter the accent and lose the goat memorabilia.</p>
<p>A girl from my D’s school was vocalising on CC about some dorm issues, my D agreed to email her- turns out in a school of 30k, they live across the hall from each other…that felt strange!</p>
<p>Alumother, I have met a lot of people in person that I first met on the internet in various forums. It does usually happen when there is travel involved – I think it is really cool that the internet provides a way to meet people who live all over the world. When my son was traveling with a foreign exchange group to Thailand, I even had an email acquaintance in Bangkok as a possible emergency contact. </p>
<p>I think that by the time we meet internet friends in person we probably know more about them than many people we meet through more traditional channels. By definition there are always common interests, defined by whatever online forum gave rise to the meeting.</p>
<p>I had been thinking that this meeting was my “first” internet encounter. Then I realized, I have been doing genealogy research for probably 25 years, although on the Internet for much less. We have met distant relatives all over Europe. Perhaps that is why this meeting didn’t feel so odd to me. “Hey, my umpteenth grandfather was named Noah, too!”</p>
<p>Back in Junior High School, I had a penpal in Sweden. In HS, I went to visit her (with my sister and grandparents in tow). Some years after that, she came to my wedding. That was before Internet, but it seems similar. </p>
<p>Germans define “friendship” very seriously, and rarely. Friendships are few, and deep. They use the term “Acquaintance” for most people, and treat them suspiciously, keeping them at arms length. Once you reach friend status, however, you are closer than family. As an American, I find it nearly suffocating. I much prefer Will Rogers’ attitude: A stranger is just a friend I haven’t met yet.</p>
<p>Our get together with the Binxclan was much fun. My kids thought I was a lunatic, inviting people to our house that I had only talked to on the internet. Dodds daughter was particularly distressed. "This is like the video we saw at school as part of our I-Safe class (computer/internet safety class); they are going to kidnap me and take me to Greece, or maybe it was Turkey, or maybe they will kill us…mom I can’t believe you did this…I would be in big trouble if I did something like this!! wailed Dodds daughter.</p>
<p>Needless to say there were no abductions to Greece or Turkey or any other unpleasantness, only a good time with the Binxclan.</p>