Long distance dating has never been so entertaining...

So, I admit, one of the more difficult things about leaving DC behind actually had to do with a guy. His name is Dave. He's awesome. He's everything great. He's absolutely fabulous. (And I know I'm totally embarassing him here, but he'll get over it. ;-) )I'll make it up to him somehow. Anyway, we've been spending a lot of time together over the past few months, so I knew that this trip was going to be difficult for both of us.

Luckily, Dave is a total tech-geek. I mean, the guy owns a Roomba, fer cryin' out loud. He has a ROBOT that vacuums his home!!! So before I left, I was sure to outfit myself with the latest in high tech communications devices. Now, if you have known me forever, you are probably realizing what this guy has done to me because I have never EVER been at the curve, much less ahead of the curve when it comes to adopting new technology into my life. I really did resist getting a cell phone for as long as possible. And I only just bought my first computer a little over a year ago.

So here I found myself, packing for Bolivia, with my laptop, my headset, and my webcam. Dave and I did some troubleshooting back in DC to make sure we could get everthing working, and maybe a day or two into my trip, we had already had a fairly good quality video-phone call (free of charge. Thanks, Skype!). This was actually something of a miracle because the internet is only moderately predictible most of the time.

Yesterday Dave and I had planned to talk towards the end of the day, but I was worried because all afternoon my internet connection in the office kept on going down, which did not bode well for a smooth phone call. I had thought once or twice about emailing him to say, hey, maybe we should try this another day when it's looking like a better connection, but then I realized that that day of a better connection may never come, so I decided that we should just go for it.

The first call was okay, but not great. We had audio and we had video. The video was a little shakey, but more of a problem was the incredible lag time we had.

Dave: Okay, I'm going to count to three and then you say four and we'll see how long the lag is, ready? One, two, three....

(crickets chirping...)

Amy: Four

Oh dear...Dave pointed out that at one point the lag time was approximately 30 seconds. But it made things entertaining, even if we couldn't have any sort of a real conversation. We just spent a lot of time laughing at each other, and starting to talk, and then stopping because, due to the lag, we kept interrupting each other. And then we'd just laugh again. It wasn't productive , but it was damn funny.

All of a sudden those terrible words come across my instant messenger screen...

Dave Copeland says: you froze
Dave Copeland says: no audio
Dave Copeland says: d'oh
Dave Copeland says: connection lost immediately
Dave Copeland says: no audio :*

We still have video so we can see what's going on. Dave is typing all of this for my benefit, but that sad part is, while he can't hear me, I can hear him perfectly fine. I try to tell him that. He laughs at how I just look like I'm yelling at the camera.

Amy Maura Pearson says: I'm saying I CAN HEAR YOU!!!
Dave Copeland says: hahahahah
Amy Maura Pearson says: Now I feel like a deaf person!
Dave Copeland says: I think the video is actually more fun than the audio :)
Dave Copeland says: the lag in response
Dave Copeland says: always funny for some reason
Amy Maura Pearson says: but I'm not talented enough to type and watch the video at the same time.

Remember that all of this is going on while we are both on video, but only Dave can be heard. I feel like I must look like an old soundless movie, like I should be holding up cards that say what I'm saying in between scenes.

Amy Maura Pearson says: okay - well, shoudl we quit this nonsense and try again tomorrow
Dave Copeland says: yeah, def
Amy Maura Pearson says: This is my worst nightmare
Amy Maura Pearson says: not being heard.
Amy Maura Pearson says: :
Dave Copeland says: hahahah
Dave Copeland says: I hate to click that big red hang-up button
Amy Maura Pearson says: you hang up first
Amy Maura Pearson says: hahah
Dave Copeland says: we're like in high school
Dave Copeland says: "ok on three we both hang up same time"
Dave Copeland says: hahahah
Amy Maura Pearson says: Okay - hanging up. Bye. :*
Dave Copeland says: bye!

This looks like it was a very short conversation, but it really wasn't. We spent most of the time laughing at each other and laughing at this really unfortunate state of affairs in which we have outfitted ourselves with the highest of high tech (okay, well, maybe not the highest) equipment in the hopes that it would seem like we were still right there in the same city. But, while I would much rather be able to video chat with my honey any time I want to and see his picture and hear his voice clearly, it's still pretty freaking funny to see the slow motion video, with the lagging audio (when you have audio) trying to catch up with the movement of our mouths, or just typing while we make faces at each other on the video screen. It's not ideal in terms of communication, but it will make the month go by faster. Besides, yesterday I got a local SIM card for my cell phone so I can use it here. Who knows what other high tech trouble I can get myself into while I'm here? >:-)