Our "shrinking" world...

Last night I spent the evening working on some coursework in a local coffeeshop. While I may have been in a local coffeshop, the phrase, "Act Locally, Think Globally" came to mind because the people around me were from all over the place! I'll admit, I'm a coffeeshop eavesdropper at times (it's hard not to be, let's be honest). So here are all the international connections I noticed throughout the night:

(1) While working, I took a break to write a letter to Cicely, who is in Bangladesh. Not only was I writing Cicely in Bangladesh, but I was writing to her on paper made in Egypt that I purchased at the 10,000 Villages store (A store run by the Mennonite Central Committee that sells fairly traded items).

(2) A man sitting behind me saw some people he knew who were from Puerto Rico... well, this man had recently visited Puerto Rico on vacation with his family, and through their conversation discovered he stayed close to the people's hometown.

(3) A couple walked into the cofeeshop with an Asian little girl. My own assumptions (which could be wrong), are that she was adopted.

(4) The coffeshop employees had a discussion about the types of coffee and where they were from (Ethiopia, Latin America...)

Now I am sitting in another coffeeshop (my housemate is having a reunion with all her college roommates and I can't get any work done at the house-- this is why I'm spending two days in a row at coffeeshops, in case you were wondering)... more international happenings:

(5) A man from Germany is sitting to my right, I think he's from Germany-- that's what he said on the phone (which he was talking on really loudly).

(6) The two girls sitting directly in front of me have an accent that I don't recognize...

(7) I have been reading International Newspaper for a class research project on international urban issues.

It's a small world, after all. If anyone who reads this knows a good international newspaper to read online, let me know. In class we have been talking a lot about how technology has allowed our world to "shrink", it's not such a big place anymore because we have access to so many places that we never did before.

Also-- I have a NEW job. It really deserves a post of its own, so I'll write about that later :).