I’m in Amsterdam right now for three nearly consecutive meetings: Open Translation Tools, a Global Voices team meeting, and State of the Map.

I am also now 29-years-old; dangerously close to real adulthood. Last year I spent the first half of my birthday with Revaz, Carolina, Álvaro, Gabriel and friends from HiperBarrio in Colombia and the second half with Georgia, CB, Nikipedia and a ton of Global Voices friends in Budapest. The result is to the right.

This year I was able to once again catch up with some of the GV family and, once again, consume too much alcohol from just about every corner of the planet. But, sadly, I wasn’t able to spend any time with my friends back in Colombia.

Speaking with Silvia – who is originally from Medellín but now lives in Spain – I realized just how much I miss beautiful Antioquia. And then came this video:

It is so amazing that the internet – and all the tools that have been built on top of it – can enable us to feel so much warmth and love oceans and hemispheres apart. Living in a new city just about every single week can be difficult, but the ways in which we are able to stay connected and how those connections affect our emotions across time zones and oceans … well, it’s really re-writing what it means to be human.

Thank you Jorge, Deneiber, Diego, Santiago, Catalina, Gabriel, and all of HiperBarrio. And thank you everyone who sent bday wishes – you made it a wonderful day.