Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Meeting People Offline - part III

I've mot most of my online friends through Yahoo! Chat, especially the very first ones. But of all those Ive had the opportunity to meet face to face only a single one was through Yahoo [members directory]. I want to tell you about this one person I've met through Friendster.

I first came to Friendster after accidentally being invited by a person who didn't know me [a long story]. After getting there I put my picture and thought I might as well stay there and see what happens. After a while, I was contacted by a couple of people. One of the good things about websites such as Friendster is the possibility to send messages to other members for free. Of all the people who contacted me one was a Sri Lankan who was staying in Haiti for a few months. We wrote each other emails, sent each other pictures and talked on the phone. The phone conversations were a great idea for I felt very comfortable talking to him, even when I pressed him with all sorts of queries he would answer me satisfactorily. Then it finally came, the time when we would meet face to face. It was a long anticipated meeting and we did not expect to be able to do it again before he went back to his country. We spent over an hour together, we talked, took pictures, watched a video on Sri Lanka, exchanged gifts and then the time came for us to part.

It was the least awkward offline meeting I've had, I was very relaxed and not worried a bit maybe it's because I was in a ratter 'safe' environment.

We met again the day he was going back to Sri Lanka so we said good bye. Now that he's back to his country we still email each other to keep in touch.

Wasn't that a nice story, unfortunately offline meetings can turn out to be nightmares so always play it safe, for practical advice read from the web sites below:

Online Dating Personals: Safety Tips
Meeting People Online : Is it Safe
About : Teen Advice - Meeting People Online
Amy's Story

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never looked at this from that point of view, thanks for that.

Anonymous said...

It's sad to realize that people are sometimes so busy... they end up alone, trying to fill the emptyness with online dating.

Life is beautiful.
Grasp it and take a bite!