I must be one of those ‘kinetic elitists’ described by Yasmine in an earlier post. I don’t like the word elitist a lot and I also haven’t received a lot of airport privileges yet. A desk, a chair and a power socket would already suffice while waiting for a plane. In the past two weeks I’ve traveled from Germany to Nice and further on to Paris and my suitcase is packed again and ready to leave with me to Milano, Italy in the early morning and further on to Erfurt in the east of Germany next week.

In the past couple of years, my live as a traveler has changed a lot as wireless networks now keep me connected to the rest of the world more than ever no matter where I am. Sometimes I have to admit that it seems I am now better connected at the airport waiting for a plane than at home just a couple of years ago. This is important to me and it reduces the effect that traveling has on me as no matter where I am, the Internet is there. I now (almost) have the same possibilities I have at home to communicate, to be creative and to consume information. No longer do I have to wait with some tasks until I get back home, I can do them anywhere instead of killing time. Just now I am thinking back of how it was 10 years ago (1997): No mobile phone, no mobile Internet, no wifi, 3G not even on the horizon, completely disconnected the second I left home… No way I ever want to go back.