介绍:
"My name is Amelia Lourdes Del Gato and I&`&m from Olympia, Washington."
In 2006, Amelia Lourdes Del Gato, known to friends as Amelou, was working as a humanitarian doctor based in the United States when a complete stranger from China tried to connect with her through Skype.
"My name is Ma Xiaolu. My English name is Lea. I&`&m from Shandong province. The capital of Shandong is Jinan and that&`&s where I grew up. I&`&ve been living in Beijing for 11 years."
At the time of their meeting online, Lea was in her last year of college and was looking for ways to improve her English.
"I was just trying to search for someone to practice my English with. My English was getting so rusty so I just want to pick it up again. I found her by searching the name &`&Miss Saigon&`& because I love musical and I want to find somebody who share the same interest with me so we would have something in common to talk about."
The search turned up with three different "Miss Saigon". One is from Vietnam. Another from the U.K. And the third one is from the United States. Since she is more familiar with American culture, Lea chose to connect with the third. Unbeknownst to her, Lea wasn&`&t talking to the actual user of the account, Amelou. It was her husband.
Amelou was away in the Philippines and when she came back and opened her Skype account, she got a big surprise.
"I was totally surprised and uncomfortable actually to see Lea on my contact list. Normally, I would block out people I don&`&t know that would want to get into my contact list but at that time, I was out of the country. And my husband was using my laptop. He said he thought about it and it would be good to have a Chinese friend because back then, we were considering moving to China so he added her to my contact list."
They started off by firing short messages back and forth telling each other about their daily lives. Amelou said that she sensed Lea was shy and afraid.
"Maybe it was because she wasn&`&t comfortable with her level of English. I would always initiate the conversation and try to ask her to say something about her day and how she is doing in her studies until I was finally able to convince her to do a Skype call. I remember that first Skype call was really short. It was just hello and you can hear a little giggle. She was hesitant to speak."
For more than a year, their main method of communication was through Skype and gradually, Lea came out of her shell and her English started improving. They spoke to each other about their families, friends, personal relationships and the two became good friends.
In November 2007, Amelou made her first trip to Beijing and she and Lea finally met face to face. Both were feeling a little cautious when meeting each other at the airport. Lea&`&s concern is that she won&`&t be able to recognize the person she met on the Internet.
"So far, I only had pictures she sent me on Skype. But I just went anyway because she was supposed to stay with me for a few days while she&`&s touring Beijing. So I went to the airport, it took her some time to come out with her luggage. She waited quite a while, so was I. She came out with a lot of people and for some reason I was able to recognize her."
Amelou had more pressing concerns.
"I was just really thankful that she was at the airport. I was just trying to imagine what if she wasn&`&t real, what if there was no Lea, what if I get there and there was nobody meeting me at the airport. It was my first time. I was all alone. I didn&`&t know the language. And I always had these &`&what ifs&`& in my mind. I was just thankful that she was real."
During her stay in China, Amelou met Lea&`&s parents who were curious about the woman from America who was teaching their daughter English online. A few years later, Lea made the trip to America to visit Amelou&`&s family.
Lea describes Amelou as her mentor and confidant.
"She&`&s someone that I can count on and when I have a problem or when I&`&m not having a good day or anything, I can always go to her and I just know I can tell her everything and she always has a solution."
In 2010, Amelou&`&s family made the move from United States to China. She currently lives in Shen-yang, in China&`&s northeastern Liao-ning province and recently opened up a medical consulting company.
Although they live in two different cities, the two friends still keep in touch and would often visit each other.
Technology is often thought of as a double-edged sword and some people may use it for malignant purposes. But, in the case for Lea and Amelou, it brought two people who lived thousands of miles apart closer together and created a friendship that could last a lifetime.
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