Ton expressed it very well, the same feeling I had when I went to the Second National Summit for Community Wireless Networks. He writes about seeing Jon Husband in Antwerp after two years, just like me and the CWN uber-geeks.

The first face to face meeting is about curiousity: wanting to see more of the person behind the on-line exchanges. But that first meeting usually, for me, is when I really start to feel a bond with somebody. Even if before that the on-line exchanges were minimal, meeting with people stay bright moments in my memory, even after years. So I start to feel a much closer personal connection with someone, though the on-line exchanges may carry on in much the same fashion.

Then when the second meeting occurs after some time, in this case two years, you wonder: will the other feel the same way about the connection we have as I do?

And English is his second language.