Foreign

Fun things happen when you find yourself in a new country.  I came here after many years of post-grad study, and found myself all at once starting my first serious job, living for the first time all on my own but more importantly having to learn a new language and somehow build a life.  For the first time in my life, friends would not be made at school.  Lots of people likely go through this transition, for example after moving to a new city after graduation....but what made it slightly different for me is that most of the people in my "potential friend pool" did not speak my language.  More importantly, they had lives already and I figured probably weren't interested in making friends with some Canadian girl.  The locals in the town where I live asked me questions like, "Don't you miss your family?"  and "How the heck did you end up here?".  Dutch people, in my experience can be really friendly, but that doesn't mean they will invite you into their social group.  I am sure that this is similar in other countries and is also the reason for the existence of so many ex-pat groups. 


But what was born of this, was a great experience for me.  Suddenly, anyone who spoke a bit of English was a potential friend.  I ended up getting to know quite a few people with whom I normally probably would not have been friends.  In fact now, one of my closest friends is a lady in her 40's with two kids.  Someone I would normally have little in common with....but in this town we understand each other's troubles.  We have both gone through the pain of trying to make a recipe and having it not work because the ingredients are slightly different here.  We offer to pick up things from North America when either of us is making a trip there.  We get what it's like to be a "foreigner" here.  That's something that my friends from home will never really understand.