Let’s sit and talk about international people. What do I mean by international people? People that that live a plane ride away from you, but today’s posts case i’m talking about my American friends.
Where do I start? I lived in halls of residence for my first year of university in London, I had the pleasure of being one of the lucky people whose flat was chosen for the international scheme – where students from America came to study for a semester in London from all different universities (or colleges as they call them!) I have written about them all in past blog posts, but this is for those that don’t know about them.
It is a year later since I had the chance of meeting Nina, Giovanni and Liz. We had some good times and some bad times, but most of all it was an experience for all of us. I grew extra close to Nina, we used to do everything together. We went on night walks over the embankment, dinned out, crazy shopping trips and we had such an awesome time in each other’s company. Cooking and eating dinner together and sharing our life stories whilst having interlectual debates, having fun nights out and sharing some of our deepest darkest secrets – what most close friends should do. All this happened in the space of 4 months – September to December. Even now, Nina and I will keep some sort of contact whether it be over iMessage, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or FaceTime! I miss her immensely but I have decided to go on an America trip next summer and visit her in Michigan.
It’s been 9 months since I had the chance of meeting the huge American clan that I became very fond of. As Nina, Giovanni and Liz’s semester ended, it meant we were destined to get more flatmates in January. Little did I know that I would get so close to the flat opposite too. We had Shaun, Erika and Deanna who lived in my flat and Tori, Natasha, Taylor and Sam in the other. I could literally write a paragraph on each of them, with their unique personalities they all brought something to the ‘BritAmericans’ friendship group.
Travelling was their favourite thing to do, whilst their trips fell in exam periods for me, but I did manage to get a trip in with them to Amsterdam and Bruges for my birthday weekend. (I wrote a post on it here)
The times we spent to together were like no other, the crazy drinking games, evenings playing cards, the nights out, exploring London together. I have never met such a fantastic group of people before.
On many occasions I wished Nina was there with us, it would have been the perfect group, but sadly life doesn’t always bring us what we want.
A proper goodbye was never exchanged though, it was always a ‘farewell, I will see you soon’… adding some extra stops into my America tour – it will be one big reunion!
I have learnt so much from these nine people over the past year and still learning. I’m just so in love with having international friends, I know that I have well and truly made friends for life now.
A quote that one of my American friends Samantha had posted on Facebook, made me think so strongly and deeply about the whole experience. It read “You will never completely be at home again, because part of your heart will always be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.”
Do you have any international friend experiences?
Thanks for reading
