Making friends while living overseas- where do I even begin?
Friendships are perhaps the most complicated, important, frustrating, and wonderful aspects of living overseas. When you move to a foreign country, you bid adieu to most of your familiar comforts, most notably, your loved ones. Yikes!!! That is HUGE! The critical importance of the human connection becomes glaringly obvious once you move to a new country, and it’s hard not to feel isolated and alone at times. Isaac and I are SO lucky to have one another when we make these transitions, but even we experience the occasional twinge of sadness that comes with trying to build true friendships in our new homes. That all being said, the fabulous upside to this aspect of living overseas is that you have the opportunity to meet all sorts of like-minded individuals who have also left their loved ones behind and who are eager to build relationships. Whether or not you’ll make a genuine connection with the people you meet is hard to know, but I can say that when you do make that connection it is for life.
Julie is, without a doubt, one of our “for life friends.” We met during our second year in Dubai and it wasn’t long before she had become family. Our final year in Dubai was especially filled with happy memories, including Thanksgiving, weekly dinners, regular mani/pedi dates, and our Christmas trip to Germany, when sweet little Wesley affectionately dubbed her “Auntie Jewie.”
Julie is currently taking a gap year (lucky ducky!) and we were thrilled that she chose Shanghai as one of her 6 stops on her round-the-world ticket!!! There aren’t tons of photos from our weeks together, as we spent the majority of our time being completely and totally lazy… and we might have gotten caught up in watching a marathon of Glee episodes. Ah, guilty pleasures with dear friends… that’s when life is the best!
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Checking out a Texas BBQ joint with Claire and Jonathon. Great margaritas, super yummy smoked wings, and Julie convinced us to try fried pickles! *Please note that we are all in our jackets and scarves, as most restaurants in Shanghai apparently don’t believe in using their heaters… even in the middle of the frigid winter!!!
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We met up with another dear Dubai friend, Jen, to visit a small propaganda museum, inconspicuously located in the basement of an apartment building. The collection of posters and other propaganda materials were incredible! Only a few photos, as I quickly realized cameras weren’t aloud… oops! .jpg "Januaryinstagram50")
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Much like the restaurants, the propaganda museum was also void of any heating, so we found ourselves a coffee shop to sit, chat, and thaw out a bit..jpg "Januaryinstagram53")
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Outside of tesco… not sure I understand the logic of an octopus and cake pop?
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We enjoyed a fabulous evening with Jake, Phoenix and Grace, eating delicious food and playing game after game after game….jpg "Januaryinstagram62")
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Around midnight the fireworks were going crazy again (this time in celebration of the last night of Chinese New Year), so we all ran across the hall to our apartment and stood outside on our icy balcony to watch the show. Much like the first night of the holiday, the entire horizon was a dazzling display of colorful lights… simply stunning!
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