Making friends. Again.

When you move around as often as we have, you get used to meeting new people and making new friends. Since we have lived in each place for a limited time, the process of making friends needs to be very efficient – like platonic speed-dating. Often we turn to our countrymen in the search of potential friends. My closest friends today are friends I’ve made since we moved out of Sweden. It’s a challenge to make new friends; finding interesting people, getting to know them, building up a mutual trust that will lead to friendship. So far, it’s been really hard to make friends here in Melbourne. If you come from Europe, Australia’s not that different. Well, what am I saying? Of course Australia’s different. It’s an entire continent just bursting with amazing and beautiful places, interesting and unusual animals and nice weather all year around – except Melbourne, where we happen to live. Melbourne is fairly close to the South Pole, hence the cold winds and the sudden changes of weather. What I was referring to was that the Australian community and society is working in a similar way as the northern European dittos. You can get around by speaking English as the official languages here is English, Australian English that is. They have a tendency to shorten most words; pressies are presents, brekkie is breakfast, mozzies are mosquitoes. Since it’s a modern, Western society, most women work at least part time. Only senior citizens, mothers on maternity leave and a handful of ladies of leisure are populating the streets and beaches of Melbourne on a regular weekday.

Just as I have met some wonderful people – who have become close friends – thanks to our nomadic lifestyle, I have also met the absolute opposite. I sometimes wonder if these unpleasant people are better persons when they are in their own environment and not in the somewhat artificial world that the expatriate life can be? Perhaps this topic deserves a blog entry of its own as I have so many thoughts on this.

We haven’t been here for long and our circle of friends is currently very small but I must say I’m quite happy with taking my time in making new friends. We are not in Melbourne for a limited time only, there’s no rush. I don’t need to socialize with people just for the sake of socializing. With most things and matters in my life; I much more prefer quality over quantity. Also when it comes to friends. 

"Friendship is not about whom you have know the longest, it's about who came and never left your side"