27 Feb Where my badgals at?

When on exchange, so I’ve noticed, things take a different pace than at home. Not only do we have to figure out the city and a new school system (Ilearn omg wtf?) within a short period of time, we also need friendships, at least I do. The first couple of weeks I was mainly hanging out with boys. Oh shit, I thought at some point, I don’t want to talk about tits, beer and soccer my whole exchange. And so I went, on the hunt for some badgals to share my exchange life with. I emphasize ‘exchange life’ as we leave the banal behind and have now entered the world of the free.

Think about it, we can’t have jobs while we’re here, for which I thank god on my bare knees. We don’t have parents to tell us what to do, make sure to stay logged off Skype to maintain this wonderful feeling. On top of this, the workload is at an all time low when on exchange. What more could you wish for?

So then the next thing came up, how on earth am I going to fiend my new best exchangefriends? With more than 300 exchange students starting in the spring/summer semester, there must be some compatible people out there, but how am I going to filter them out? I never had to start from scratch before. Back home its too easy to base an opinion out of assumptions from what, for example, sport they play, neighborhood they grew up in, or even the vehicle they drive (which are bikes in my case, nothing fancy). You know what school someone went to, how rich the parents are, what mutual friends you have or don’t have.. blahblahblah whatevs! It all contributes to this image in your head on which you judge someone immediately. An automatic filter that’s always subconsciously there when you meet people. Kind of sad when you think about it.

Here it’s different, and refreshing. You’re not very likely to have mutual friends with someone from another continent so you need to find another filter for new friendships. Do you pick friends by their looks? The clothes they’re wearing? Take the easy road and stick with the people from your own country? This all might sound a little superficial but let’s be honest; we’ve all sort of thought about this during introduction week. My best exchangefriend (yes, lucky me I have one) told me the other day she introduced herself to me because she liked the tie-dyed jeans I was wearing, such a solid base for a friendship isn’t it?

When you have picked the people on the basis of wearing matching outfits, stupid or funny things they’ve said or simply because there was no one else to hang out with, it’s time to get closer. Time? On exchange you don’t need time for that. After 3 weeks I already felt like I’d been in San Francisco with my best friends. Because we’re all in the same boat, #lonelywithoutfriends, the pace of friendships evolves at the speed of hipsters driving their fixies in mission. I hang out with my exchange friends all the time and feel like I’ve found a new family overseas. I very much hope you have the same experience. If not my family signed up for adoption (how Brangelina) so come find us. Also, tie-dyed jeans might come in handy when you’re about to meet new people.