1 month update of meeting the internationals

So a month ago I got to meet Clara (Spain). Meeting new people is always so nerve wrecking. Meeting people from a different part of the world really was even more so. It left me with questions like “How do we greet?”, “Are they going to find stuff that I do weird?” And like a million more. All of those question went away when I got to meet Clara and her amazing parents for the first time. We went to her place and got some lunch together, really getting to know each other. We did some groceries and did some shopping together, talked about the music we liked (we are literally the same in this) and drove around Hasselt.

When I came home, I sent dozens of messages to all my friends saying that I had just met such an amazing person and I was hoping we would actually do something together once in a while.

Because it went so great with Clara, it was so much easier to meet Reta (Ethiopia) and Claudia (Spain). They are my other buddies. And they are both super friendly and just amazing. Claudia came with some of her classmates, who already had some time to settle in with their buddy’s. So she basically had her friends as some extra buddies (this literally sounds like a dream, can my friends join me later on??)! So we got to meet a bit later. Reta came a bit later on, so the same goes for him. Both of them are amazing people, which made this first month really easy and nice.

After some problems with another buddy not being able to do the international exchange, I got to meet Chiyoko and Ayane (Japan). At first, I was a bit overwhelmed, we couldn’t really communicate because of the Japanese SIM card and with me already having 3 buddies it just felt like a lot. They had an appointment at the city hall and with their buddy not being able to go, I was asked to do it. So I did, and I even got to meet Jelke (another Belgian buddy), since she and her buddy Pinku (who you will definitely be hearing more off in my stories ) joined.

We drove to city hall, where I got to learn a lot more about how Chiyoko had taken English classes all the way in Malta and so much more (I was totally impressed, like next time I’m coming!). After that we went to Dusart to get a drink and I really got to know all three of them. We did some groceries and made some plans to go to Ikea when Chiyoko and Ayane finally got out of their hotel.

Which we did, we did some shopping, I introduced them to my best friend, we had a nice meal and went to their place to get settled in. It really felt so familiar and the four of us really blended well. So we decided to do something together at the end of the week after we all had our first info session together. What I didn’t know is that Chiyoko, Ayane, Pinku and Clara had all been keeping up with each other trough summer school. So funny enough all the people I had met before were already becoming friends, so we all got together (us 5, my other friend and another girl from Italy that was also in the summer school) and made a classic Belgian “avg” (aardappelen, vlees en groenten), gave random people Some of our 5kgs of potatoes, played some pool and soccer and had a fantastic evening.

From that point on, we really became more than just people that connected through the fact that we all had an international plan. We genuinely became friends.

So we have hung out a lot, shared meals, played games, sang karaoke in bars and cars, made our own pizza’s, met even more amazing people, had some drinks, created some inside jokes, played at a playground like little kids, shared Belgium fries and just really enjoyed each other's company.

So to all of my new friends, thank you. You all already mean so much to me.