The nature of the expat comunity is that there is always someone coming or going. As an expat you make friends quickly (and lose friends quickly). We have been here three months and have all started to make some good friends. Our daughter has become very fond of two little girls living across the street. Daily she will run over to their house yelling their names and waiting for them to come out to play. The girls are a few years older than her and don't speak English but she loves playing with them and they in turn love playing with her. Their mother and I chat, while the kids are playing, and are becoming good friends as well. They are also expats and are coming to the end of their stay here. In October they will move back to Germany. This is one of those friendships made quickly and lost quickly. It seems that expat friendships are quite unique. As a new expat you need friends to keep you from being lonley or homesick and a bond can form quickly. I wonder how we will feel at the end of our stay. When leaving our friends and family back home we knew we would return but most of the friendships we will leave here will be forever.
A side note about the girls... they speak Russian with their mother, German with their father, Dutch with the Dutch, and a mix of all three when speaking to me and my daughter (with a few English words they have heard thrown in). I feel a little inadequate!
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