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5 Phases of Making Friends in a Foreign Country
Spending much of this last year abroad has been pretty interesting. There have been phases, to be sure. About five of them would sum it up. It might be easier if I just go through each phase one by one if that works for you.
PHASE 1:
I arrived in the UK in mid-June, 2020. I was immediately confused. I looked up at the gray, drizzly sky, my face twisting with disgust at the goosebumps on my arms, and proceeded to check my calendar to confirm that it still was indeed June and that we hadn’t actually time-traveled on the flight over. June, by the way, is known as a summer month in America. My face went blank. This is my life now. Cool.
Over the next few weeks, we had to self-isolate. I was fine with it. I don’t really like people all that much, I thought with a shrug. Plus, it meant plenty of binge time. I never got to do that.
PHASE 2:
Okay, it’d been a few weeks now. I needed to get out. Not much was open though, apparently. It wouldn’t be the city’s typical life force. That was fine, I said. Maybe then exploring the city center would be less overwhelming with fewer humans crawling all over it.
