Dinner in Brussels with Friends

November 11, 2007

There are times in our lives when we something happens to make us feel incredibly lucky and incredibly sad all at the same time. This was one of those times...

One of the greatest gifts that I received by taking a chance to spend three months in the Netherlands was building a friendship with two incredible people that I probably would never have met if I'd spent my whole career in Minnesota. Even though, Ryan and Laura are from Minnesota/Iowa, we had to go all the way over to The Netherlands in order to meet. And boy do I feel incredibly lucky that we did.

I'm still find myself at a loss for words to describe the bonds of friendship that form between people who find something in common in the midst of feeling completely out of place while living in a foreign country. I guess the best way that I can find to describe the experience is this... At home, you're swimming in a school of fish that are just like you. Yes there may be the occasional odd fish who's lost his own school and joined yours, but for the most part all of the fish are the same and you feel comfortable. Then a big wave crashes and you find yourself separated from your friends and your family. You swim about and you run into a new school of fish, but now you're the odd fish. You don't belong. You feel completely out of place and lonely, even though there are thousands of other fish swimming around you. Suddenly you find another lost fish, who you come to learn is from your old school. Even though you didn't know each other before, you still had shared experiences and those shared experiences help to expedite your friendship. Over a short period of time you form a close bond. It's so comforting to you that you have finally found someone who understands who you are and where you came from that you now feel strong enough to take more chances getting to know those strange new fish. You feel more confident and more grounded.

Well that pretty much summarizes (albeit poorly) how my friendship with Ryan and Laura grew and how it helped me to feel comfortable in my new surroundings. That was the long way to introduce dinner in Brussels with friends.

We had intended to meet half-way (in Liege) to make the exchange but to our surprise Ryan, Laura and Ellie drove all the way down from Maastricht to Brussels with our suitcase in their trunk. It gave us one last opportunity for dinner together before Eric and I had to head home. It was wonderful and sad all at the same time.

We enjoyed a wonderful Moroccan meal near the Gran Place before they dropped us off at our hotel. It was so incredibly hard to say goodbye. Even though I was going back home to my house and my life with my husband, I didn't feel ready to leave and I was incredibly sad to face the reality that I would be across the ocean from my good friends. We managed to stave off the tears until the very end though. We were comforted about the fact that with the wonders of the Internet, it is possible to keep in touch in real-time.

And we have...