When I was in Paris over New Year's, I met up with my friends Ben and Julie for coffee. Ben is a really good friend from UVA, where we sang together in Jubilate, and he and Julie were in Paris for the first part of their honeymoon! I felt very priviledged that they took time out of their first vacation as a married couple to hang out with me for a couple hours.
It was really a fantastic couple hours even though all we did was sit in a cafe and drink coffee and hot wine. I got to hear more about their lives and their wedding and their plans for the next year, and I got to tell them more about life in Prague. The best part, though, was having two people there with me Whose friendship extends back farther than just six months and who I know love me and support me and can joke with me about any number of things ... of course these truths made it hurt even more when we parted ways on the Champs Elysees after 1.5 hours. Saying good bye to some of my closest friends Stung.
The rest of the night I was thinking about how I was Fortunate not to have gone home to familiar places where I could have hung out with all my long-time friends ... it would have been really painful to return to the Czech Republic. So, even though I am incredibly thankful that I got to see some people who I love to pieces, I recognize that getting through the first friend-friend reunion is no easy task for an overseas worker.
Do not let that stop you from coming overseas to visit, though! Now I know what to expect, and I think saying goodbye will get easier with time because I'll have an even deeper network of Praguers here.
Me, Julie, and Ben
No comments:
Post a Comment