Expat friendships and summer home leave - Part 1

You meet a lot of friends in the expat community in Maadi. In general, people are more open than we're used to in the past, and our senior expat fellows tell us that this is because of the ‘easy-come-easy-go attitude’ people have developed over time; because everybody’s used to people moving, coming and going, they cherish the quick but intense friendships. Hence thankfully, even though we were totally new here this year and didn't know anyone when we arrived, we've still been able to make friends easily; we’ve not only made a few close friends, but have also met a lot of people we don’t really socialize with, but still run into at events, parties, at the pool, on the baseball field, in the grocery store – the list goes on – and happily chat with. You seem to always have someone to hang out with, where ever you're spending your day, and it really is an open community.

There is of course a downside to all this; in a few weeks we are going to have to say 'good bye' to people we have grown quite close to over the past nine months. Although we’ve known all along that they were leaving, that doesn’t seem to make it any easier, and I’m not looking forward to the separation.