A note to intercultural friendship

Usually I'm writing my blogposts in German, but this time I need to make a quick change of language. I like to write about this long lasting friendship between six girls. One of them is me, as you might have already guessed.

An Erasmus semester usually produces lots of memories, maybe some more or less long lasting relationships and a bit of knowledge that you slightly remember from the courses you took back then. In my case it created this very special friendship between me and my girlfriends from Italy and France. In 2007 (ten years ago...wow, I'm so f***nig old!) I spent my Erasmus semester abroad in one of the most beautiful European cities: Copenhagen. I lived at Porcelænshaven, a very mixed and fun dorm, where lots of exchange students stayed. The first of my girls that I met was Barbara from Italy (not to forget to mention Salva as well, since he was desperately waiting with her for new students to arrive when the new semester started). She was my roommate (or in this case bath mate) on the 5th floor of Porcelænshaven and we fit together from the first moment...maybe she is even a better German than I am, since she’s very structured and always on time. 

She introduced me to the other four girls, meaning: Kristel, who was always carrying a very big purse with her, which was containing essential things like a spare bike light and other things that could also have been the content of Marry Poppin’s bag. Anne-Laure, who was always “very open” (haha) to the crazy ideas (like getting into Salva’s room and putting everything that was inside (including furniture) on the hallway of the 5^th floor and then waiting with me, sitting on his table, wrapped in his bedsheets, for him to come home. Sophie, who was my friend for climbing church towers, exploring Christiania and going on romantic trips to castles (here I also have to mention Artem, who spent the romantic day by Frederiksborg castle with us and was my best male friend at Copenhagen times). And last but not least Alka, who provided us with great Bollywood movies with “the handsome guy” and shocked us with one that really had no happy ending (Whaaaat? - Yes, right…).

Every year, since our Copenhagen experience, we manage to meet somewhere in Europe. We celebrated graduations, weddings and babies together and there will probably be more to come (at least of the last two events). We helped each other through the good and the tough times. Even though during the year, between our meetings, we’re all busy with work, families, vacations and all the other things in our lives, so that we don’t have that much contact. Just some short updates. But when we finally meet again, we’re back in CPH-mode. It’s like being 20-something again, meeting in one of our rooms at Porcelænshaven, having a cup of chamomile and chatting about the last night at Kulørbar or LA Bar or Emma…or whatever club belonged to the certain weekday. 

 

This year we met again in Paris. Since we didn’t have the pressure of doing the whole sightseeing thing anymore (we’ve all been to Paris several times), we spent most of the time talking and talking…with a good glass of French wine or with our traditional chamomile. Going out to a bar at night and spending a beautiful day in Versailles, just walking around and catching up. One thing I love most about spending a little time abroad with some locals is the fact that you easily get in contact with other locals. In Versailles we made a stop at a nice little café with art on the walls that was run by an elderly French lady. Alka played the old piano that was standing next to our table and the lady came to us, had a seat and talked to us about her life, her café, the paintings on the walls and her grandchildren.

 

Saying goodbye to everyone was accompanied by tears when we had to leave Copenhagen in 2007, but saying goodbye in 2017 basically just means “See you all again next year!”. Therefore no tears, but the good feeling to have seen your good “old” friends again and the good feeling that it won’t be the last time. 

I love you, girls!