Am I Who I Used to Be?

So, time for some random deep thoughts...and the bolding of the word 'So' is a call-out to my great friend Susanne. She made me realize that whenever I am getting ready to talk about something kind of important to me, I always begin the sentence with 'so....'

It is interesting to realize that because of cultural differences, I can't be the person or friend here that I would be back home. For example, a good friend had some bad stuff happen to her a few days ago. She has been in my thoughts constantly, but because of who she is, and I don't know if it is the language barrier or the cultural differences, I haven't even seen her yet to even give her a hug. And the sad thing is, I won't until probably a few weeks from now. Rachel and I talked about it - if it was a friend back home, we would have stopped by their place and brought them flowers or brought them food, or just came over to watch a movie or something. But we definitely would have had more of a physical presence, letting them know that we were there for them. But I can't do it here, at least not with this friend, and it makes me sad to realize she will never know the kind of person and friend I can be.

And to add on to that - you can't just randomly stop by a friend's place to say hi. Danes are not really ok with that. I used to do that all the time back home, maybe stopping by Naz's on the way home from work or something like that, just to say hi. I miss that, because again, I think it shows a nice, caring side of Americans.

So in a way, I have changed. I am a little bit different. When I am in Europe, I miss people and things back in the US. When I am in the US, I now miss people and things back in Europe. It will be interesting to see what the future holds. But I can only hope I am a better version of 'me' now.