Even though we share a wall, it took me over a year to learn my Swiss neighbor's first name, not to mention get to know her. But the struggle was worth it. Three years later, we're great friends. We go flower picking together. We complain about noise together. We even drink together (like we're going to do tonight). But in Switzerland, making friends is a long process. Maybe some of you have stories about making Swiss friends. If so, I'd love to hear them.
Anyhow, I wanted to share my story about making friends in Switzerland, "A Raging Party Turned by 73-year-old Neighbor Into My Friend" . It's up on glimpse.org and is the featured story.
(photo above by Brian Opyd)
7 comments:
I think you are one lucky ducky to have made a friend in your apartment building.
Thanks. Yeah, I do consider myself lucky to have such a great neighbor.
4 1/2 years in Holland and I managed to never speak to my neighbor on the right beyond a hello good bye or nice weather comment. But I did have one rather odd impromptu dinner with the neighbors on the left - foreigners from Brazil - who showed up at our door with roast chicken, came inside, set the table and ate with us because they had too much food! It was rather sweet, but awkward, especially when it turned out that they had heard we were moving and wanted to see our apartment head to toe in case they wanted to move into it! No closet was left unopened and then when asking for the price, we were informed we overpaid! Why didn't my mother teach me how to handle situations such as these??
Wow. Good story. Living abroad makes everything more interesting...
There are 3 youngish guys living next door to me. I met one of them my first week in the apartment. He was very nice and told me what he did for a living and a little bit about his roomates. We had a nice little chat. A few months later after hardly ever seeing any of them a package was delivered to my apartment. I checked with UPS online and saw that one of my neighbors had signed for it. I got home expecting there to be a note on my door, but there was nothing. I awkwardly knocked on their door and the guy seemed completely surprised when I told him I saw online that he had signed for the package. He told me to wait there, closed the door leaving me outside the apartment, got the package, handed it to me and said goodbye. So much for making friends with my neighbors...
Great story (as usual) Chantal!
Thanks for reading.
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