Friends

It's the same old story.
Israelis who live around the world very often complain about the same thing: the difficulty making good friends abroad.

I have friends here. I actually managed to meet and make good friends everywhere I was in the world.
Some stuck till now, and we see each other whenever there's a chance, but obviously if they live in another country or another continent, it's not very often.

I also made very good friends here in Munich. I see them whenever I can. Some have kids, and that's how we met, and some don't. Having kids makes it much harder to plan something with friends.

Thing is, that here in Germany (and maybe anywhere else but Israel), it's really hard to make plans with someone spontaneously. I think that it also has something to do with the size of the city. When the distances are so big between my house and my friends's houses, it makes it more complicated to meet. But I'm not sure that people who live in a smaller town here, meet more spontaneously. Fact is, that even the friends I have who live rather close, I don't meet that often.

In Israel it's very common that you call a friend and ask if they'd like to meet now. Or this afternoon. you almost don't make such plans for the future. Only parties are planned ahead, and also them are only planned a week or two or three in advance. Here in Germany people announce a birthday party about a month or two before the date.

All this makes it very difficult to maintain a social life, when you're used to the other way. I find it sometimes impossible to plan things ahead, especially since I have kids. I find myself without any social plans for a week Rob's gone for a business trip for example.

All this also makes me think about who are my best friends nowadays.
So I have some friends here. Some are close, I would talk to them about anything.
Some I see way to rarely. They're always busy. Or we just can't make it to find a good time for both of us.
Some of the mothers I'm in close touch with went back to work, which makes it even harder to find the time to meet. One friend moved to a town outside of the city. We are still in touch, but much less.

When we go to Israel, although I don't live there for almost 7 years, it's so quick to just meet up with my friends there. And when we meet, it's as if I never left. True, I'm not really up to date with everything in their lives, but with most of it I am. And somehow, these are, until today, still my best friends.
Last time it was really sad for me to leave.
I felt like if we had lived there, my social life would have been much richer.
And again, I do have friends here and Rob does to, and we do meet people often.

Sometimes when I feel like I need to just talk to someone, all these thoughts come up.
I have a group of friends that I met on a forum online. I've met most of them also in real life. I usually chat to them about the daily things and thoughts. But when something happens and I feel less comfortable to chat to them, I suddenly realize, that if I want to meet a friend, right now, and have a real open and relaxed conversation, I don't have that here.

looking for some inspiration

I've had this dilemma for a while now. actually, almost since I've opened this blog.
Should I continue writing it in English? Or should I change to Hebrew?

Obviously I'm much sharper in Hebrew. I write much nicer, faster, more inspired. It's my mother language. I hardly make spelling mistakes. Don't need the spelling check... My Hebrew is so much richer than my English, although my English is not very poor.
I've started writing this blog in English, thinking that this way all my friends and family could read it, including the ones that are not from Israel. I thought it would give me a bigger exposure.
But I think I was wrong.
Most of my friends don't read this blog. If they do, I don't know about it. I think that my Israeli friends prefer reading in Hebrew, if they read blogs at all.
Also my English speaking friends don't really read here, I think. Maybe a few.
So the idea of more exposure to the people I know, didn't prove itself.

New readers I get once in a while I guess, but the fact that I hardly write lately doesn't help. It's difficult to maintain a blog, and an interesting one, with two kids at home.

So I think to myself sometimes, I should write this in Hebrew. I might write more often if it were in Hebrew. It's easier.
But then I feel how awkward it would be to suddenly change the language of the blog.

Anyway, I thought I should share this. Something like thinking out loud.