Though it is very nearly impossible to get "in" with a friendgroup here in NI (they've all known one another since the dawn of time it seems. and is.), I had the fortune to have been adopted by Lynsey and Lauren at a Newcomer's meal, a month after arriving here. Later, we were joined by Kiera, their other best friend.
Yes, their reasons were that my friend Shelby (last semester's cook, now gone) looks like Zooey Deschanel and we're Americans, but it happened nonetheless.
Through them, I had a support system, rides to small group, and, to be blunt, a way to stay sane.
This semester, though, that desperation for somebody to talk to me has melted into genuine friendship. I feel safe to be silly with them. They're tops.
On Thursday evening, we had a fancy dinner party and movie night.
Each one of us contributed a course, and we sat about and ate and talked and laughed.
After, we hopped around in my backyard before retiring in my living room for a movie and Ruth's Salon.
FRIDAY
After a long day of work, my friend Megan (from small group) came to fetch me, and we headed down the Lisburn Road toward ice cream. We thought we were going for coffee, but obviously ice cream's voice was like a Siren call. Irresistible, really, as we had forgotten our beeswax.
Our date lasted for probably four hours as we talked over God's direction for our lives, our recent travel ventures (she spent a month or so in Thailand in January), and what's been running rampant in our minds.
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| That ice cream? Honeycomb with snickers and nutella. Drooling is acceptable and expected. |
Remember Craig from the Naomi/Craig combo?
Well, it was his birthday! Yay!!!
I, along with Naomi and a whole bunch of his friends, went out. We sat at a table under a pavilion outside a pub and "had the banter" with one another.
Fun fact, suspenders don't mean suspenders here. Brackets are to suspenders what suspenders are to lingerie/panty hose holder uppers.
You know, just easy ways to make myself look silly.
People don't think I'm funny here.
I was funny in the states! I know because I asked when nobody would laugh at my jokes!!!
Conversely, I don't often find the people here funny.
People laugh, and I just sit there stupidly wondering what I've missed. Happens all the time.
I may not be super thrilled about a lot of the aspects involved with American culture, but I am indeed looking forward to people chuckling at more than my stupidity. Oh they'll still laugh at my stupid moments, but at least it'll be tempered with actual witicisms.
SUNDAY
Part I:
After church at Vineyard, Megan (same one from the evening of ice cream) and I went to the Titanic Quarter. She had heard about a Thai Culture Festival and wanted company. I was all too delighted to oblige.
It took a good deal of walking around confused to find the place but, amidst the vast area of what once was an immense shipyard, we found it: T13.
T13 is a big-ish warehouse (she thought it was huge. I'm american. Ees medium size) which has since turned into a skate park.
It was so Belfast I can't even tell you.
Amidst the "festival" (8 booths, one of which was for dohnuts, one for coffee, and a stage), there were ramps and clusters of kids on bikes, skateboards, and scooters.
We ate pad thai and dohnuts (neither of us suggest combining those), walked around people watching, took selfies with the oil rig outside I think looks like a giant octopus and the cranes used to build the Titanic.
On the drive home, we chatted over the end of the world and how we're all already chipped. Technology is creepy with the degree to which it knows me: exactly where I am, my likes and dislikes, my friends, everything I say and do.
Twas good. She's a valuable friend. We always have such constructive conversations.
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| The tugboat used to tote people out to board the Titanic. |
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Part II:
I miss having guy friends.
As a girl who grew up with brothers and has always found guys to be easier to bond with than girls, not having a single guy friend on this continent for months and months has been a serious gap.
However, I must have passed some sort of test, because Kiera, Lauren, and Lynsey started bringing me around the rest of their massive friend group, as well as night church at Newtonbreda Baptist (which is wonderful, by the way).
Last evening, post service, we all went out for Maud's (again. Man. Ice cream never ever gets old to me), hung out there until they closed, then headed over to my house for games and just hang out time.
Yes, I've only got a month or so left here and yes, that is a little late to make new friends.
But despite what deepening my friendships and making new ones is going to do to my heart when I leave, I would rather leave with the memory of having risked living boldly and actually having the opportunity to miss people than to leave just as separated as when I came.
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