Thank goodness for the Internet. My American friend in Amsterdam recommended that I try to find some ex-pat groups online to make friends. Ex-pats (or ex-patriates) are folks who are on a contract in their home country, but have been assigned to a job in another country (or something like that).
So I checked Facebook and sure enough, there's an English-speaking group of ex-pats here in Stuttgart that meets regularly. They go to English movies on Mondays, have dinner on Tuesdays, play pool on Thursdays, and then hang out downtown on Friday and Saturday nights. What fun!
Last night I went to my first event with these guys and had a blast! I met lots of great people from all over the world...most of whom speak at least 3 languages. Several were Americans too, from all over the States. You feel an instant connection when you meet someone who not only speaks English, but who knows where Indiana is! Ahhhhh.
No offense meant, but it's spelled 'expatriate'. It's a different root word than 'patriot'. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriate