New Friends

I can hardly believe that we have been in DC for FIVE months now, almost half a year. It's crazy. Summer, fall and now the dreaded winter. I'm looking forward to spring the most. I hear the cherry blossoms are gorgeous.

Anyways, back to the title of this blog: new friends. Disclaimer---our old friends have not and will not be replaced, please do not misinterpret the title of my post. This is not a rant. What I want to talk about is how you can sometimes make a friend in places you least expect or how fun it can be to meet friends of friends. Like an intertwined "friendship web" at times.

In these past months, I have met and become friends with my old roommate's best friend from kindergarten, my friend's old neighbour at Rice, who I only knew as an acquaintance, my former boss' nephew and wife...the list goes on. I am grateful for our friends putting us in touch with these new and interesting people. Being in a new city can be tough, but these relationships can make a big difference. Whether we meet once or a friendship develops, I am thankful. This morning we had brunch with Rafiq. He is also a Welcome Manager for the ICRC, but in New Delhi, where he is from. He was asked to come to DC for a whole month to train me and sadly, he is leaving on Monday. It has truly been a blessing to meet him, work with him and learn from him. You just never know in life, he was supposed to come to DC about a year ago, but due to personal reasons was not able to and coincidentally he was scheduled to arrive 4 days after I started at the ICRC. I call him "my Indian machine" and we became good friends quickly. By the way, his wife's name is also, wait for it...SOFIA.

Then tonight, dinner with more new friends Kristian and Shelly. Kristian is Valter's (my former manager at Methodist) nephew. He and his wife recently moved back to DC and we finally got together. I miss Valter and his family, so meeting some more family members was quite a treat!


Today was a great day. Christmas is less than a week away and Orlando here we come. Quick side note, you can now post anonymously again. Although, leaving your name is much encouraged and appreciated, I know having to create a user name/profile could be a pain. Please do not make me regret it. Gracias.