Friendship that will last forever....

Everyone is always looking for friends that will be there no matter what. I think people need this "institution" in their lives to feel stable and at ease.
Throughout my whole life I have met so many interesting people, so many personalities that contributed to who I am today. Even though I lost touch to some of these people I still acknowledge them with my everyday behaviour, my views on life and with the decisions I make. It is so weird because you tend to forget that certain things you do, certain habits you've developed are linked to a person you've met. People that really made a difference in your life are so precious. Some of the people that made a difference in my life are gone, some people I don't talk to anymore and some live very far away. But nevertheless, I keep them in my heart and I am grateful for what they did for me. I am sure most people don't even know they made this difference for me.

I believe that friendship doesn't mean that you have to call each other every day. True friendship survives time, distance, arguments and disagreements. Friendship is proven in times of need. How many times have I considered someone a friend just because I had unconditional fun with that person. But once I needed help it turned out this person wasn't willing to help or at least to comfort me. It's devastating once you realize this. But it's life. And then again this changes you: you're not as trustworthy and blue-eyed anymore. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so.

When I came to the States in 2001 I had a million friends all of a sudden. Of course, I was a foreigner and therefore I was interesting for everyone. But interest and friendship are again two different worlds- especially in the States. In Germany people don't even try to make an effort to pretend they wanna be your friend. It's a lot more hard work to become friends. I don't know which way is better, but Germany doesn't "provide" you with as many disappointing accounts. Of course, Germany has a lot of fake people (just like any other country in the world). But the overall American attitude is a lot different: there is a certain code of conduct where everyone is entitled to be nice and happy and bubbly. That has been very helpful for me to feel right at home but it also proved somewhat of a difficult situation for me as well. I had to scrape the outer surface to find out who is just being nice and who is a friend. MAJOR DIFFERENCE!! But at least everyone is nice to each other. (I'm not talking about fake- nice...I really mean nice.) I find that to be a very good starting point and I have adopted this way of behaviour very much. People in Germany label me "too nice for the world" now. But I relly think one reason why Americans are so much happier is because they are nice, outgoing people. Germans are more distanced. It takes a long long time for them to break the ice.

I made true friends in both countries. Thank God I have my crazy Americans!!

Still, I am somewhat torn bc I live in two worlds and two cultures. I don't really know which one I belong too. When I'm here in Germany I look for American values in friendshps which are hard to find (but then again I found people that are very americanized as well) and when I'm in the States I look for German values. But the question still remains: what kind of values are those?

In the end friendship is friendship and only few will last forever. I know I shouldn't be thinking in fixed sets of traits but due to cultural differences I do.

But I know who is my friend in the States and I know who is my friend in Germany. And THAT is very comforting. Even though "living" the friendship might be different, the result is the same. And that is all I need to know!