Last Friday, I celebrated my birthday. Drinks, dinner, dancing – expat style.
My favorite thought of the night: “What a small world we are!”
Let me share with you why…
A few weeks back, my wife had asked me how I wanted to celebrate my birthday. An easy answer – “With friends!”
Where did we celebrate? A small but tasty Peruvian restaurant close to Prague’s Old Town Square. Martin, the restaurant manager, was extremely accommodating and helpful with planning.
We almost reserved the place exclusively, but not quite. Still, with our party’s talking and laughing, the 20 of us easily dominated the restaurant atmosphere, until we finally settled down to order dinner around 9pm.
We shared several bottles of wine, many favorite drinks and a lot of delicious food (Lomo Saltado rocks!).
I took a moment to enjoy my pisco sour (Peru’s national drink), looked around at the range of friends around me …
Then it hit me.
I looked again around the table. I told myself where they’re from, starting from my right: Peru, Malaysia, Brazil, Germany, Russia, USA, Czech, UK, Italy, Canada…
It hit me that with some 20 people, we represented 10 countries. With hardly a problem for all, English is the common language. Maybe after some drinks for courage, some friends try practicing what they studied years ago, but English usually comes easily for expats.
“Where are you from?” is usually a conversation opener, but after knowing someone for a while, it’s just forgotten. But group together 20 friends who are also expats from all over – and the “small world” effect can really kick in!
Just something to consider the next time you’re among a large group of your friends – where are you all from?
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