Saying Goodbye is hard

Today my friend Marta and I took our friend Tiffany out to lunch.  This is the final lunch we will have here in Basel before she moves back to the United States.

It is hard, living as an expat, when it comes to making friends.  A lot of people I have met - especially here for the United Staes - are here with their husbands on temporary assignments.  Roche does assignments that last 2-3 years, and then the families go back to the staes.

And this is the case for Tiffany.  I met her soon after we moved here, and have really enjoyed getting to know her in the last year and a half.  She moved here from Boston, just like we did.  She and I and Marta have had a good time going into France together, checking out museums all around Switzerland, and having almost a weekly get together for lunch or coffee.  We are really going to miss her.

I am so grateful for the opportunity we have been given to live here.  Everyday, I am grateful.  But saying goodbye to people who I really have enjoyed getting to know is a very hard part of this expat way of life.