Making Friends for Life — Iveta’s InterNations Story
One of my ex-colleagues from Finland, who was the same type of expat as I, told me that it's a great idea to join InterNations as you can connect with other expats in your host country. So, in 2013, I joined InterNations Tel Aviv. While attending some of the events, I met Rhiannon from USA, who became one of my best friends and sister from another mister!
First, we met on one excursion in the local market and another time in an event organized in a Greek restaurant where we sat near each other and after some chat realized that we are on the same page. We agreed to meet afterward and go for a drink, which ended up with several drinks till late at night as we had so much fun. We call it now: "Love from first drink"!
Rhiannon was Ambassador of InterNations in Tel Aviv and a very good one — she organized so many nice events. During these years our friends circle around us has grown and not only we added more international friends to our circle, but also local friends who were involved in InterNations events. This is how our friendship started and has continued for nine years. Now we live in separate countries, me in Madrid, she with her family in USA, but we still keep in touch and know that we will be friends forever! I keep meeting more nice and interesting people via InterNations events which might be the subject of my future stories about my InterNations experience.
Actually, there are not only two important people, but even more who came into my life due to the fact that I met Rhiannon at an InterNations event!
My Tel Aviv family is very special to me. We had so much fun together and we were involved in each other's lives, as families do. Actually, we had even more of our own get-togethers outside InterNations, but we wouldn‘t have had that if me and Rhiannon hadn‘t met each other at InterNations events, so everything is connected.
We shared our ups and downs in our lives and celebrated our good times and were there for each other in bad times.
Rhiannon and I also have a common interest we share which is related to hidden knowledge and secrets of the world. I am more into energy and natural medicine (as Health and Energy Coach) and she is making a documentary series about power places and hidden knowledge (like a Gaia series). And we still help each other on our journey to help others grow. So InterNations brought together two people who can also make the world a better place!
InterNations can really help bring people together because there you can meet people who are in the same situation as you, who are new to the country and culture. And it's easier to meet someone who also wants to make new friends. I will not go on the street and say "Hi, I am Iveta! I want to be your friend!" It must happen in a natural way, by meeting, talking, sharing some experience, and then you‘ll know if this is "your person" or not. And at an InterNations event, it is much easier to do that.
In Tel Aviv there were some events organized to explore new places, and some of the friends I met also shared their favorite places and knowledge about the country. Now, I’m having the same experience in Madrid. It’s one thing to find something out on the internet and explore on your own, but people around can share their favourite places to see and things to do, so you don't need to do hours of investigating.
My advice to people who have just moved abroad is to join InterNations groups that match their interests. This way you can meet like-minded people who might become your friends for life. And if you can’t find such a group, then you always have the chance to become a Consul and make your own. This is actually what I‘m doing now, as I just sent a request to InterNations to create my own group where I want to share my year-long experience and knowledge on improving health and quality of life in general.
