Friendships From Afar

Sometimes the greatest girl gangs have miles of distance between them. Here’s how to make the best of friendships over the Internet

- Georgie Bradley

How many WhatsApp groups are you in? A countless amount? Us too. Have you muted any for eight hours or a year? The uncoordinated ramblings of a birthday get-together with no final date and location in place, two weeks into its creation? We're with you. The work related group with that one incessant colleague chiming in about non-issues that don’t exist past the 21:00 watershed? Rude.

The heart stopping ‘CONGRATULATIONS you have won $1,000,000’ from a raffle you may or may not have entered at an airport, sent from an unknown country code without a display picture with 100+ other unknown numbers added into the group? Oh that come down. Instant block and report.

And then there’s the ‘Girls International’ group (or a name to that effect) with besties far and wide. Your morning post. Your breaking news. Your silent giggling at work. Your meme shares. Your de facto therapy. We love those. Most of us have those saving grace groups.

When you live the life of an expat, you have to deal with a lot. Not to sound ungrateful, because expatdom is a choice – and a brilliant choice at that – but concessions are part of that choice. The main concession is being away from your people – your besties. And it’s a whole other ball game when you’re long-distance friends – but we think, it’s the best kind. Read on.