Strongly Worded

I'm So Excited

... and I just can't hide it.

My friend R.I.B.S (unfortunate acronym - I know) is coming to visit. In about five hours she will be here! R.I.B.S lives in California (Los Angeles). Though she attended my college, I didn't meet her until after I graduated. She was doing her junior year abroad in Spain, and I was doing a post-graduate fellowship there, and some mutual acquaintance (I can't remember who), told her that we'd be living in the same city. Before we left, she called and introduced herself, and suggested we get in touch once we were both settled in. I was dubious. I'd done junior year abroad myself, and I knew that she'd want to spend time with Spanish people and/or new BFFs from her program, and not some random American chick she didn't even know.

But I was wrong. A few weeks later, R.I.B.S contacted me, and we met for crepes in Plaza Nueva, and she described her experience with her Spanish conversation partner, who seemed kind of meh, not very effusive. I will always remember that she used that word (effusive - people didn't say "meh" back then), not just because it was on the GRE, but because it was exactly the right way to describe the guy and the circumstances, and this is classic R.I.B.S, as I would later learn.

It turned out that R.I.B.S did make some American friends with the people from her study abroad program, but many of them behaved in drunken and culturally insensitive ways. And she did bond with her host family. But we also became extremely close. I lived in an apartment and we made Thanksgiving dinner for my Spanish roommates. We bitched about how hard it was to integrate into Spanish social life, and about various frustrating aspects of living in Spain. (This is just part of the study abroad experience. As much as you want to appreciate and admire everything about the culture, and avoid hanging out with fellow foreigners, there is an immediate respite/shared bond among countrymen.)

For her birthday, R.I.B.S planned a picnic lunch, and invited an international mix of people, and it remains one of my best memories of my time there. It was a hot, languorous afternoon, and we all milled around on blankets, watching kids chase flocks of doves around the park. Somehow all the birthday guests communicated and bonded because R.I.B.S was the hostess and that's her way.

Anyway. We both moved back to the U.S., and she finished college and moved back to California, and became a brilliant therapist, which is just the right job for someone with her insight and kindness. For a while, we talked every Sunday, but then it got complicated with the time zones and assorted barriers, so now we connect every few weeks, and see each other maybe once a year. I find that California is nicer and warmer than New England, so when I visit, we go rollerblading and eat at the Rose Cafe. Last time I saw R.I.B.S she was getting married, and now that she's coming we can have some peaceful time together, which is just fantastic.

Posted by Dori at 1:10 PM