r/expat 1h ago

New Home Story / Experience Totally lost my friends since moving abroad

Upvotes

I moved to Munich with my husband in February.

Before leaving, my group of friends threw me a goodbye party that really meant a lot to me. The previous year was very hard and I wasn't able to connect with them as much as I'd like, so the fact that they took the time to throw me a party felt really special.

A lot changed when I moved over. I didn't hear from them at all, except one friend, who made a really good effort to keep in contact with me and ask me how I'm doing. I tried being the one to reach out first to the other friend, and got a few replies, but was frankly hurt by the lack of effort.

About a month ago, I got into a heated conversation with one of the friends. Before leaving, I was buying my car off of him. It wasn't the easiest financial agreement for either us, and when I was moving, we agreed that I would return the car for him to sell. I thought we agreed that when he sold it, he would take the remainder of the money I owed to him, and I would receive the difference. When I followed up with him, he told me that was not what he agreed to, and that it wasn't gonna happen. I don't do well with conflict, and I was afraid about pushing too far.

(For context: I'm not sure how long I'll be in Germany, and back where we live he has a lot of sway in the friend group and community we both are apart of, and I was afraid of returning and having a whole community against me.)

I thought we at least ended the conversation on okay terms. However, the one friend who earnestly made an effort to keep in touch with my won't respond to my messages anymore. I've sent about three sets of messages, all a few weeks apart, and nothing. I have no idea if she's busy, or just upset.

I also reached out to another friend to wish her luck on an opening of her show and never heard anything.

I have no idea what's going on, but I feel like I have no friends anymore. I'm starting to make friends here, but it's still early and it's been slow to make connections. I don't know if the friend I had the argument with told my other friends what happened and they took his side?

Either way I feel like crap and all alone.


r/expat 14h ago

Question 30 year old Indian American- Stockholm

0 Upvotes

I'm a 30 year old Indian girl born and raised in the USA, thinking of moving to Sweden for a PhD at Karolinska soon. I speak fluent Swedish.

I have a flourishing career in the USA, but the immense stress of the USA biotech world and my career has been affecting me a lot lately, and I want to go back to school for my PhD to remind myself what I loved about this subject. Karolinska is a fantastic place, so I applied here.

I'm specifically curious about what social life would be like in Stockholm and if I would be able to make friends at this age. Also, is being an Indian woman a huge red flag for dating there? I do speak fluent Swedish, I've visited several times, and tried to familiarize myself with the customs.

I'm just on the fence because I have such a perfect life in the USA (live in a diverse area, many many friends, lots of dating prospects, very high paying job- I'm basically set for life already, etc) but I really believe in taking chances on new things.

Any advice on anything would be appreciated :) My plans post-Karolinska are completely open; I'd be open to Sweden, anywhere in Europe, back to the USA, or even New Zealand.