TRACEY BENDINGER | Culture | Contact

Betoota Grove free-spirit, Bella Robertson, moved to New York just over two years ago with dreams of starting a new life there; new job, new apartment and new New Yorker friends.

Sitting down with The Advocate’s West Coast correspondent, Bella admitted that life in New York isn’t quite what she imagined it would be.

“Well, I don’t have any American friends”

“All us Aussie’s seem to seek each other out and then just stick to ourselves”

Despite feeling like a failure, Bella’s circumstance is not unique to her, with a recent study done by the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealing that only 1 in 30 expats actually end up making local friends.

“It’s pretty pathetic really” said Mr. Ambrose, the researcher spearheading the study.

“They go over there to work and experience a different lifestyle and end up inserting themselves into the exact same pocket of culture they came from”

“The only difference is that they would never talk to these fellow Aussies back in Australia, their desperate circumstance has just forced them to be friends”

When asked whether Bella had any intentions of trying to make new friends, her response was not that convincing.

“Umm, yeah, maybe”

“I just don’t know where I would meet them, you know?”

Clearly Bella was not trying that hard because off the top of our head we can think of 3 ways to make friends in another country; through work, a sport team or even continuing a hobby from home.

With six months until Bella is scheduled to come home, it’ll be interesting to see whether she breaks the mould set by every other expat or stays safe within the Australian sphere.

More to come.