Midton

The western population here is by it nature transient, people come and go, making it difficult to make real friends as opposed to mere acquaintances. The natives are generally friendly without being friends. There are a group of long term expats who,get together on a regular basis but we a kind of artificially came together due to language, cultural and stress similarities. Although we can talk I think we'd all agree that we wouldn't be so close in our home countries as we are all so different.

It's funny as our group includes someone from England, Scotland, USA (east and west: California and Pennsylvania) Australia, New Zealand, Canada. Our family backgrounds, hobbies, interests, personalities and jobs are all so diverse than each person is totally different from each other. We have nothing in common except where we live.

The people here work (more accurately spend long hours at work) long hours, us too. My wife leaves home at 7:30 am gets back at 8pm. for example. Then there are all the social responsibilities that this country heaps on its residents. We're all too exhausted to socialise much.

I've been saving up my time and going to my home country each year and letting loose.

Syd, where in Northern Europe are you from? Your English is fluent so I thought maybe the tip of the U.K. but Santa doesn't come from there. I always thought Santa came from Finland.