I think one of the purest friendships I’ve had was when I was studying in Vancouver- there was this girl who was in one of the other classes who was Japanese, and I met her during the first weeks of being there while orientation was happening and all the classes were kind of bumping around each other.
We smiled and talked a little and after a while she asked “Are you from UK?” To which I said yes, I was, which resulted in her giving me the biggest smile and throwing her arms out wide saying “Yay! We are island buddies!” And I was like damn this is clearly the greatest person in the world so I did the same thing while these people on the street were walking past probably being mightily confused at these two loony kids yelling “ISLAND BUDDIES!” at each other.
After that whenever we saw each other even at a distance we’d wave and yell “Island buddies!” at each other and it was so awesome I hope she’s doing well.
