Frouple Mania

As Pinky so elequently put it- we're trying to frouple up. We're looking for friend couples to hang out with. Looking back on how much we talked about it, it may seem a little creepy. It is creepy actually. We're on the prowl.

We're li-gers. Grrrrr.

In high school/college, and then later at work, it was easy to make new friends. You have your roommates, your coworkers, people in class, and friends-of-friends. It was a huge melting pot of people at your fingertips. One of the reoccurring things I'm hearing from ex-pats, is the problem of creating a new social network when you're plopped down into the middle of no where (aka Bahrain). There are choices. You can either sit around making references to "your crew", knowing full well the crew is only two people (Pinky and myself), OR you can actively look for friends.

Don't mess with "the crew". (Full crew shown here)

To avoid one of us feeling sad and left out due to an imbalance of new friends, the best solution seemed like a couple to be friends with. Hence the frouple search. (It had nothing to do with swinger tendencies- if that's what you were thinking. Common misunderstanding) We know we are fun, but how do you convince total strangers of that? I tried showing off my break dancing skills, but it didn't work.

Who wouldn't want to be friends with these dorks?

Froupling, however, is actually quite hard. There is no reasonable way to walk up to someone and say, 'would you and your significant other like to be our friends?' (Unless you're on Facebook, then it's easy.)  So the first actual approach was a little rocky. We were down by the pool, and we heard a group of people speaking with American accents. It had been 2 weeks, and no interaction with anyone but Pinky had driven me to desperate measures. I put my big-girl-panties on, and approached a group of total strangers to see if they wanted to be my friend. Alone. (Pinky had forgotten said panties.) I think I said something like, "So... hi. Come to this pool often?"

I should probably get this shirt.

It worked! They invited us up for brunch! I was very excited. My confidence in my "friend requesting" abilities was restored. It was a friend request frenzy after that. We met a nice lady at Pinky's office, who graciously invited us to her house warming party. The people here in Bahrain have proven their kindness time and time again. She barely knew us, but she took us in, and introduced us to all her fabulous friends. I shamelessly asked for everyone's phone number, and followed up with them the next day. I learned that friends are not made by the meek.  If you want them - pursue them.

(Visual representation of the housewarming)
I think you have to be friends for more than an hour to take pictures of a group.

Not only were we able to meet a plethora of amazing new people, but I also told everyone I was looking for a job. Two days after the house warming party, I was hired by a friend-of-a-new-friend. (Yea!) Social networking has become a powerful tool - with LinkedIn and Facebook taking over the world - I just had forgotten how to do it in real life.