Having a rough time making friends here in the Wurzburg Germany area.
I am new to this site and looking to expand on my social life in this area. I live right outside of Wurzburg and things have been super tricky for me. I speak German but I do not drive (working on this soon) so am tied to the train schedules and have two little girls whose schedules I have to work around. This small city we live in is wonderful for the girls but after being here 7 years I have some times where I really feel like it is hopeless. I am on a variety of sites and I go to events and am as social as possible when I have the oppurtunity but finding people whose personalities or lifestyles match up enough with mine to be long term friends just about never happens. My sister just left after a visit and I am yet again reminded that though I adore my family, I am in desperate need of my own social life and am making another attempt here to reach out to anyone in my area. Please feel free to contact me if you are in my area. I am a pretty open person who has had a severe lack in social experiences though lol.
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Most often we set up our own artificial barriers to friendship or relationships, it is always conditional or at least so it seems. I'll like you IF..., I'll be your friend IF..., I'll love you IF...., and the list goes on and on. When we get rid of all the IFs and start making less (or more realistic) demands of those around us that's when things really begin to change.
You've got the perfect chance, you already speak the local language which is probably the major hurdle for any expat in a non-English speaking country or foreign expat in an Engish speaking country. You know where to go to find friends and you go there, so it seems relatively clear that your inability in finding new friends is not a problem with them, but rather that you're probably being too selective, setting the bar too high.
Think of making new friends like the same successful attitude necessary to overcome alcohol or chemical dependency.... "Just for today!" I really think that you're sabotaging your own chances with this idea that if they're not going to end up as life-long friends then you're not going to bother wasting your time with them. Lighten up, give people a chance... give yourself a chance to see what and who they really are. Save the decisions about long-term friendships for later. I'm sure if you do this you'll end up making many new friends rather quickly and who knows if some of them won't really develope into long-term friends?
Meet people, go out, have fun, mingle and so what if they don't all turn out to be your very best buddy? You've had some fun and enjoyment along the way! Also every new friend you make has their own social circle, you end up getting included in that circle and you may even find the long-term friends you're seeking there.
Don't expect everyone to be just like you, or just like you want them to be. People don't all have to be XEROX copies of ourselves to be compatible, in fact it is our differences that actually make us compatible because they add spice to the mix.
Two burly lumberjacks go out into the forest with their great big bucksaw (the old hand operated kind) and they start cutting down trees. In the beginning they're dropping trees in nothing flat. Then it starts getting tougher and tougher, it takes longer to cut down each tree. The pair packs it in for the day..... Why? Not because they couldn't cut down one more tree, but because they needed to stop and sharpen the saw!
So despite your work and family schedule you've got to MAKE the time for yourself. Being a mom doesn't necessarily mean you've got to be a martyr too! Make the time to go out with your new-found friends on the weekend, try and work them into your schedule just as you do with work and your kids. If you're serious about it you'll find the time somewhere. You've got to stop and sharpen YOUR saw from-time-to-time too, or you're not going to be any good for work, your kids or anything else. Think about it!
The world isn't going to come to a grinding halt if you leave your kids with a sitter so you can go out once in a while to relax and make friends. The world certainly will come to a grinding halt if you don't do so, and you become so isolated and depressed that you can no longer function. You don't need to feel guilty about it either, because in the long run your kids and your employer are going to be the beneficiaries. You'll be a much better employee and a much better mom if you've always got a "sharp saw". Trust me on this one.
Well I cant say much about wurzburg, but u have been once and it has a nice palace.
You are a German speaker so should be easier than non German speakers though.
You may try to look at 聽 聽gatherings and activities.
Also look at 聽 聽 ,
Activities/ meets planned at wurzburg forum in couchsurfing .
or look for some activity classes like in abendakadmie or in dance classes...
also some wurzburg forum pages in fb
May be you found one long term , but here native people have their own local circles and quite busy in their life and yeah they want some time only for themselves .
And yes not all locals will invite you from their side or get closer .聽 they remain quite limited or might take too much time.聽
keep trying though
ciao

I dont have any easy answers for you but thought some encouragement might help anyway. The standard response I would give people is to join groups of people with a similar interests be it social, religious or a sport or take courses. Other than having grown up with people or working with them, this is how friendships get started here. I was in a sports group for 10 years and got to know a lot of people I never would have met otherwise. Even for kids, sport groups are independent from school like in the States. And such groups often do events outside of the normal training. The parents of your childrens friends are an obvious target group as well. Some events you might do as a family could be expanded to include the kids friends and (possibly) eventually their parents. Living in a small community without easy access to W眉rzburg is of course a problem. My wife is German and studied in T眉bingen. After she had her son she ended up in living situations where she was also in villages a good distance away. She obviously had no problem with the language but rather the conservative mentality and you being a foreigner only compounds the difficulty. Thus, it might be worth the travel to concentrate efforts in W眉rzburg or eventually move somewhere closer with more convenient access. This is a BIG effort that sounds a bit nonsensical on the surface but might be the best in the long run rather than suffer from the depression that can come from a lack of social satisfaction. I think of an American woman I know who lived in a small community in Switzerland. Her husband was from there and still had family around. She learned good Swiss German and her two smart and pretty daughters were born there and fluent. Yet she said both her and her kids were always treated as outsiders and never really accepted. Somehow it seemed unreasonable that they would move 30 or 40 Km to a big town yet she got so depressed that they actually went back to the States. There must be some Americans around W眉rzburg and finding some might be a help as well although I believe that all (or most?) of the American military bases there were shut down in the last 10 years. I never went out of my way to find Americans here and think it would be a mistake to limit oneself to only meeting expats but I cant deny that the couple of American friends I have are a blessing. Just having shared points of reference can be meaningful even if one is not particularly nostalgic. This Expat site is a starting point to finding fellow Americans but there are probably also local groups like the Federation of German-American Clubs
Pam.
While awaiting for infos, I suggest you drop an ad in the Housing section > Properties for rent in Germany to widen your chances.
Thank you and good luck!
Marjorie
I live in W眉rzburg since December and I am looking forward to meet some friends. 馃
I have 4 y.o. daughter and we have big problem to find kindergarten place 馃槥 So it means we are free now 馃
We used to live in Sachsen for 2 years and I was lucky enough to find some really amazing friends who become my second family but my husband needed to change work so we are here now. Building life again 馃
Your post is pretty old, hopefully you still need some extra people to meet 鈽猴笍
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