There used to be a post on this website just like the one that I’m about to write. And I bet you’re wondering why that is, right?

Well, first of all: this is the best week I have had in a really long time, friends-wise.

My second-home-American-family sends me a package, my beautiful friend Linn sends me a package, I sort of am friends again with a person that used to be very important to me but whom I haven’t talked to in a really long time; and today, Viktoria – another great friend I met during my stay in Kentucky – called and thanked me for the Christmas card I sent her her.

She lived in the house next to my host family over in Kentucky and she was also an exchange student from Germany. Obviously, we went to the same high school and bonded really quick – which makes sense, given that we were the only people around who could speak German and also really understood how the other one felt.

She only stayed for half a year and left right before Christmas in 2005 (she could have extended her stay but her host family was awful and totally ruined her American experience) but when I got home six months later, in the summer of 2006, she rang me up and we talked forever.

Since then she is the one who keeps in touch and always makes sure to call and see what I’m up to. She is such a good friend. I am so glad and so thankful to have gotten a chance to meet her – the memories we share are priceless!

We went on a high school trip to Washington, D.C. together and watched gay porn in our hotel room to freak out the American girls who shared a room with us and then laughed about it later while jumping around in our underwear in one of those those big, comfortable beds you only find in hotels. The next morning we got up early and went shopping in the city and tried to act all glamorous and city-girl-ish, what with our huge sunglasses and fancy shoes. We went to this little café and ordered Irish coffee with extra whiskey and although the waitress looked at us like we had lost our minds – it was only 11am, after all – she came back with two Irish coffees. We were only sixteen at the time and felt cool as shit.

It’s these things that remind me how awesome it is to be a girl because only in girls’ friendships can you have that much fun and be that silly and end up feeling all grown-up about it.

Just like last night when I went to see P.S. I love you at the movies with five of my girls and had the greatest time. We grabbed something to eat before the movie and then went to the 11pm showing afterwards. We had so much fun! Oh, and the movie: perfect, perfect, perfect. Go see it if you haven’t done so already.

Before we left for the movie, Nina had called me to tell me all about this girl Mareike who was going to come with us and, apparently, has the tendency to behave like a complete slut. Nina said, that Mareike will do anything to make out with the guys her best friends have a crushes on. Which, I’ll admit, is a little high school dramatic but if you think about it, it’s just rude and uncalled for and everything but being a good friend.

So we ended up trying to completely cut her out that night by ignoring her.

You know, sometimes I feel like I don’t need any friends and that, in most situations, I’m better off on my own. It’s too much drama, too much commitment, too much pain to lose them or see them when they’re going through hard times. But during these last couple of days I have, once again, come to understand how important they really are.

It feels good to have friends, no doubt. And it feels good to be a friend as well.