Tweet01-05-2011 om 12:10 by Sueli Brodin

"Do you feel more French, Brazilian, Japanese or Dutch?"

"How many languages do you speak?"

"In which language do you think and dream?"

These are questions I am asked all the time but am finding increasingly difficult to give clear-cut answers to.

Another one I'm wrestling with since I was awarded the title of Expat of the Year in 2010 is: "What is an expat?"



With the world becoming more global and flatter by the day, the time will perhaps soon come when we will no longer be defined by our origins but by our worldliness and ability to easily adapt and communicate with others.



No wonder I so much enjoyed the Meet & Greet Maastricht kickoff event organised last Thursday by the Knowledge Centre for International Staff (KCIS) at Maastricht University, that recently won this year's Expat Award for Best Expat Service Provider.




The idea behind this new initiative, which will take place every last Thursday of the month at Café Zuid at Plein 1992, is to give an opportunity for "like-minded people to meet in an international atmosphere" in Maastricht.



What I find the most appealing in this description is not so much the adjective "international" as the expression "like-minded people".



To me the expression includes everyone who sees and places the city of Maastricht in a wider context and for whom the presence of an international community in the region is an asset and an added value. And it obviously includes Dutch people as well.



The event gathered more than 250 of us that evening and was a great success. I was happy to see familiar faces and greatly enjoyed making new acquaintances. We were all wearing a name tag that also indicated our nationalities and we had been asked to write down on another badge the topics we were interested in talking about. I filled in: '"Turkish cuisine, foreign shops and where to find small sized clothes" and am grateful for the valuable tips several people came to offer me!



The next Meet and Greet event will take place on 26 May. Will you be there too?



But as it turns out, I didn't have to wait that long to experience more of these rewarding moments with "like-minded people". My family and I were delighted to meet with several members of the India Student Association in Maastricht during Queen's Day in Maastricht. Our Romanian friend Catalina, dressed up in a beautiful orange Indian dress, and her 76-old Dutch friend Marlene were there too and offered fresh homemade walnut cookies to my children.



They were selling typical and delicious Indian sweets (Gulab jamun) and snacks that they had baked especially for the occasion and proposing to paint beautiful henna motives on people's hands or arms.



Later in the afternoon, we kept our promise to our children to go and eat Turkish pizzas at the Turquoise shop at Mosae Gusto. We were once again warmly welcomed by the owners who immediately recognised us and treated us as with all sorts of kind attentions.



On a day like this, I feel perfectly at home in Maastricht, because I have the feeling that the world is right here and that everything fits together. It is exactly the type of environment I like to see my children growing up in.

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