Having gone to a girls school my whole life, I have many girl friends. I also think it is a major part of English culture for girls to have lots of girl friends and boys vice versa. Of course, people mix, we are not separate alliances or anything, but for the majority of the time if you ask a girl in England to name her closest few friends, they will be female.

That is definitely one of the differences I have noted since being here, not only in UCSD but in International House in particular. It seems Americans have the same mentality as English people, but are also far more likely to have guy best friend thrown in the mix (take my friend Laura's best friend, Bobby, for example) but most the time, their closest friends are female. But there is a huge difference between girl friends in England and girl friends in America. Girl friends in England HUG EACH OTHER. Yes we nudge each other, put our legs up on one another, hug each other continually, play with one another's hair etc etc. However, in America, everyone has a personal bubble. It is rather big personal bubble too and for some reason, I feel it makes people less close. (However, I think I have been converting my best friend Laura :D and to be honest, she is so open and honest that I feel at sometimes I am closer to her than people I hug every few minutes)

Spanish people tend to be a bit different. I feel Spanish boys are as thick as thieves. They have each other's back continually and are constantly tied at the hip. However, Spanish girls seem to also have a lot more boy friends than girl friends. They hang around with these large groups and become part of the gang even though the bond between the boys is definitely too thick to even think about challenging. I love having guys as friends, don't get me wrong, back at home the boys from the Sports Centre are some of my closest friends and here, the Geneva lot are seriously some of the funniest nicest guys I have met. But, I just couldn't cope without my close female friends. I can tell them everything. Anything. And they'll be there for me, they'll understand. I feel sorry that this does not seem the case for Spanish people (although I could be stereotyping from what I've just observed so don't take my word). Apparently English and Portuguese customs are the same. My Portuguese friend Betty tells me that she has a huge group of girl friends back home and this is obvious because any photo she is tagged in has a billion likes from those same girls.

Australians also seem to be a lot closer to boys, however, their group is more balanced. The boys are close to the girls and guys - it is not so one sided. This plays right into the stereotype of 'relaxed' Australians as they all hang out and chill together.

However, these are just some small observations I have made. I might be wrong or maybe I am being nostalgic for those girls back home. I am always going to need girl friends. And right now, I know I couldn't have asked for a better bunch (both at home, at work and here).
Thanks my lovelies x