Week 8: Intercultural Communicative Competence

As we come to our last week in Europe, I look back on the memories I have made and the people I have shared them with. When arriving in Germany, I knew I would talk to the people who also went on this trip, but I didn't think I would become friends with them as easy as I did. One person who stands out the most out of all my friendships that I made abroad, is my friendship with Ashley Pearson.

When going through the "General Process of Friendship Development (Remland, 2015)" in chapter 8 of the book, it describes each of the steps you take when developing a friendship. The first stage is the  Role-Limited Interaction. Whenever you meet someone new, you are usually the nicest person in the world; you don't want to give them a bad impression. I remember being super nice because I really liked Ashley from the beginning. We soon moved to the Friendly Relations stage. This stage is more of an acquaintance stage. We were no longer new to each other, but we weren't quite friends yet. We would talk before and after classes. She was just the girl I sat next to in our COMM 405 Effects of Media class. We started to hit the third stage,  Moves toward friendship, soon after the second stage. We started getting food together, going to the store/mall and walking to and from class. When we went to Amsterdam the week after the first week, I can definitely say we were in the Nascent Friendship. We did a lot of traveling around Amsterdam together with our friend Andrew. A point during that trip that I knew we were going to be great friends is when we went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum; we hit a level in our friendship that most people wouldn't achieve until the third or fourth week. We all shared so many laughs, and we talk about how much fun we had there all the time.

Currently, our friendship lays in the Stabilized Friendship. This is when the friendship has gotten to the highest level and there is a common trust. I know Ashley and I will remain great friends! We have a lot of really good conversations. We already have plans together for when we are both back in Morgantown. Ashley and I have had a lot of great moments together. We recently got back from a trip together from Kaiserslautern, Germany. We went to go visit my dad's cousin and we had a great time! Ashley is a great travel buddy and an even better friend!

In Heidelberg, Germany eating Schneeball

In Kaiserslautern, Germany on the American Air-force Base eating Taco Bell

Matching unintentionally in Berlin!

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