InterNations Blog

With so many cities around the world inviting to casual Get-Togethers, it was high time for the Melbournian Community to meet in ‘real life’ as well. On the night of Thursday, November 6, Audrey Orielle Liwidjaja-Ly, the new local InterNations Ambassador, gathered them to get to know each other better, catch up after work and count down the time until the upcoming week-end.

They held the meeting in the back area of the chic Locanda Cucina Bar — the city’s premium location for all Italophiles — , which was quite secluded and thus ideal for them to mingle. The expats mainly came from Germany (they all shared a laugh at the coincidence that almost every man in the room turned out to be German), but also from the USA, Canada, Indonesia, Colombia, Japan, New Zealand, India, Turkey, the Netherlands and Macedonia. A few people from Melbourne and Sydney, who had lived abroad for a while and fondly remembered their time as expatriates, participated as well.

Everybody was at ease and ‘clicked’ with each other soon. Despite their different backgrounds and experiences, which made for interesting conversational topics, it turned out that some of the guests had more in common than just sharing Melbourne as their (new) home — they would come from the same country, share the same clients or live in the same neighbourhood: This broke the ice very quickly, and it didn’t take long for everyone to start exchanging tips on places to go or on business opportunities in Australia.

Judging from the feedback Audrey received, the members had a great time and are looking forward to the Melbourne Get-Together becoming a monthly occasion. The next event is probably going to be a true Aussie-style barbecue in one of Melbourne’s parks

(You can find all the photos from the event here.)

Filed under: InterNations News on November 7th, 2008