Bart, 61 and Alicia, 56, became friends as students in Washington DC in the 1980s. A chance encounter in the 1990s led to a life-changing bond
As a student in 1989, Alicia went to Washington DC for an internship at the US Senate. “After six months, I extended my trip but I needed a place to stay,” she says. She moved to the International Student House, a hall of residence usually reserved for foreign students. “Although I am American, I managed to get a place. It was a very fun time; I could walk to work during the day and enjoy the nightlife in the evening, as well as communal meals with other students.”
It was at one of these meals that she first met Bart, a medical student from Rotterdam who was working on some research at the National Institute of Mental Health. “I was living with a host family,” he says, “but I had a friend living at the International Student House, so I’d go there to hang out.”
