In order to solve this problem Nick and I recently joined An adventure, sports, and social group. Membership isn't to expensive, and they have all sorts of activities you can sign up for - galas, dinner parties, hiking, caving, bungee jumping, sailing, walking with wolves, photography weekends, etc. We thought there were some fun things and figured we'd try it out for a few months and see how it goes.
Monday night was the new members evening at a pub in the city. All informal meetings in England occur in pubs - fact. Nick and I walked into a room of full of chatty mature birds, a handful of youngish people, and a few men. Nice. Then the coordinator spent AN HOUR AND A HALF teaching us how to use their website and FACEBOOK. Um is this really necessary? Even my technophobic mother has figured out how to use facebook. Clearly, this is not aimed at our generation.
But wait, they did highlight the Under 40 events for their young members. I don't mean to be rude, but 40 isn't exactly young is it? Or do I just need to give these mature birds a chance?
The next morning I met this old guy while walking the dog - typical, right? I mentioned how Nick and I were looking to establish our social circle here, and he said, "Well you're a bit young for it, but have you heard of Spice?" As a matter of fact sir, I have!
He then proceeded to tell me how you can do some fun things with them, but the club is mostly full of old divorced women looking to find their true love later on in life. In case you mature birds don't know, us youngins refer to these women as Cougars.
We're still going to give this adventure club thing a chance, but if our first impressions serve us right - it looks like we've joined a cougar club.
How do you make friends in a new city?
I would love to make one good girlfriend who is my age.
Any tips?
the best place i found friends was at church. it's a small community and you already feel like family in a setting like that. other than that, i've been really lucky to meet people on the street. because lots of people are expats they are more friendly and more open to making friends. i wish you the best of luck finding someone, because it's those relationships that get you through the mess of being so far from home. hugs.
ReplyDeleteLike the first post, a church will bring you friends and even more than that,it will bring you peace. Maybe volunteer with them, it is always better to give than to receive .
ReplyDeleteI totally get what you are going through because a. M and I went to different colleges so never had the same friends there and ever since it's been hard attracting similar friends...even when we moved to Iowa awhile back he was there for a full semester before I arrived so that started off uneven. switzerland has been a lot better though...
ReplyDeleteb. meeting new friends is so hard - it makes you miss your old friends so much - especially on weekends *sigh*. but my best advice is to go ANYWHERE where you're invited - you just never know who you are going to meet - we were invited to parties by older people on 2 different occasions and both times i met and exchanged numbers with girls my age - one who has become an amazing friend already (jen) - so just get out there! you're totally off to a good start with your fun clubs! i'd go to those if they spoke english :) oh also - i know i'm writing a book - but look for expat groups on FB...i've met a few people through those!
I'm not sure how big of a town you live in, but when I moved to Los Angeles, I used Meetin.org. For when I moved back to San Francisco, I used Yelp initially. :)
ReplyDeleteUnless there is a scorpion club nearby . . I'm with Kera. That's the safe place, right?!
ReplyDeleteThis post was awesome.
haha I look forward to hearing more stories about this Cougar Club! Sounds like a sitcom waiting to happen.
ReplyDelete