foreigngirl

Meeting people was one of my biggest worries when I came to the UK. Fortunately, I met loads of people at work/through work, etc. When/if we move to Canada, I will be working as a freelancer, from home.
So, where do you guys meet people outside of work? We haven't got kids, so playgroups, schools, etc. are out of the question. I'm not one to suddently come up to someone in the gym and say, 'Hi, do you want to be my friend?'.
I'm planning to join a tennis club, and maybe do some hobby-related courses. But will that be enought to make 'friends'?

el_richo

I work at home too. I already had a lot of friends before i moved over so that was easy.

The new ones i made took time but they're from owning a Dog and speaking with people daily at the park, etc. Clubs were a great way too, although it takes time. If you're into it, join an MMA gym, or cross training, or dragon boating, or kayaking, etc. You'll eventually get to be on good terms with people and possible take it to a friendship if you're not a weirdo.

foreigngirl

Not sure about the weirdo bit - will need to ask around.

Gosh, don't have a dog, either. I guess it's the clubs then.

Do people use meetup.com or is that for weirdos?

Former Lancastrian

plentyoffish is for weirdos

foreigngirl

OK, will avoid that one then. Thanks.

el_richo

Don't know about that. I've not used it

Clubs are your way forward though. The best ones i've found for that are the dragon boating type where you work as a team to exercise and/or compete.

foreigngirl

I've found the 'UBC tennis club' and 'Vancouver tennis club', but will they want me? What if I get rejected? This feels like being the last one to be picked for a team at school (although I never experienced that).

kiwipolski

Im glad Im not the only one who panics about this! I made lots of friends easily in the UK, but in Ireland, anyone we encounter above 27 seems to have a couple of kids.. One year on, and I can count the number of friends on one hand. I'm not sure if its harder when you're coupled up?

I'll be interested to hear how you get on meeting people in Canada... I don't fancy another move to be lonely!

MrWindUpBird

I use meetup.com and it's been pretty good. Minimal wierdo quotient.

didikai

I narrowly missed being selected for the olympic dragon boat team. They said I wasn't a team player.

Aviator

Wreck Beach is a great place to meet new friends.
Join clubs and any group of people with similar interests. It takes time.

JonboyE

I like el_richo's idea of a dragon boat team.

I remember as a teenager that you always had to play it casual if you wanted a girl to be your girlfriend. At a time when people were not looking for committed relationships coming on too strong was immediately off putting. I think the same is true of a new immigrant who feels they have to make new friends straight away. It comes over as too intense for locals who already have their own social network and don't need to add an apparently slightly weird newby.

It is also worthwhile to think how many real friends do you have now? And how many years did it take to acquire them?

Other new immigrants who are also looking to make friends is one source. AFAIK meetup.com is fine, though I have never been to any of their events. If I did I would be cautious of sticking to the British groups. If you want to socialize exclusively with British people there is a small group of islands just of the coast of Europe that is way better than Vancouver for that.

A lot of it is a numbers game. The more people you meet the more likely you are to meet someone who will become your friend. Get out and about, join clubs, find an organization to volunteer with, if you have valuable skills offer to do a limited amount of pro bono work for other new immigrants.

And, as el_richo also says, a dog is very useful. One that is appealing to pretty young women is truly man's best friend.

Things clicked for me in night school. Most of the students were new arrivals, we had to work in teams, and as I was basically redoing my qualifications in a Canadian accent I was able to help a lot of people. A couple of lifelong friends and many valuable business contacts were the result.

Lychee

I don't freelance, but I know many freelancers in Vancouver.

Many of Vancouver's freelance writers are active on Twitter. Many of them are active on blogs like TheTyee.ca, BCLiving.ca, VancouverIsAwesome.com, etc. Familiarize yourself with some of their names and reach out to them on Twitter. You'll have broken the ice before even arriving in Canada.

Many freelancers work out of coffee shops like Revolver in Gastown and Prado on Commercial Drive - work there and you'll start seeing familiar faces hiding behind Macbooks. Many also attend social networking events like Creative Mornings Vancouver: http://www.creativemornings.com/ which is a free-to-attend networking event on the first Friday of every month for Vancouver's creative community.

There's also a Facebook networking group in Vancouver called "Girl Gang" where 200+ women in media get together and socialize several times through the year. They're typically the same people you'll find at the aforementioned coffee shops, events, etc.

Volunteer for local events: Eastside Culture Crawl, The PuSh Festival, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, the Vancouver Jazz Festival, The Fringe Festival, Car Free Days, etc.

Hope this helps!

Alan2005

I disagree. There are too many people who will just want to know how you can help them further their own careers while pretending they are interested in yours. This kind of self promotion is even worse on social networks as it's all about increasing that friend/follower count in the hope that somebody in the real media will pick it up and get your work publicity. So for networking yes, but that's not really a good way of making actual friends; although I'm sure many will pretend to be.

I don't think the OP needs to worry though. She's already got the Vancouver attitude to life and will fit right in.

foreigngirl

Hi Lychee - thank you very much for your very uplifting post. It sounds like this is something that would suit me. I might be in touch with you once we finalize our move. Hope that's OK.