Hi all

So i finally made it to Toronto and having settled in a house by yorkdale mall I am now stuck without things to do apart from a daily walk and coffee fix at the mall.

I instantly find myself without the established network of friends i left behind in the UK and unable to just pick up the phone and say "fancy a munch/drink"

Anyway I am looking for similar like minded people who enjoy a social drink, and a lively atmosphere. I am not into drugs but what other people do aint my problem. I am usually very outgoing back in the UK and tend to mingle with people easily but having no base here its difficult.

So anyone about in the same situation as me then please let me know

Cheers
Bobby

There are some meetups on here, but if you are on FB, why not look for an expats in Toronto site.

Theres a very active one for Edmonton so I don't see why toronto wouldn't have one.

what do you mean meetups and how do i find them?

If you are retired maybe there is a Probus club to join. Do you have U3a in Canada? we have it here, am a member and into choir, wine appreciation group and travel club. Also Service clubs like Rotary available.

No doubt volunteer work available, 'meals on wheels' driving comminuty bus etc.

You need to do some research I reckon. I have met a lot of Canadians on my travels around the world, most are friendly people.

Why look for ex pats all the time? Mix in with the Canucks !

ha ha no not retired, im only 30 so maybe half way there.

I do normally prefer to go out and meet the locals but at the moment until i start working full time and can sign up to some photography and fitness clubs the socialising is limited.

An interesting theory. Might it be that he doesn't give a shit about iced hockey?

They talk of nothing else.

I don't find many Canadiens who are particularly passionate about Iced Hockey.

Probably one in five friends plays once a week but they never seem to go out of their way for any fixtures unless the national team is playing.

This whole "We love our Hockey" thing I find pales in comparison to the love of the Englishman for their Association Football or the Safa or Kiwi for Rugby Union.

Pull up a stool in a bar and order a pint. The rest of the action will soon follow..........

It's a bit of a rubbish time to arrive in that people are still hybernating even though it's a mild winter. Plenty of out doorsy stuff from mid-April/early May.

you will find the meetups on here by regularly browsing this forum and looking for a thread that says something like "who wants to meet up in toronto next week"

Alternatively you could start one yourself.

http://www.meetup.com/cities/ca/on/toronto/

I tried 'meetup' in Auckland in order to prepare myself to try the same in Vancouver (when I'll have to get out and meet new people).

Anyway, it was fun!!!! I was pleasantly surprised. I ended up arranging quite a few of the meetups myself because I've lived here for a long time and most of the peeps joining were new to Auckland and I know the cool stuff to do around here. I think I was lucky and got with a really cool group. We had all sorts, a doctor from Singapore, a Uni lecturer from Turkey, a writer from Pennsylvania, a computer analyst from Guernsey (lol, no joke), a teacher from Canada (again, no joke, haha) a recuitment guy from London, an engineer from Malaysia, lots of Kiwis who just fancied meeting new peeps, all sorts. A really great bunch. I joined two groups but felt happiest with one group in particular (young professionals in their 20s-30s) they were great and we just clicked and everyone got on well together and we had a laugh.

I even made a really good friend, a South African girl and she and I have kept in touch and see each other regularly, she is one of my best friends now. So how cool was that?

I hope it's good in Vancouver, I hope so, but maybe I was spoiled here and just got lucky with cool peeps... whatever, will try it over there and see what happens!

I arranged a skiing trip, horse riding on a beach, canoeing down a river, bowling, ice skating, and they had regular drinks and meals and jazz events, picnics, and salsa dancing, hiking, going to the cinema, going out for coffees, travel talks, concerts, etc, etc, etc. It's an instant social life, there's actually too much going on! You name it they do it!

oh yeah, there was a cartoon artist teacher too, that guy was hilarious and we spent the afternoon at a jazz picnic talking about the rides at Disneyland, Harry Potter and cartoon characters.

thanks elizabeth some positive advice

I couldn't agree more with your comment about Brits and football. It's like the UK revolves around a bunch of overpaid, over hyped, under worked men who really need a reality check. The resignation of Fabbio Capello and the whole Redknapp story took up more than half the time of last night's news on the BBC. The mind boggles.

I actually used to like football and enjoyed watching a good game But this was 15 years ago. You know, before it got to the ridiculous state mentioned above.

To BobbyN - I hope you get to meet up with people soon. I emigrated 16 years ago and it did take a while to make friends. Luckily my first job was in a really friendly company with lots of people my age, and it went well from there. Will have to start all over again later this year when I move countries yet again!

Hopefully you will start making friends quickly once you start work, at the latest. Good luck

That story was the talk of this office yesterday. The last sports related story to get as much over the partition traffic was MIA's finger.