Originally Posted by jumping doris

Here's how I got to know people:

I live in a suburb which is made up of different neighbourhoods. It is almost impossible to walk between neighbourhoods because there are no pavements. I can walk around my neighbourhood and lots of people do...so you get to know people.
Where I live each neighbourhood does stuff....block party, golf competition, bbq, garage sale. Some neigbourhoods have their own pools. You do get to know people and I became a street rep for our HOA and so I got to know even more people.

I have a dog and I explored the area and found other dog walkers.

I went to the library a lot.

I did join the PTA and ours are formidable compared to the UK. You almost have to be vetted and selected! I think the PTA forms in Kindergarten and the parents move through the school years with their children. It was very hard to break in to our PTA at 5th grade because they had all been a "PTA" group for so long. But I persevered, went on school trips, did the PTA jobs no-one else wanted, said yes to everything.
Even if you don't get onto the PTA, there is still a lot more parental involvement in school than in the UK, so you will get asked to do stuff.

We went to all the High school football games(home ones at first) even though we knew nothing and are not sporty. Our realtor had told us to go as the whole community goes and supports the senior team. All ages go and we really enjoy it now. When people realised we were English and knew nothing about the sport, they all took it upon themselves to teach us. My daughters joined things...art clubs, skating clubs, horse riding and I met people there.

I went to everything I was invited to.
I talk to anyone...my daughter told me the other day that I am the only person she knows who can hold a 20min conversation with the man in Subway
I joined our townships Newcomers group and after the first year joined the committee. I agreed to run the book club and I have met loads of people.I also joined their Good samaritan scheme and if someone has a family crisis I do the cooking for them, other people do other things, just for a few days.

I joined a local art group. I was a professional calligrapher before we moved and ran my own business. I really miss that part of my old life and sadly this art group is crappy but I still go because the people are nice.

The more you join, you eventually start to bump into people you met at another event and you begin to feel you belong.
Everyone plays tennis here and I don't and I haven't started. I don't like it and it's too expensive but it would have been another way of meeting people.
It is harder in the winter because no-one is outdoors, and I don't think Pittsburgh winters are as bad as Chicago's. They are horrible though and I am dreading this one. The snow is lovely and the sky is usually blue... but they are just sooo cold and long.

It wasn't easy because sometimes if you feel a bit homesick the last thing you want to do is get out there and smile.

Originally Posted by nethead

God Doris you're so good at integrating. I'm really bad and a bit of a non joiner so instantly rule myself out of meeting a lot of people

Originally Posted by BigDavyG

Find out if your husband's employer runs a shuttle service to the office from the metra line then investigate downtown.
When I moved here the first year was tough and I put most of that down to living in the 'burbs - still live there but now work downtown and get down there on a regular basis - much more enjoyable now.

Originally Posted by deniseincarmel

My brother-in-law rides the train twice a day into Chicago. He loves it. Works on the train.

Originally Posted by BigDavyG

He rides the train twice a day - do you mean he goes in and comes back or does he make 2 return trips ??
If he makes 2 return trips is he a conductor ??

Originally Posted by deniseincarmel

I don't think you can beat Winnetka, but it is a bit pricey. The house used to film Home Alone is in my sister-in-law's neighborhood, but again there are probably more affordable places there to live. Don't know your price range, but it's hard to beat. My brother-in-law rides the train twice a day into Chicago. He loves it. Works on the train.

Originally Posted by Hiro11

Yeah, it's nice, but so is La Jolla. Average price in Winnetka= $1MM. One of if not the most expensive town in Chicago.

Originally Posted by BigDavyG

Do get to the 'burbs you don't use the tube (or chicago's version) you use the metra - plenty of space and very clean.

As for meeting people through your daughter - good idea - its just that the school mum's over here may be somewhat different to the one's you hang about with back home.

Originally Posted by jumping doris

Here's how I got to know people:

I live in a suburb which is made up of different neighbourhoods. It is almost impossible to walk between neighbourhoods because there are no pavements. I can walk around my neighbourhood and lots of people do...so you get to know people.
Where I live each neighbourhood does stuff....block party, golf competition, bbq, garage sale. Some neigbourhoods have their own pools. You do get to know people and I became a street rep for our HOA and so I got to know even more people.

I have a dog and I explored the area and found other dog walkers.

I went to the library a lot.

I did join the PTA and ours are formidable compared to the UK. You almost have to be vetted and selected! I think the PTA forms in Kindergarten and the parents move through the school years with their children. It was very hard to break in to our PTA at 5th grade because they had all been a "PTA" group for so long. But I persevered, went on school trips, did the PTA jobs no-one else wanted, said yes to everything.
Even if you don't get onto the PTA, there is still a lot more parental involvement in school than in the UK, so you will get asked to do stuff.

We went to all the High school football games(home ones at first) even though we knew nothing and are not sporty. Our realtor had told us to go as the whole community goes and supports the senior team. All ages go and we really enjoy it now. When people realised we were English and knew nothing about the sport, they all took it upon themselves to teach us. My daughters joined things...art clubs, skating clubs, horse riding and I met people there.

I went to everything I was invited to.
I talk to anyone...my daughter told me the other day that I am the only person she knows who can hold a 20min conversation with the man in Subway
I joined our townships Newcomers group and after the first year joined the committee. I agreed to run the book club and I have met loads of people.I also joined their Good samaritan scheme and if someone has a family crisis I do the cooking for them, other people do other things, just for a few days.

I joined a local art group. I was a professional calligrapher before we moved and ran my own business. I really miss that part of my old life and sadly this art group is crappy but I still go because the people are nice.

The more you join, you eventually start to bump into people you met at another event and you begin to feel you belong.
Everyone plays tennis here and I don't and I haven't started. I don't like it and it's too expensive but it would have been another way of meeting people.
It is harder in the winter because no-one is outdoors, and I don't think Pittsburgh winters are as bad as Chicago's. They are horrible though and I am dreading this one. The snow is lovely and the sky is usually blue... but they are just sooo cold and long.

It wasn't easy because sometimes if you feel a bit homesick the last thing you want to do is get out there and smile.

Originally Posted by deniseincarmel

I don't think you can beat Winnetka, but it is a bit pricey. The house used to film Home Alone is in my sister-in-law's neighborhood, but again there are probably more affordable places there to live. Don't know your price range, but it's hard to beat. My brother-in-law rides the train twice a day into Chicago. He loves it. Works on the train.

Originally Posted by Glen Ellyn Service Crew

Me and the wife went up there to look at houses before we moved to Glen Ellyn. It is very nice up there but WOW is it expensive. Another nice town with old (expensive) houses is Kenilworth.

What kind of price range you able to afford?

Originally Posted by jumping doris

. Everyone will be interested in you at first because you are British.

Originally Posted by keira-2007

To be honest I don't know, We still have ascertained whether we will be buying or renting permanently. If we agree to the 4 year secondment we have been instructed to keep our house in the UK and the company will pay our rent... (so that means we'll probably be renting a pokey little flat behind some bins somewhere!!) If we sold our house (and used our equity - and managed to build a decent credit score eventually) we could probably get something in the region of $600 000 to $700 000. But even then i don't know - are mortgages granted on 3 or 4 times the salary like in the Uk or some different way?

Originally Posted by keira-2007

Interested in a good way? Or in a disapproving way? I can handle the sarcastic comments, it's my 7 yr old daughter I'm worried about! I hope she doesn't get picked on because she's DIFFERENT!

Originally Posted by jumping doris

I don't know what Illinois is like for property but here in PA (my bit) it isn't always a good idea to buy a house at the max of your buying power. In the UK it is often a good idea because they increase in value and your house is your best asset.
Property prices don't rise as quickly here and propery tax can be huge. My experience is that people prefer to have more disposable income rather than a big mortgage. We only borrowed at 2x OH's salary...almost unheard of in the UK.
The other thing a lot of my friends have done is to buy a fairly cheap house and a holiday home.