How to meet people

My dear readers

I am so sorry for keeping you hanging these last few weeks.

I have been caught up meeting new people, discovering places and working that I have not made time for you.  I will make it up to you by doing a regular update every week (holidays do not count though ;) ) and for the fun of it, I will be uploading some extra long posts this month.

My post today will be about “How to meet people”.

It is a daunting thought moving to another country all alone, without really knowing anybody there you can rely on. Most people do not like the idea of having to be alone, which I completely understand. It can be lonely for some. You do not have anybody to talk to at night except your Skype buddies. You have to go to restaurants alone. Or wander by yourself at the mall. On the other hand if you do go alone to a new country, you will be forced to be more social and make friends soon.

The website I used to meet new people is couchsurfing.com. The concept is really easy: If you have an available couch you let others from all over the world sleep on it and you teach them about your country & culture. If you do not have a couch available, you can sign up to offer to go for a drink or a coffee. So I went off to search the many profiles on there. I focused on girls between 20 – 30 as I didn’t want to hang out with guys who use the website to find dates. Next up I screened their profiles to see if we had things in common. Yes, I screened on pictures too if they were too posy or it looked like picture for on a dating website I did not even continue to read further. Call me superficial if you want, but the whole point is to find people you click with. Next up was a look at the references they got. In total I contacted about 5 girls and asked them to go out for drinks, as I was new in the city.

I ended up also subscribing to meetup.com as one of the girls I met through couchsurfing recommended. I joined the group “New in Dubai” that often organizes events. My first event with them was a picnic with a bunch of food and people from all over. In the future I will go to some of their other events.

I guess you must have other websites where you can meet new people but these two worked for me. For example: I am going to sign up to my old student organization AIESEC for alumni. I might be able to attend some of their activities and reconnect with the AIESEC spirit I loved so much at university.

Another easy way is colleagues and the network of your colleagues. One of my good friends I met through couchsurfing, let us call her Beach babe as I know how much she loves the word babe, has really nice colleagues who have taken us out and have shared their experiences with us.  My colleague Prince has also been so kindly to point out events to go to, although our tastes seem to be quite different. Another colleague of mine, Electra, is making me a small list of club places to go to. So definitely ask your colleagues what is hot and what not, if they can share experiences, etc.

Last way to meet new people: just start talking to people who seem friendly enough. It can be at the pool, beach, restaurant, bar, club, even waiting in line at the women’s toilets. Yes, I have made a friend like that.  

Job

The next step was going to our local partner in Dubai to meet the team. Most of my colleagues are Lebanese or Filipino’s. First impressions: friendly bunch, like to laugh and don’t take life too seriously. You can tell the work atmosphere is different here than in Belgium.  People are more relaxed. It also made me aware that not speaking “Arabic” is a small set-back. My colleagues often switch to Arabic. I can’t blame them, as it comes natural to speak in your mother tongue.  Once I am settled in, I will look for an Arabic course. I’ve been told the Lebanese accent is the loveliest one… So it’s swell that most of my colleagues are Lebanese. Hopefully I will be able to understand something after my course.

At the end of the year I should be an expert in Lebanese food, as at lunchtime we always seem to go to Lebanese restaurants. At the end of the year I will also be showing redrawal symptoms because of the nicotine. All my colleagues smoke. They tend to smoke during lunch for an anti-smoker like me…it’s not something I am used to. Not to say that I was so happy that finally a complete smoking ban is planned in Belgium for pubs & restaurants in June. Lungs, hang in there!

And whenever I hear “Lebanese”, I have to stifle a laugh because of our dear friend Barney Stinson. The HIMYM fans know what I am talking about. *blog five*