How to make friends in a new city

For me friends are a key essential for a successful stay in a new city. When I find like minded people that I enjoy spending time with, I tend to explore the city way more and I am just happier in general.

A lot of you probably know how difficult it is to make new friends, when you just moved to a new city. Especially if you have a full time job and don't know when you will be out of the office during the week.

During university and school, making new friends wasn't as difficult. Due to being in the same class and already having contact, it was easier to hang out with these people after school. Making friends at that time was no problem. My social calendar was always full.

But once you start "work life" it becomes difficult. In Hamburg it was okay, as some of my Highschool friends and my boyfriend (now ex) were still in there, but here in Düsseldorf, I don't know anyone except for my little sister.
Due to the long work hours I didn't have many possibilities to meet other people outside of work. I have tried to hang out with my colleagues after work, but I realized that most of them already have a close circle of friends. In most cases these are school friends and boyfriends.
Furthermore, I like to keep my work and private life separate. I am not sure if you have noticed it, but when I am around work colleagues, I tend to talk about work. And this was something that I didn't want. When I am off work, I want to not think about it.

So I set a goal to find friends outside of work. :) And thanks to the internet, I found a few ways to reach this goal:

1) meetup.com:
This online platform lets you register for free and you can sign up for certain groups that interest you. I for example joined the Düsseldorf Expat group as I enjoy meeting new people from different cultures and because I prefer speaking English over German.
Furthermore, the posted calendar gives you an overview of events that are taking place in your city. So if you feel like doing something next Friday, you can click on that date and see all the meetups that are happening that day.

2) Facebook:
I barely meet people that don't have Facebook. :) Well, why not use this social media platform to meet new people. Here you can search for certain groups in you city. For example, for Düsseldorf I looked for expats in Düsseldorf and found a "new in Düsseldorf" group. When I just moved to Düsseldorf, I attended the Halloween Party and let me tell you, I was scared at the beginning, as I did not know anybody, but at the end of the night, I was the happiest girl in the entire club. I had such a good time and it was great meeting new people and listening to their stories.

3) Girl Gone International:
Yes, I am a GGI and I am proud of it. When living in Hamburg, I came across the GGI group online and since then I always look for the GGI group in the new city I am in. I like that only girls are in this group and that it is very international. However, here in Düsseldorf I was a little disappointed as the girls that attended the meet up that I went to, were abroad for 6 month and already considered themselves as a GGI.... Maybe my standards are just too high.

4) Sports:
Most of you know what a sport freak I am. But it is not only about fitness and health for me, but also meeting new people. In Hamburg I was part of the NIKE Club der Töchter group and every Tuesday after work, we ran around the Alster. I really enjoyed being around people who shared the same interest. Running crews are the best! You can travel with them, explore the city running with them and they will not think you are a freak, as you love to run every day :)

As you can see, there are a lot of different ways you can meet new people in a new city. But although there are so many possibilities, you have to have time and guts to go there by yourself. Be open and embrace this new experience. Cause friends can make a new city unforgettable :)

xoxo

M

I am back!

Hey y'all.

Guess what... I am back!

The last few days I have noticed how much I have missed blogging and thanks to my little sister, I have decided to bring this blog alive.

My last post was in 2013 and oh boy... a lot has happened since then.

First of all I moved to Düsseldorf. :)
I share a beautiful flat with my sister and my cat Lucky. We each have one room, a huge living room a dining room and a small kitchen. As we are not too fond of cooking, we don't really mind the size of the kitchen. 
What mattered to us, was the location and a balcony. (For parties during the summer time)
It still fascinates me how fast we found this place.


Just in case you are looking for a place in Düsseldorf: Go look for offers on ebaykleinanzeigen. It was super easy to use and the offers were serious and good. Furthermore, you do not have to pay any fee to use this online platform, nor do you have to pay for a real-estate agent.
As I was still located in Hamburg during the search, I contacted the people online and my sister, who thank God was working in Düsseldorf already, checked the flats out.

Our current place was our favourite asap and thus my sister and I made a plan how to win the owners over. My sister was super friendly. She asked the mother of the owner a lot of questions and showed lots of interest. Well let me tell you. Her humour, good looks and sweetness convinced the owner that we were the right candidates. A day later we received the confirmation and we started to think about how the flat should look like.

But as you might know, plans and reality are in most cases not identical. So when we rented a sprinter and packed everything within 3 hours, we thought we were set. Well guess what. That was not the case. As we arrived at 23:30 pm we were not able to set up our beds etc. and thus we slept on a carpet on the floor, waking up with lack of sleep, growling tummys and no motivation to unpack everything.

These kind of moments make me miss our mother so much. With her funny and strange moments, she would have made this unpacking adventure fun and unforgettable. But as she was not there, my sister and I dealt with it. We quickly unpacked, brought the sprinter away and started to build up our beds.

As my sister and I are working girls and thus only had the weekends to get the flat ready, it took us almost 2 month to finish everything. For example, getting a fridge was also a hassle. I never knew how important a fridge was until I didn't have one. We had to buy fresh food which we didn't have to prepare / cook every day and after a while we were so sick of it. I really wanted a yogurt or a coffee with milk in the morning.

If moving would be easy, everyone would be doing it on a regular basis, right?
But although getting the flat ready, was difficult, meeting new people was really easy here in Düsseldorf.

I am not sure what it is, but I have never had so many people come up to me before. On Halloween, I decided to go out by myself. Via Facebook I heard of this Halloween Party which sounded interesting. After a few minutes, I met so many new people, which I still meet on a regular basis.

I really enjoy this new city and I hope that I can entertain you with my blog. :)

If you want to read more, keep visiting! 

I promise... I won't neglect this blog. 

xoxox

M