I’m about eight weeks in to a six month or more relocation to Dublin, Ireland. I’m kind of a serial relocator, if you consider my whole life, but I haven’t done it for a while.
This time, I’m not moving with the anchor of a new school or a new workplace to introduce me to people or structure my day, so I’m counting on the magic of shared interests – it has never failed me.
Before I left the States, I reserved a seat at a bookmaking workshop at a small family run shop I had visited before (that’s the picture you see above). I knew I would have that to look forward to within the first month. Talking with the instructor, who funnily enough lives in Chicago, along with the other students and the proprietors was great. For me, learning and making something side by side is a much more effective way to connect than the expat meetup groups in bars that were on offer. (Notice that bit of Irish phrasing already slipping in – “on offer”?)
By week one, I found the yarn store and the fabric store. Chatting with people there can often be a way to find communities that don’t show up on Google or MeetUp.
That said, power-searching did turn up the first meeting of a “Sunday Sewcial” right in my neighborhood. Bring your project and create in community, perfect for me. Many of the women who attended knew one another from various other classes and groups, but were tremendously welcoming to me, even offering the loan of a sewing machine since mine didn’t make it into the luggage. They had loads of suggestions of other activities that might be invisible to me otherwise, but now I’ll be attending a Craftcinema outing, where people watch a movie together with the lights on and a craft project underway on their laps.
I have two or three other events on the books, more to share next time, but don’t forget, wherever you are, this is a great strategy to expand your connections. You don’t have to be new to town, you don’t even have to be hankering for new friends. Be a newcomer in your own place and see what you turn up.