We signed up for an American Expat group with Meetup.com and went to a meet-up last night at this beer garden in town. It was a really nice place, large outdoor area with an outdoor bar and plenty of space for all 35 of us to mingle and hang out. It was fun and it was damn nice to talk to some people - thank you for finding me the website Jon.
We were a bit wary of going - are these people weirdos? Are they all old people? Will no one show? When we got there, we assumed it would be easy to find the American group, but there were lots of people there and we couldn't tell who was there from our group. We tried listening for accents, but it's awkward to eavesdrop on strangers, so I eventually just walked up and asked a group if they were from meetup.com. They were, and we started chatting. More and more people showed up, many asking people awkwardly if they were from the group of Americans (I preferred to say from the meetup.com group) and it was very nice. Very "lively" as my mom would say.
Kane and I ended up in seperate circles of people, which was actually good because we got to meet even more people that way. And it probably isn't bad for us to spend one night talking to someone other than each other. I hung out with a couple from Ohio and a guy from Arkansas most of the night and Kane was mostly talking to a girl from Minnesota and her Kiwi boyfriend. We actually live two buildings over from the Ohio couple and just down the road from the other couple, so we all exchanged phone numbers and took the tram home together. Definitely a successful night.
The only weird thing was there was one strange guy who kept awkwardly trying to poke into groups of people. I felt sorry for him because he was obviously socially awkward and couldn't start conversation well, but I also got a strange vibe from him so decided not to talk to him. One of the girls, Alana, later told me that he shows up to all these events and tries to sell some sort of thing to do with social networking. She said he's weird and it was good I didn't talk to him, so that worked out. We didn't even talk to most of the people that were there; supposedly there were 35 people. I was just glad to latch on to a few people that we could probably hang out with again. Yeay for the internet!! If only we could get some at our house...
6 comments:
Aren't expats interesting? LOL
Oh my god! Angie enjoying a lively place, conversing with strangers – and a beer establishment no less! A proud parental moment indeed.
Yeah, the people that go to the online functions are mostly professionals and are extremely nice. In addition to meeting new people, it is a great way to get introduced to new places. Glad you guys are having fun.
I thought we agreed to not see other people while you guys were gone. Thanks for that bombshell. Looks like I need to go get some revenge friends. Oh wait, that only applies to dating huh?
Sounds like the event was like a step down from online dating. Which means it's far more respectable. No offense to any online daters on here. I've just heard from friends that you tend to meet socially akward people, thus is why they need the internet to find someone. I guess it's better than meeting no one for 1.5 years *cough*. I think I dug myself out of that hole quite well.
What is an expat?
Sounds like a fun time you had. Cool! Be good for you guys to have some friends to hang out with.
Yay!
uh oh, Eric wants new friends now, too. Sounds like a Seinfeld episode. :)
Wiki says: "An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence." So there you go!
Eric wishes he was a Seinfeld episode - you go try to find some revenge friends!
I'm so proud of y'all. I have to work myself up to go to those sort of "networking" events, even though they always bear fruit. Bravo!
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