New Experience Diary: Relocating to NYC- Making Friends, Trying New Things & Finding a Hairdresser!

Make New Friends with Meetup.com

Relocating to a new city can be rather daunting! This is the 4th time that  I’ve moved to a new city in the last 6 years. Each time, I learn something new that helps me transition for future moves. Being in a new place where you don’t know the area, let alone anyone in the area, can be pretty depressing.

As soon as I moved into the city, I found a few groups on meetup.com that interested me. Meetup.com is “an online social networking site that facilitates offline group meetings in various locations around the world.” There’s a group for just about anything and everybody, in almost every city. Here’s a list of a few random groups, just to give you an idea: NYC Latino Professionals, The Philadelphia Writer’s Meetup Group and the Los Angeles Tennis Group. They even have a DC Caribbean Music Lovers Group! The cool thing is, if they don’t have a group that you’re interested in, you can create your own.

Setting up an account with meetup is as simple as creating a Facebook or Twitter account. If you do choose to use meetup, I’d say, visit the group’s landing page and see what kind of feel it gives you. Are there a lot of positive comments? Check out the group reviews, past meetups, upcoming events and do a little research on the organizer just to make sure it’s legit.  

So far, I’ve had a positive experience with the site! I joined a meetup group for young women in the NYC area who hang out and attend brunch almost every week! I even signed up for a $5.00 Yoga class (it was my first time!) which was pretty awesome… and painful. Meetup.com is a great way to meet new like-minded people, whether you’re relocating or just trying to network.

Before You ‘Side-Eye’ Craigslist, Try it Out

Hear me out on this one. Craigslist may have some creepy people with even creepier posts, but what social network doesn’t? I’ve used Craigslist in the past and I must say, you definitely have to be very discerning when using the site. For instance, I don’t look twice at a post without an image, but that’s just me. There are plenty of good deals out there, but you’ll have to sift through the nonsense to get to the good stuff, more times than not.

I found a hairdresser from the Bronx on Craigslist shortly after I moved. What interested me about her post were the pictures she uploaded, her price, her professionalism and I got good vibes from our phone conversation. As a precautionary measure, I didn’t go alone when I drove to her house to get my hair done. When I arrived, I realized that my gut was right. She did an excellent job on my hair and I plan to visit her for future hair appointments. I still can’t believe she only charged $60.00 for my sew-in! Nice!

What tools do you use to get adjusted to a new area? Have you tried Meetup or Craigslist? If so, how’d it go?