Occupying Your Freetime on a Business Trip?

Eric asks: "I just learned that my employer is sending me on a project abroad, in a medium size city for 3 months, starting early August. This will be a 12-hour flight from home and I have friends just an 8-hour drive from there. This is not the first time I am being sent on a remote location, but it used to be short trips (one week, typically), so I didn't have time to get really bored. What do you do while on a long business trip? how do you meet people when you cannot use your network of friends and don't have months to waste on building a new network?"

"Getting to know people from the opposite sex would be nice, but I'm also looking for chaps to simply share a beer with. I'm your average geek, with normal social skills, but it usually takes me a long time (around 3 to 6 months) to make friends in a new area. Hobbies that do not need to be pursued thoroughly are good too.

Here are a few things that I've thought about:

• join a sport club, though the sports I'm into (swimming, rollerblades, hockey on rollerblades) aren't the best for meeting people or aren't practiced everywhere
• lurk in clubs and bars, but going there by yourself spawn images of sorrow drowning in my mind
• take dancing lessons; a good way to meet girls, and it doesn't usually require to get a yearly membership
• learn a new skill; I've registered on a distance Spanish course some time ago; not very successful so far (mostly due to laziness)
• the geeky way: join an open-source project, though I'm not sure if I'll have a proper internet connection at the hotel

What do you do on your freetime, while away from your relatives for a couple of months?"

Comments

Buy a bunch of blank CDs

[seinman]

and start stockpiling the pornography now. Trust me, it'll come in handy later.

One word

[Micro$will]

Hookers

or Call Girls if you prefer the luxury of your hotel to the back seat of a rental car.

Wha???

[GuyMannDude]

I'm your average geek, with normal social skills...

Um, don't those two statements contradict each other?

GMD

Hookup with a Local Chick.

[saden1]

Dude do the "hi, I'm out of town, can you show me around" routine. If you can't do that then keep doing what you do best, spanking it.

Dude, it sounds like you need to...

[thunker]

...read the following books:
Girls In A Nutshell
Life for Dummies
Idiots Guide To Living With Humans

Re:Dude, it sounds like you need to...

[sirsampson]

Parent gets Flamebait, hmm. This one must have hit too close to home.

Re:I thought geeks didn't like cliques

[Drakin]

I said a cable, not a telephone trunk line!

what you talking bout

[Anonymous Coward]

what is this "friends"?

hold up... ...what is this "free time"?

your post both frightens and intrigues me.

Ideas from a movie:

[Finni]

You ever see In the Company of Men?

You're asking Slashdot

[suricatta]

for social advice? Are you insane?