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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
and start stockpiling the pornography now. Trust me, it'll come in handy later.
Hookers
or Call Girls if you prefer the luxury of your hotel to the back seat of a rental car.
You should have said where you were being sent. There's probably a /.er living there or close by.
For the rest of it, if you're religious, find the closet church and go the first sunday you're there. They'll love you.
Other then that, figure out what interests you, and try googling for "interest and city and state" or something.
Karma: Food Fight (Mostly affected by Date Plate).
I'm your average geek, with normal social skills...
Um, don't those two statements contradict each other?
GMD
watch this
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.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
I'm not sure why you needed to ask *us* to know that.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I was working in Africa last summer and found that for me the best way to meet people was by joining the local Hash House Harriers. I won't get into too much detail, but it basically bills itself as "a drinking club with a running problem." The runs were typically on farms and in the woods just outside of the city where I was staying and the landscapes were beautiful. Plus, the runnning was good and the beer was insanely cheap. :-)
You didn't really give any details about where you're going, but if it's anywhere internationally, chances are there's a local HHH. It's got a lot to do with the whole ex-patriot community.
-Gameboy, Lusaka HHH
I said a cable, not a telephone trunk line!
Parent gets Flamebait, hmm. This one must have hit too close to home.
Walking. This is a wonderful activity.
Walk around. Talk to people. Ask them questions.
Exercise. "Street level" social/cultural interactions. It's all there. Just get up and go. You'll find people with interests that will keep you busy. Coffee shops. Book stores. The street corner. Make random friends. Exchange numbers. Get together next Tuesday here or there. Talk more. Get introduced to friends, friends of friends, etc.
Ask. Ask. Ask. And you shall learn.
You ever see In the Company of Men?
for social advice? Are you insane?