Newcomers -- how do you develop a network of friends?

[kittymama]

I don't know how good this group is as I've only located them in my preliminary search, but I plan on checking them out as soon as I get to TX, if Austin (my first choice) is the city we end up in:

Austin Newcomers

It looks like they get together and meet other people who are new to the area and even have stuff divided up by interest.

[shaxs]

Well, for us it was finding a good church.

[ILikeSmartHippies]

Originally Posted by NC_newcomer

How do you build a sense of connectedness, of place? How do you find "buddies?"

Families with kids immediately integrate into "kid-net" via school, soccer, etc. If relevant, you could be a bar-hopper, or join a church. Not my bag. I"m likely to spend Sunday morning sitting in a coffee shop reading papers.

you could try talking to people in the coffee shop who are also reading papers. which is what you said you enjoy doing. most likely you would have something in common with people doing the same thing you are ALREADY doing. As opposed to creating some artificial hobby that you only somewhat-enjoy doing, but are doing solely for the purposes of meeting opposite-sex people. (Like the stereotype about a guy who joins a dog-walking organization just to meet the girls also walking dogs)

sounds to me that texas is in general a long-mellow-conversation-friendly place. which means it should be quite normal to talk to the other people in the coffee shop. especially the hotties. or the random guys reading interesting looking books, for "buddies". It is "commonality" (shared interests with others) which builds this "sense of connectedness".

being in a chatty mood helps as well.