Finding new friends is easy, right?

Before I came to Wales I did not have a plan or, if you will, a procedure in mind to get to know people and make new friends. I now realize I should have thought of ways and channels I might use to make new friends. For in these last three to four weeks I have tried quite a few things and I have yet to form a group with whom to do nice things outside of the convention of meeting (classes or training).

To start off I wasn’t that concerned in the first week as I was still busy studying and finishing exams and an assignment from my home university. So in the second week I started going to the fencing club’s training sessions and I placed a few posts on facebook that were basically a shout for attention. “Is there anybody out there that might want to have a nice time with me?” During the training sessions I communicate and am overall nice, but I am still me (a “bit” shy in new situations). Even during the pub sessions afterwards (and yes I still limit my alcohol consumption) I mostly listen and rarely speak out. And logically if you want to make a lasting impression (good or bad :P ) you need to speak up. So I made it a point to talk at least about some things to some people during each drink and that proved to be easy practice, but I’m not yet at that point where I make group statements.

So what happened with the facebook posts? Well after almost three weeks of communication with two girls I have had up to date only one outing initiated by a Norwegian girl called Kristine. During this outing I met some people of whom I liked less than half, half as well as I could and probably half of them half as well as they deserve. The latter group I would like to see again obviously to see if we can find some more things to talk about. And on that note I have another opportunity on Wednesday night. The series of messaging I have been engrossed in with the other girl (Solène from France) has yet to result in a get-together and from the posts I read the signs that it might just be this Saturday.

At the beginning of last week (the week of February the tenth) I was of the opinion that things were still going too slow. So I placed a few more posts including one asking who was interested in a game of monopoly at the graduate center. No replies though up till now. But I refused to give up. After speaking with my house Orient roomies I pinpointed two more sources I had yet to explore. The Erasmus network for events to go to and doing some more research into what associations and clubs are part of the Cardiff Student Union. There might be other clubs that are more centered round the principle of being together as, let’s be honest, individual sports do not center on the same principle. After about an hour of searching I found RAWSoc. Being the equivalent of Twente’s Belletrie (club for books and games), although without the books, RAWSoc provides the opportunity to play all kinds of games with other people. And let’s face it during a game night there is more than ample opportunity to get to know people (likes and dislikes) and have a lot of fun besides. And so I will set out later on the evening of February the 18th to play games and meet people.

Wish me luck!