meeting friends

I am located near Heidelberg. I live here part time with my boyfriend who is German (roughly half the year), I am Canadian. I find the language barrier and cultural differences quite difficult. I find myself feeling quite isolated and want to try and reach out more to the greater community. I've tried taking some fitness classes and contacting social groups like UNICEF and a local environmental group but I really didn't get any positive replies. I am struggling to find my niche here. I have my own online Canadian business which I do while in Germany so I am occupied with work but after hours I would like to have a bit of my own life outside of my boyfriends. At home I have a full life including many friends, family a wonderful cat and a great apartment I love to spend time in. When I'm here I really feel my only outlet is reading - and after being on the computer all day my poor eyes hate me for reading all night. I've taken up cooking and some other solitary activities but would love to meet some new friends to explore the local area with. My boyfriends German friends are very kind and they make an effort to speak English to include me but often the slink back into their native tongue and I feel left out and not really able to connect. Perhaps someone could suggest some group or league that I could participate in where I will find some english speaking people. I am learning German slowly but it will be quite a while before I feel capable of having a real conversation.

Hi Christy,

Being in a new country is always isolating. Have you considered picking up the same hobbies you used to have? For example, joining a gym, volunteering for an English-language entertainment paper, or whatever you used to do in Canada also? Another thing you might consider is enrolling in a German language class -- not just to learn German, but because this is a great way to meet other people who are also just as unsure about speaking German as you; it helps to feel less isolated and also provides some kind of a yardstick by which to measure your progress in the language.

Good luck; I'll also be in Frankfurt from Dec. 10 to Jan. 6 for a visit, so if you happen to be in the neighbourhood and would like to meet up, I'd be happy to do so.

C.
(cynf09@yahoo.ca)

C:

Thanks for your email. I have tried to contact about 5 different social justice/environmental groups with no response. I've also tried horse back riding here at a few stables, without really finding the right place. I guess it is just a matter of keeping my chin up and trying to work on my lifestyle here. My boyfriend and I recently found a gym that looks promising and is a 20 minute train ride so I may try that. I was thinking of getting a tutor for German because I am not here long enough to really be in an official course. I go back and forth from here to Canada every 6 weeks or so.

I will be back in Canada during your visit to Frankfurt, the I will return mid January or so. Thanks for the offer to meet up. Perhaps our schedules will mesh in the future.

I have been getting an online e-mail german newsletter that keeps me aprised as to what is going on this country in English so that has been helpful to teach me new things and keep me orientated. If you have any german websites that might be interesting to me as an English living here I'd love to hear about them.

My biggest source of pleasure while I'm here aside from the beauty of the country is watching DVDs of Star Trek and reading - our apartment looks like a library. I need to find some other sources of inspiration ...smile.

take care, Christy

I lived in Germany off and on for about two years and yeah, it was tough sometimes

Mind you, I was a young single guy and I tried to treat every day like an adventure. Which helped, because I ended up meeting a lot of people, noth German and non. Also the company where I worked everyone spoke english and some were american.

Also, I lived in Frankfurt so within a few hours train ride I could be in France, Netherlands, Switzerland..And so I made a point of getting away one weekend a month and checking out something different.

My outlet was my mountain bike that I brought with me. I'd spend a couple hours almost every night after work just biking around the hills to all the little towns.

Just keep yourself occupied Have you looked at just learning some German online? I found it was pretty easy to pick up for the most part, lots of similarities to English.

Good luck!

We live in Heidelberg if you want some one to talk to. I am English Canadian and my wife is German. Drop me a line and we can get together.

Hi, I live in Heidelberg too, for about a year now. I'm interested in meeting people too, I'm 29. Maybe we can meet.

We will be in the Irish pub called the Dubliner on Saturday Feb 13 It is in the Fussgang zone about half way up on the left hand side if your interested in meeting up.Will be there from 6.30 onwards

It's good to see some people meeting up. I do have a suggestion for making some local German connections. What about learning sign language? The talking would be minimal and everyone in the room would be in the same boat with respect to learning the language. I signed up for a class in Scotland, and while we are all able to speak English, we don't get to do much talking with our mouths.

all right, i think I'll come, I'll be wearing a black jacket, my name is Tina, what is yours?

My name is David and my wifes is Andrea.I will wear my Roots sweatshirt and Maple Leafs hat.You wont miss it!!!
Hopefully see you there.