Making friends in a new city easier than ever

In a dimly lit funky coffee shop met 12 members of a social group. Light conversation passed around the long table. Questions of originality were thrown and tension between newly met strangers faded away as the music and the sound of conversation got louder. 

Friendships and love stories started here on this exact same table last year. Warm smiles and cold drinks were the theme of the event. The light above the table flickered every now and then, but it went unnoticed.

The cold weather outside long forgotten. This is what this group is all about, breaking the ice and leaving the worry of moving somewhere new behind. 

Ottawa Newcomers Social Club is a group on a website called Meetup. Fabian Jacobo Cuevas, 33, organized a meet up for people who are new to Ottawa for the purpose of helping them make friends and having a good time.

“It’s one of the few things that I can do to my community in a way. It’s not big but it is something at least,” said Cuevas.

Meetup is a website/App that helps likeminded people -as the name suggests- meet and talk or do a certain hobby or activity together.

According to the website, the way Meetup works is by going through three steps. Choosing what you’re into, meeting people in your area who share your passion and doing more of what makes you ‘tick.’

A few years ago, Cuevas moved to Mexico City and he did not know anyone except some family members. He started looking for meetup groups to rid him of his boredom. “I did not really have many friends. I had family there but it’s not the same thing hanging out with your aunts.”

Experiencing what those meetups helped him through, he decided to do something similar for his own community in Feb. 2019 when he moved back to Ottawa.

Ottawa Newcomers Social Club now has over 900 members. For Today’s event on Thursday Jan. 16. 12 members aged 21 up to 50 showed up for the meeting at The Ministry of Coffee, downtown.

The event had a maximum capacity of 20 members said Cuevas as the coffee shop ‘probably’ won’t hold a reservation for more than 20 people. Even though this place has been Cuevas’s go to for the first official meetup, he is looking for alternatives for the sole purpose of being able to have more people join the conversation.

“People ended up living together and travelling together it’s like the best thing ever. That is really the reason to do this sort of thing,” said Cuevas.

James Marchena Romero, 21, has been in Ottawa for two years. He joined the social club to practice his conversational skills and to advance his ‘adaptability’ to other people.

“It is a good practice session to get out there and to meet people and kind of explore your own strengths and weakness.”

Rick Chin, 38, moved back to Ottawa in Sept. 2017 to be closer to his partner, Robbie’s, family.

He joined Meetup many years ago when he moved out west. He has been to a few meetups there and met people. Then he decided to look around again once he got back to Ottawa.

“I figured it’s a new decade lets meet some new people and come out to a meetup.”