Meetup at the Color Run

Making friends as an adult is definitely difficult, but not entirely impossible. The two places that most people make friends are at school and at work. Unfortunately for me, I have neither of those at the moment. I’m still unemployed, and I’m not yet enrolled in Danish classes. Therefore, I get asked how I’m managing to make friends in Copenhagen. To be honest, I’m finding friends the same way that I found my wonderful boyfriend.

I get by with little help from the internet.

Meetup.com is seriously one of the greatest things to happen to my social life. I used the site back in Philadelphia, and I met a lot of interesting people through it. A few of whom have become great friends of mine. As a result, when I decided to move to Copenhagen, the first thing I did was see if Meetup existed in Denmark. I was extraordinarily pleased to find that it is indeed a thing here.

If you’re not familiar with Meetup, I highly recommend it. It’s a really great way to connect with people when you are brand new in a big city or just looking to expand your social circle. Also, it’s incredibly simple to use. Once you sign up, you can start joining groups based on your interests, and the groups have events listed for its members (in English). You simply RSVP to an event and then go meet people who are most likely in the same boat as you.

A few weeks before I left for Denmark, I joined a few Meetup groups. One was for women in their 20s and 30s, and they just so happened to have an event for girls who relocated to the area to be with their Danish partners. The event was scheduled in October (3 days after I was supposed to arrive). Naturally, I signed up immediately. When the day finally came, I was still painfully jet lagged, but I forced myself to go be social. My boyfriend dropped me off since I had no idea how to navigate the city on my own, and I grabbed a drink with 11 other ladies who also came to Copenhagen for love. It was really nice to be surrounded by other girls in my exact situation. Right from the start, I knew that I wasn’t alone here. As an added bonus, I kept in touch with a few of the girls I met that night, and now I consider them good friends.

This past weekend, I attended an event that I (barely) coordinated. I suggested to M, one of the event organizers, that we should get a group of girls together for the Color Run, and she took the idea and ran with it (pun intended). Before I knew it, 12 other girls had signed up to run the 5k with us, and last Sunday we all finally gathered together for the race. We had a blast as we got coated with colored powder along the course. By the end, we were human rainbows.

I was lucky enough to spend Sunday with a wonderful group of girls. We ran, we danced, and we took a ridiculous amount of pictures. Meetup made all of it possible. I’m definitely glad I decided to join, and I’m looking forward to organizing/signing up for more events. If I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s that great memories are made with great friends. Even in my short time in Copenhagen, I have made amazing memories, and I’m excited to make even more.