

 How do you manage yourself in a new city or country? - BANSAL

If you visit a new city or country, how do you manage to get familiar about that new city or country. List the ways you prefer to get familiar with that place prior to leave, including google ;)
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ritonlajoie
When I went to canada for 6 months, I started lurking on couchsurfing.com even
if I didn't need. Just to meet people. I met one good friend here, and I met
her many times over here, and once in my country !

edit: for Canada I also lurked a LOT on a special french website that is , in
fact, like a giant forum with all related stuff to get there and live here. It
helped me a lot (sorry I don't remember the website).

For India where I spent a year, I went with guys from my school so, I was not
alone but we met people there that we contacted from the net. France (and
maybe other people) have 'Alliance Française' in many country. It's a small
organization run by France Gov which is here to help french guys abroad and
give french lessons for foreigners. Many 'expatriate' blogs and website refer
to this alliance française. So mainly I would say, there are like 2/3 major
websites for foreigners (in specific countries) and most people meet from
these blogs.

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BANSAL
A nice site indeed, I personally not happy with the UI, can be much more
sophisticated as users views regarding a particular couch. But over all a nice
non profit service.

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ashedryden
Are you talking travel or moving?

Moving: I find I do a lot of research online first. I look at the areas of the
city that tend to be younger and vegan friendly. I try to find tech
meetups/groups as a way to meet new people, get friends, and make business
contacts. I explore a lot. Try new restaurants and businesses regularly, go
out of my way to meet new people.

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BANSAL
Actually I am talking in both of the case. In case of travel we generally take
help of google or any of our friends, relative familiar with that place. But
the process is really time consuming. I am seeking for a one place solution
which can provide nice and relevant information regarding that place. As you
replied in case of moving, when we have some narrow timeliness for our work
then above solution is like a fail. but practically most of us like to go with
this way only.

