I just moved to Central Orlando, how do I meet people aorund here?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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About two months ago, I moved to Central Orlando from Brevard county. I’m really loving my new home. People are passionate, it’s run by guys and gals around my age, and there’s stuff to do everywhere. It’s a step up from my last home, Brevard County, in every way.

Now I’d like to make some friends. My luck in doing this in the past has been horrible beyond description, but I’m in a new county now and would like to try again. Given the greater diversity and kinds of businesses here, finding people with similiar interests should be easier. I’m nineteen year old guy, and consider myself a movie buff, like literature, love italian food, and play videogames whever I get the time and have good pretty taste in every interest I think is worthy my time, and even those that aren’t. What’s there to do around here? What are the best hangouts? How do I meet people around here?

I’d also appreciate it if someone could point me in the direction of anyplace that sells a killer Cuban sammich. Mmmm :slight_smile: .

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Are you working in the area? Start with your co-workers, chat up the people in your apartment complex/subdivision, and go from there.

Welcome!

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Central Florida is a big area, are you in Orlando or near Universal?

I never got into the night life, but my suggestion is City Walk at Universal, or Downtown Disney’s The Island :slight_smile: if that’s what you’re looking for.

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I live off of University Boulivard, and work as a bussboy at a resteraunt.

I’m going to start making steps to become friends with my coworkers. They all meet at another resteraunt at closing time…only reason I haven’t done this yet is because A) I’m trying to stick to a healthy diet and finally rid myself of flab, and B) Resteraunt food is expensive. I’m going to hang out after our work hours anyways though at whatever the cost, but I still need a back up plan in case nothing pans out with them.

The night life isn’t really what I’m looking for, but I’m going to take a visit down anyways and try to prove myself wrong within the next two weeks or so.

Anything other tips?

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I would be somewhat weary of trying to meet people at Universal or Disney because, frankly, they’re some of the largest tourist destinations in the world. Great way to meet people - not so great to meet people who won’t be leaving you again in two days.

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You might have a better chance of meeting people (especially around your age) if you hang out at places around UCF or Rollins College – maybe coffeehouses, things of that nature. I see gorgeous college girls around Orlando all the time, which depresses the hell out of me now that I’m practically 10 years older than some of them. I know for a fact that restaurant people party really hard – everyone takes home cash every night, so these are folks who stay up late, hooking up, drinking, often drugs. If that sounds like fun, you’re already ahead of the game – most of the restaurant people I’ve known fall into that crowd. If not, it’s great to be friendly with everyone, but you might want to look elsewhere for a social scene.

If you like to see live music, there are always bands coming through House of Blues (at Downtown Disney), Hard Rock Live (Universal Citywalk), and the Social and the Backbooth, two downtown clubs. I’m not an expert on the local music scene, but plenty of well-known acts pass through here all the time… the Raveonettes are playing at the Social a week from Saturday, and I know Rilo Kiley, Reverend Horton Heat, and Weezer are all going to play Orlando gigs between May and July, if you like any of them. Park Avenue CDs is the best music store in town, located right across from Rollins College in upscale Winter Park, and there are always flyers for shows and indie-hipster kids hanging out around there, if that’s your scene.

Otherwise, the central public library in downtown Orlando is huge and very nice. There are plenty of movie theaters around town – the Pleasure Island/Downtown Disney 24-screen AMC might be my favorite. If you read comic books (not many people do, but I do), there are several terrific comic stores around the Orlando area. Obviously there are lots of restaurants, and some of them are quite good, but you’re wisely avoiding those. I can make recommendations if you want.

Another cool area is “Little Saigon,” the Vietnamese area along Colonial Drive (State Road 50) between Bumby and Mills, right around there. Tons of cool, exotic, exciting-looking Vietnamese and other Asian restaurants, supermarkets, gift shops, video stores, things of that nature. I’ve explored a bit around there, and it’s a lot of fun browsing through the stores and treating yourself to weird new snacks. I will have to recommend the Bahn Mi, a Vietnamese sub sandwich sold at the huge supermarket on Colonial right near the Publix–I forget the name of the place. But it’s only $2, fragrant and exotic and delicious.

Other than that, try posting a profile on http://www.myspace.com or http://www.okcupid.com , and try to meet more local people that way! Have fun. I lived most of my life in Miami (which I hated) aside from seven years in Gainesville (which I liked for the most part), but so far I’m really enjoying my time in the Orlando area. I only moved up here on Thanksgiving, so I’m discovering new things all the time.

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You might also try a couple of the “networking” groups that operate around here. They’re always having networking lunches and happy hours and the purpose is to go, meet people, promote your business and basically make contacts.

I’m not affiliated in any way with either of these organizations so I hope it’s OK to post a link. Orlando Connections
and SoSocial Both good ways to meet young professional people.

Now, the above suggestion is coming from someone who’s old enought to be your mother :slight_smile: . My daughter, who is 18, likes to hang out on MySpace. Weekends are spent hanging out downtown, Orange Avenue/Church Street area where the dance clubs are.

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OK and about that local music scene.

Definitely check out the Peacock Room on Mills, Club Swank also on Mills, The Copper Rocket Pub on Lake Avenue in Maitland, and Fiddler’s Green on Fairbanks in Winter Park which is the major Rollins College Hang Out.

There’s also Natura Coffee and Tea on University near UCF which has live music and a jam session on Wednesdays.

Also, Wills on Mills which is a pub that caters to original music.

That’s just a little bit of what’s going on with live music. Check out Orlando Weekly is the free newspaper that will have info on who’s playing where and what’s going on.

I’ll talk to my daughter and see if she’s got any suggestions.

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I’m young and looking for crazy times wherever they may be, but I’m not an abuser of drugs. I think I’ll enjoy partying with my coworkers if and when they invite me out. They’re cool people.

The whole “live music scene” is a great idea. I’m not very much into music, but many people who are tend to be interested in other forms of entertainment and art. Cafe’s are a good place to hang out too, but so far I only know the location of one: Natura Coffee and Tea, which I checked out today because of Velvet Jone’s reccomendation. Very cool place. They had live music tonight, but it was hip hop and rap, which I don’t really care for, and even if I did I still wouldn’t have stuck around for long since the place was dead. Still, they had good prices and reading material, as well as board games. I’ll be going back again, and probably often. While there I picked up a copy of Orlando Weekly, which had a blurb about Hitchock’s The Birds playing on an outdoor movie screen at Lake Eola. Free admission too. I’m so going to try to catch that :cool: .

I remember being driven through Little Saigon sometime back. I’d really like to go back and explore with some money. I’d love to try some authentic ramen. You know what Big Bad Voodoo Lou? Go ahead and reccomend some resteraunts. Me and my sister eat out every now and then, and are always up for something new. Besides, I took pride knowing about all the cool mom and pop places back in Brevard. I don’t have the money to send my diet spiraling to hell quite frankly, so reccomend away. I’ll check out Bahn Mi next time I’m in that part of town. The name of the resteraunt now resides in my wallet.

I’ve already got a OkCupid.com profile, and will check out Myspace.com later. I haven gotten too much attention from anyone on OKCupid, so I’ll probably have to pick up the slack and take some initative. Since I’m new to peddling myself on dating sites, critiques for my profile are very welcome…Also, can anyone tell me how to put a space between two paragraphs? The site won’t let me do that in my profile for some reason.

Thanks, but I’m not really looking for business partners, just people to hang out with. Are you sure this is something I could use?

Everything here has been noted. Thanks! :slight_smile:

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Still, doesn’t sound like a bad place to excersice my waning social skills.

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JoeSki, type <p> after the last sentence of the intended paragraph in your OkCupid profile, and it will make a break there to separate the paragraphs.

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Thanks a bunch Harimad. That should make things easier to read.

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You’re welcome.

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Well, the networking thing is both business and social so you may meet people but I’m afraid they may be a bit older than you. I think it tends to be the 30 and over crown so maybe that’s not a good idea.

I talked to my daughter briefly and she said that MySpace was “the shit”. So have fun with that when you get a chance. (I’m resisting the urge to play matchmaker here)

Glad you found Natura. They’ve always got something and it’s always different. I know there’s a jazz jam on wednesdays and the other music changes quite a bit.

I went to Club Swank on Friday. They had some kid supposed to be playing music. They said he went on at 10:00, we left at 11:15 and he was still dicking around with his gear. The live music scene tends to be late (but usually not that late). Things don’t start to get hopping until well after 10:00 downtown and elsewhere. You can hit a club at 10 and it’ll be dead and by midnight it’s completely packed. Many of the dance clubs stay open until 3:00 though they have to stop selling liquor at 2:00.

Hope you have some luck meeting people. Have fun!

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Oh, definitely. It might give you the opportunity to go out on that limb that you’re always afraid to go out on because you’ll likely never see most of these people ever again. If you say or do something wrong …who cares?

16

I lived in Orlando for a few years, and found it very difficult to meet people. Unlike you, though, I was in my mid-30s, and outlets that are available for younger people, such as bars and coffeehouses, become less friendly to those nearing middle age. Another roadblock was my location; I lived in Ocoee, which is located in the western suburbs, while most young professionals lived in Orlando proper or the northern suburbs. Even if I met someone while I was out wandering alone, mention of my west Orange County address would usually send them running.

If I was your age, I’d be looking at second job where you’ll have an abundance of young co-workers. That may mean the attractions; Disney, Universal Studios, or one of the larger resorts. There’s a great dog park in Winter Park where people are friendly and sociable (except those with Australian Shepherds and Blue Heelers; what’s the deal with them?).