Meetup.com is a pretty effective way to meet with people who also want to form social circles. As are sports meets, such as cycling groups. And maybe the best of all is volunteerism. Sign up to volunteer for something you think is worthwhile and you'll make new friends lightning fast.

Thanks for the advice, definitely appreciated !

I was in the same boat as you (moved from Canada to LA by myself). You have the right idea with yoga and cooking classes. I highly recommend a social dance class too. I've been doing salsa dancing for about 6 months now and it's a great way to meet new friends, especially those of the opposite gender. It's also nice to surround yourself with non-engineers too. Since you dance with everyone in the class you end up talking to everyone, unlike yoga (which I also love doing) where people tend to just get up and leave.

I was a hopeless dancer to start but after you go for about a month you get a hang of it. The only thing I regret was not joining sooner.

Thanks !

I am at the hopeless dancer step too, so it might be hard at first but it could be a fun (if embarassing) challenge !

I am fond of telling people that I have danced on six continents and that I'm actually a horrible dancer. That doesn't stop me from dancing, however. I will get out on the floor, in the middle of a circle in the desert, around a fire in a field, etc... I just get out there and wiggle with the music.

I don't even care if I can't dance. I care that I try and I care that I enjoy it. So, I've poorly danced on your continent, quite probably. Life is short, so I dance with passion and not with skill.

Which continent are you missing? I went to a dance party in Antarctica (Freezing Man, 2016). It was strange, but a lot of fun. There were a lot of balloons, and due to the dryness, they clung to my beard very well. Unless I moved my head too much.

haha

As long as you enjoy doing it, it does not matter what your skill level is :)

I don't really enjoy the experience so far but it might come with a bit more skill.

One of my favorites was dancing wildly around a fire in Somalia. We didn't even share much of a language and the alcoholic beverages where some horrific concoction whose only saving grace was that it was efficiently effective.

Ah, but we danced. People even put aside their firearms to dance. I don't know what we were celebrating, but celebrating is what we did.

As near as I can tell, there were no specific dance moves and, every once in a while, you'd be pushed into the center of a circle of dancers. Once in the center, it was your chance to shine. Just let go of your inhibitions and move as the music moves you.

Somewhere, there is video of this episode. I've shown it to the missus, we weren't together at the time. She's concluded that my dance reminds her of the mating ritual of the blue-footed booby but sped up by a factor of ten.

I'm reluctant to tell people what they should do, so I will say that dancing like nobody is watching (even if they are) is a great release.