Getting used to a new city - and to me, Auckland is a new city - means getting up, getting out, and meeting new people. I'm not too bad at doing that if I'm feeling relatively okay. When I know one or two people at a gathering, I'm surprisingly worse at it; tending to stick with people I know and not meet any new ones. That's the safe (introvert's) path I guess, but it doesn't get me very far when my goal is to expand my circle of aquaintences. It was like at Web Meetup last month - stuck close to Priya and Gully, who I'd met at Webstock 2011 - and meet up with their mates who I'd met at Webstock 2012.
So it's best when I'm alone and need to talk to the people at the gathering, and that's what I did today.
I found out about The Big Draw by way of meetup.com and RSVP'd. I nearly chickened out of going, not that I was terribly nervous, but just enough that it would have been easy to bail. But I didn't and I'm glad, I had a good time, and the people were nice.
We all met at 12:30pm at the Britomart lawn, and then sketched our way around the precinct, regathering for a show/tell at 3pm. It was great seeing everyone's work. It's not easy to show one's work at the best of times, and especially after working on it in unfamiliar and often unsteady circumstances. But all of us brought a new perspective of the area to the impromptu group-exhibit - and took a photo to celebrate.
