I've lived in both foreign cities and my hometown, and managed to befriend strangers in each. Here are 3 things I've learned about making new friends as an adult.

• I currently live in Glasgow, Scotland, but have also spent time in London and the US.
• I've made friends in the most unlikely of places, including recently, on a random city bench.

These days, I seem to make friends wherever I go, but this wasn't always the case.

I grew up in a small town outside Glasgow, Scotland, where I had my twin sister, Aimee, by my side for most of my childhood and adolescence. I didn't have to try very hard to make friends, because I was always with my sister. Meeting strangers is something I never had to do on my own.

But that changed when I became an adult, and I didn't have Aimee to lean on. A couple of years into my degree at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, I had the opportunity to spend a four-month exchange semester in Pennsylvania, where I knew nobody. Then, after graduating in 2018, I packed up my life and moved to London for work, where I also didn't know a soul. These experiences helped break me out of my comfort zone, particularly when it came to befriending strangers.

I moved back to Glasgow in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And even though I'm now in a city where many of my childhood friends reside, I've continued to use the skills I've learned to meet new people. Here are some of the most important things I've learned about befriending strangers, whether in a foreign city or in your hometown.

You have to treat it the same way you'd treat dating

I've made friends in some of the most unlikely places, from a rock-climbing course in Pennsylvania to a concert in Scotland.

And the most important lesson I've learned is that you should treat making friends the same way you would treat dating. You have to be open to meeting people where you'd least expect to. And then when you do meet them, it's about taking a leap of faith and having an open mind.

Last summer, I met a woman named Anshu while sitting on a bench in George Square in Glasgow. We were both reading our respective books, when a woman approached us and asked if we wanted free ice cream. We politely declined.

After the woman left, Anshu turned to me.

"Does that usually happen in Glasgow?" she asked.

I laughed and told her no — but rather than stop the conversation there, I asked how long she had been in Glasgow. Anshu told me she's from India, and had just moved to Glasgow after previously relocating to London in 2019. That's all the information I required to give her my phone number, and I told her to let me know if she wanted to meet up sometime.

When I walked home, it dawned on me that I might have come across rather forward. What if she thought I was weird? What if she never texted?

I didn't have to worry though, as Anshu texted me a couple of days later. After meeting up a couple of times, I introduced her to my friend group. Now, we're very close, and we spend our weekends meeting up in coffee shops, bars, or at each other's apartments. None of our friends can imagine not having her around.

Everyone should live with strangers at least once in their life

Of course, I understand that befriending strangers on a random city bench doesn't work for everyone. One alternative suggestion I have is to live with strangers in a shared apartment, which was helpful for me when I lived away from home.

The first time I lived with strangers was during my semester abroad in 2016. I became fast friends with my roommates, as well as the other people who lived on my floor — many of whom I still keep in contact with to this day.

When I moved to London a few years later, living alone was an expense I couldn't afford. But due to the positive experience I had in the US, I had an open mind when it came to having roommates.

I ended up finding a room to rent in Shoreditch, East London, on SpareRoom, where I lived with two women who were a similar age to me. We got along extremely well, and I found myself spending more and more time with them after work and over the weekends.

Although I decided to leave London due to the pandemic, we still stay in touch. One of my former roommates, Cécile, has even come to visit me in Scotland, and we still speak on the phone regularly.

Join a local club, or if there are no clubs in your area, create one

Equally, I can understand if living with strangers is not your thing, or if you've heard too many roommate horror stories that make you want to live alone forever.

But even if you don't have roommates, that doesn't mean you can't get to know your neighbors.

I moved in with my partner in an apartment in Glasgow last year, and this year we relocated to another apartment just outside the city center. We've been here for a few weeks now, and I loved it instantly. The only thing that could make it better, I decided, is if I could make friends with my neighbors.

Luckily, there's already a Facebook group for residents of my building, so I used that to ask if anyone would be interested in joining a book group. There were at least a dozen responses from people of all ages and backgrounds.

We had our first meeting last week, so it's too early to tell if anyone from the group will become a lifelong friend. But sometimes, that's not even the point. It's about having the ability to put yourself out there — so that when the right person comes along, you won't be afraid to make the first move.