Just call people and talk to them, then you can get a read on their inflections etc, ask if it is ok to chat for five minutes. Don't just blast out IM's.
Learn to play tennis. Take some lessons, don't worry if you are not very good. I guarantee you will meet someone, guy or girl. It is a great social activity that you can't do alone.
DC is a fantastic place to walk, especially in the spring and fall. I lived in a crystal city apartment for a year , it has a fun restaurant area on 23rd. Amazon is setting up there, it has subway and train access. They are building a pedestrian walkway to the airport, it has a great future. You are a mile from the airport but not much noise as they come over the river.
The USA is not short of labor it is short of trained labor especially in the trades and hospitality industries. Illegal immigration in the last decade decimated participation in those industries and many people turned to drugs and made themselves unemployable. College level training is excellent but hands on training especially at the community college level needs to be revamped. The USA issues over one million green cards per year far more than any where else.
This is not what I hear. It is a golden age for women, they can have lots of kids or none, up to them, that is a great thing. Everywhere you go is far more crowded than 30 years ago, Europeans and people from South East Asia are very aware of that. People want to have fewer kids and educate those kids more. Climate change is important but not a direct factor.
Not to be mean, but he has worked in the US for 30 years and does not have a 401(k)? He says he can not live on social security alone, so he has not saved a dime? I could understand it from a manual laborer, but from someone in a profession where research skills are critical?
We have lots of people on earth, they just need to be able to move to where they want to go. Low birthrate issue is nonsense. Let a couple million people from the Philippines in to Korea problem solved.
In Canada there is no 30 year fixed product. Most people float month to month. Since interest rates have been dropping since 2002 prices will go up. Australia is very similar.
Resource extraction industries in Canada will always take a bulk of the engineering talent, that is where the money is. Venture capital for mining is well established in Canada. As for real estate, everyone uses floating mortgages, so prices will stay high until interest rates go up.
Salaries in Canada are structured differently. Because taxes on income over $80,000 a year are very high, deferred compensation such as pensions and real estate gains are more important. Barter or cash jobs are another important source of income. Americans would never tolerate the rationing that Canadians go through for health care.