Hi Christoph,
Pretty broad request...
What kind of budget do you have for housing and what area will you be working in? Also, do you like city living or want to be away from it all at the weekend? This will help people provide you with some recommendations.
Meeting people? Depending on what you do you will probably meet people through work. Also, there are lots of events that get posted on this site that you can go to and meet people. I have never been myself as too much of a scaredycat but I hear they are a friendly bunch and lots of people have made friends.
Anyway, let us know so we can reply with some useful info for you.