Lemmkins, if I were you I would either go out a lot to the same place (I found the library helpful) and get to know the people there a bit and let them get to know you or I would got to lots of different places a lot and kind of "swamp" yourself with interaction.

You have to either "get over" that people are thinking badly about you by getting to know some and interact with the same ones so you can check out what they're thinking, see them smile and gladly help you, etc. or have so much to "do" with visiting that you don't have time to worry; kind of distract yourself, and get over that habit. Start small and think of 3-4 places to shop or window-shop each day or friends to call and go do stuff with, etc. Another thing I did (was afraid to talk on the phone) was call a couple of places and ask did they have a specific thing I wanted or restaurants and what time they opened or if they took reservations, etc. and grandually got more use to talking to people (and "hearing" what they said to me, that was hard for me). Decide to find out 3 things about the grocery store checkout woman and concentrate on those instead of what she is thinking of you; (1) what does she think of the weather :-) (2) is she nearly finished her shift/what time does her shift go to (3) some comment about an item you're buying (I have two cats so often I can talk/ask about pets).

The "world" is the only classroom we have so please don't skip class by staying home. Think of a few different things to try to give you other things to think about besides how you did or to distract you?