Bloom Where You're Planted

To put a leash on my pre-relocation excitement I spent an incredibly large amount of time surfing the interwebs for Hamburg's finest eateries and attractions. I soon found myself with a list longer than our plane ride and a slight sense of horror. Yikes. This city is much bigger than what I'm used to. Nevertheless, I hit the ground running when we got here and through fits of confusion due to being frequently lost I started to make my way around Hamburg. Prior to starting teaching I had plenty of time to research and prioritize my laundry list of things to do in this big ole city--some weeks I was able to visit a new cafe each day of the week for lunch and I was l-o-v-ing every second of it.

Soon after I started teaching at Seedlings and privately, my schedule no longer allowed for such luxuriously lazy days. (Horrible, I know). Because of this, whenever I set dates with friends I always had puh-lenty of suggestions regarding where we should go. It happened to be that one of these lovely lumching ladies was Brenda, the in-coming President of the American Women's Club of Hamburg. Brenda just happened to be scoping out potential new Board members, and a new Activities Coordinator was on the slate of openings. I was surprised when she asked me, a brand new member, and equally surprised at the volume and shriekiness of my YESSS I'll do it!!

Last week this year's AWC Board was unanimously voted in at a lovely meeting at the US Consulate Office. We're really good with team effort jobs already so I have faith we'll do some good around here in 2011--and have a heck of a time doing it.

These sweets come from Sweet Dreams, a bakery so awesome that they don't even have set business hours. They just open when they've got things to sell and close when they don't. On any given Saturday you can expect to wait in a looooong line before you get your paws on some pastries.

To raise money for one of our club charities we had a very successful auction. I spotted this gem, created by a fellow member, and made SURE I went home with it at the end of the day.

My first event was a group dinner at a mod and super chic restaurant called The Meatery. We were in search of a good burger and we found about 20 of them, plus a variety of other deliciousness. Success!

Pre-guests, of course. Really--people did come!

The bathroom totally deserves some recognition.

The AWC strives to help new HH residents bloom where they're planted. I loved this motto when I first heard it and now, fully immersed in this new Hamburg life, I owe the club endless thank you's for helping me to bloom. Many club members have reached out to me to make sure I have everything I need-an invaluable service for people trying to make sense of their new surroundings. I love this club not only for that, but for giving me the chance to continue crossing things off my must-see Hamburg list through event planning-for more people than just me!