Post #1 and lots to say!

I caved. I got sucked into the world of blogging! Kev and I wanted to have an easy way to let everyone we care about know what's going on over here in Deutschland and this seems to be it. I've already been here for almost 3 weeks, so there is a lot to update you all on! Since I have been here, Kev has started the regular season of games (and the team is 2-0!), we've gone out a few times, I have started my work as a nanny and have also begun German classes! We have gotten our apartment to feel a bit more like home after a few IKEA trips, have explored our neighborhood and a little bit of downtown. I've met the other guys on the team and their families, sig. others, and we are more than happy to be in Hamburg with this team!
Kev had his first regular season game last Friday and it was a home game so I got to experience my first time in the O2 World Arena. There were over 10,000 fans in attendance and these fans love their hockey and their team! The Freezers won 4-2 and below is a video of the team's introduction.

In the past 2 weeks, I have been spending a lot of time with the family I work for. The kids' names are Hans (3 yrs.) and Ida (5 mo.) Hans has tons of energy and right now it can be challenging because he does not know English and my German is not near good enough to communicate well with him. I began my German course this past week, so hopefully that will help out soon! The mom, Bea, has forced me to become more acquainted with their area by sending me out on errands and such. She is around a lot since she is still on maternity leave, which is nice to help with my communication with Hans, and she is also just a fun person to be around! Ida is a really easy baby that doesn't cry much, although she's getting to the teething stage and is beginning to be a bit restless. Yesterday, I made some sweets with Hans and we made my homeade kit-kat bars. It's not a type of dessert that Bea or her husband, Oliver, had before, so they were thrilled to try some American sweets! And they may even like sweets more than me, so I know we'll be getting along just fine! Hans and his mom even made me a cake for my birthday!

Hans put KS on the other side for Kevin too


Since I have been pretty busy lately with class and work, and Kev with hockey, we have not been able to explore Hamburg as much as we would like. The Scherenbergs are leaving tomorrow for a vacation so I will have this entire week off and hopefully we'll be able to venture out downtown more. The class I attend is right in the heart of downtown in a beautiful area with tons of shops and restaurants, so hopefully we'll stay around there after my classes next week! (Pictures to come soon of that area!) Last week we went to the main shopping district of downtown which has more high end shops. I don't know if I'll be doing much more than window shopping in that area! Below is a picture of Hamburg's Town Hall and another area of downtown. We tried to sneak inside the Town Hall but the only way to get inside is to take a tour so we may have to look into doing that!

Town Hall



Yep, we get this view regularly!



Well, I think that is enough for the first update. I promise it won't take 3 weeks to get another one! Tschüss!