Hausfrauenklub

Guess what? I have friends!
I'm not sure if it's coincidence or fate or good timing, but I have started hanging out with three women who have all recently moved to Hannover, and we have a great time.

I met Renee and Serena at the International Women's Association of Hannover newcomers meeting. IWAH is a social organization that has a variety of clubs and outings and conversation groups. A big part of my motivation for joining was that they have a Spanish conversation group that I can use to keep practicing Spanish. Anyway, Renee is from New York City, and moved here with her fiance and their little dog around the same time we moved. She is a veterinary technician. Serena is from Texas but has lived all over the U.S., working as an art historian. Her husband is an opera singer and works at the opera house here. One of Serena's college friends had interned with Kaska in Kiel, which is in far northern Germany, close to Denmark. Kaska moved here from Kiel in April. She is Polish but married to a German and speaks all sorts of languages. In Kiel she ran a program for international students at several universities.

So we have decided to call ourselves the "hausfrauen" which means housewives. Something like Desperate Housewives, Hannover edition. It's a bit of a joke because we are all experiencing the feeling of not having a full-time job for the first time ever, and moving here because of our significant others' work situations. It's often a good feeling (we can go to a 2 hour lunch on a Tuesday), but we are also figuring our what our roles here will be. Kaska works part time for the city of Hannover and Renee is taking intensive German classes. Serena is actually going back to the U.S. for a couple of months because her husband is doing a show in Chicago, but hopes to work in the museum field here at some point. And I of course have my hodge-podge of online class, German class, consulting and eventually cover teaching at the school.

So I consider myself very lucky to have found some friends so quickly. I need to be good and do my homework this morning because we are hanging out in the afternoon...