Shine a light
For quite some time now, we've been looking into how to network in our area. While browsing on one of the social media platforms, I noticed that there was a network event coming up and something inside me said it was time to buy tickets and go for it. My partner agreed and I arranged a babysitter for the little girl that day.
Meanwhile, I made sure to print our new business cards so that we could at least hand them out in case we made any valuable connection during the event. I felt nervous because it's been forever since I appeared on such an event or did some solid networking but I was looking forward to it as well, especially because I was there with my partner in crime anyway. Worst case, the event would suck and we'd sneak out early to have tapas together!
Overslept a little
Although we both had several alarms set, apparently we needed some extra sleep because we ended up waking up when I planned on almost dropping off our daughter at our friend's house. Thankfully, I calculated in some extra time in case we'd have some unforeseen delays so we ended up heading towards the city right in time to be just 5 minutes late. Fashionably late, I guess?
As it was in the middle of the centre, we were kind of doomed finding a parking place because in the city that's just horrible. There's too many cars for too little space and I envisioned that we wouldn't need the 6 minute walking distance parking space and find a spot in the same street instead. Guess what? With just 4 parking spaces in that street and even a tourist spot in front of the building we had the event, we found 1 parking spot! I really didn't need the extra walk uphill and downhill in the centre as I woke up with a sore back that day. Whenever things like this fall into place, I feel extremely grateful and and knew that it was a sign that the event would be valuable for us.
Out of my comfort zone
I expected my boyfriend to be fully in his comfort zone as he even loved doing presentations for a whole school at once, we both felt a bit strange walking in to those already mingling guests. Maybe I was wrong and those 5 minutes really made a difference, lol. Note to self: next time don't oversleep and be a bit early!
We were doing a bit of a bingo for the ice breaker and we met some really nice people during these first 30 minutes. Then we had some presentations from locals as well as expats and had quite a few moments where we could relate or had to laugh really hard because we all knew exactly what they meant. It's nice to meet people who went or are going through the same struggles are we are, lol. It makes you feel more normal.
Super tips and great information
We really valued one of the presentations where we didn't only receive many great tips but also heard from a local how we could find events as that's a difficult thing over here. Apparently, almost 80% finds the events they go to through WhatsApp groups, can you imagine?
Local newspapers and local government socials are often either way too late with their announcements or announce it afterwards, that wasn't new info to me but at least I finally felt less frustrated knowing that I wasn't weird not finding things in time, it's just not the way to go here. Super valuable information for the future!
Great food and a fun language workshop
As you can see above, we had a really good caterer serving the food for this event and it was really good. I didn't touch the sweet stuff at that time because we already had a brownie with the coffee and I didn't want to be overloaded with sugar while listening to presentations, lol. But I can assure you the savoury snacks were amazing!
I didn't know what to expect from the language course but it was really fun. We did a quiz and I ended up second only because I had the last question wrong because I didn't hear the name of this restaurant oops. Either way, I felt proud that I ended up second and almost first. We learned new expressions they use in this area, most of them were fully unknown to the both of us and most of the other students. I took pictures of these words otherwise I'd never remember them, haha.
My first yoga class
As I felt connected with the yoga teacher promoting her business with two free yoga classes for everyone attending the event, I booked an appointment and we had the class on our balcony. As expected, I had struggles with most poses because I'm all stiff after so many aches in my back, knees and hips BUT I also felt present in the moment and only in the moment. I did not once think about anything on my to do list or what the neighbours on the other side would think seeing me struggle, I was focused on yoga alone. I loved it!
The next day, I felt muscles that I didn't even know existed, and I had cramps that I never felt before. Following the yoga teacher's advice and having a lot of protein the next day, I felt 95% better the next day, amazing! I'm going to give yoga a try and see if I can manage to build muscles strength and with that having less pain as the pain is picking up again so I'm motivated to turn that around rather sooner than later.
Filled with ideas
What was best about the event in general is that I found back a spark that I lost for a while as a lot of my days were about "getting through it" rather than enjoying them and working on exciting things. I finally started building connections with the people at the event afterwards and I'm now trying to see what I can do to contribute to the next event as well.
This is probably the most valuable thing for me. On top of that, I got to spend half of the day with my partner without the kid bothering us constantly, which was great too! She got to spend time with our friend and her parents and many cats (and kittens!) so she felt happy all day too. Win-win!
Taking pictures
Next event, I will be taking my camera as I asked if I could take pictures for my portfolio to practice and to help promote the event a bit more at the same time. Of course I told her I'm new to photography so don't expect the best of the best (unless I nail it, lol) but I want to see how I feel like being on that side of the camera during such an event.
I will not be taking pictures constantly as I also want to participate in the event so I will probably do some parts and skip others to have a healthy balance. Either way, I'm happy I asked and that she agreed to give me a spot for that. Who knows if I love it and learn a lot from it?
Have a great week ahead!
Note: all pictures above are my own, taken with my phone camera because I was there to be in the moment and enjoy the event rather than being focused on taking pictures.