What will I remember from my first week in Cincinnati?

The people
Are still incredibly friendly. We have received invitations to X-mas parties, a X-mas show, a dinner and a houseparty. On top of that there are the lifts to work, lifts to Kroger and so it goes on.

People here smile. They stop for STOP signs on the road even when there isn't a car in sight. They let pedestrians cross the road. They are not in a hurry, not stressed. They breathe. I love them.

dunnhumby USA
I am proud to work for dunnhumby USA. They are impressive: from the amazing Holiday party to the fully prepared desk, laptop, writing pads, pens on my first day to the HR people who don't show if they are sick of me running over to their desks twice a day with random questions. I have started my induction sessions with my own team and am sure I'll learn a lot from them. In my first week I have attended an 'In the Know' session about price & promotions and a Kroger team meeting with free lunch and an interesting business update. First impressions definitely very positive!

The music
A colleague of mine invited Maarten and I to a party at his place. He said there would be a band that would play Bluegrass music. I said "blue-what"? And so I got introduced to Bluegrass. Wikipedia says it's a form of American roots music, a sub-genre of country music, with mixed roots in Scottish, English and Welsh traditional music and inspired by the music of African-Americans through incorporation of jazz elements. 4 of the 6 members of the band were from dunnhumby and they were really really good. They were playing when we arrived a bit before 8 and were still going when we left a bit before midnight... I hope we get to see them again!

The gym classes + Tina's
dunnhumby USA does not only have a gym, they also offer gym classes, several times a day at really competitive prices. I tried out the zumba, yoga and step classes and loved all 3 of them. Zumba because it was fun and easy, yoga because it was relaxing and challenging and step because it was very hard and the first time I did some weights!

Of course I shouldn't forget Tina's to balance off with the sports I did :-) Ealing had the North Star, Paris the Dido and Cincinnati has Tina's. Cheap prices, jugs of beer, sports on television, meeting new people from dunnhumby... What else do you need?

Maarten Verschuere
The first few days can be quite stressful, because you don't know anyone and literally everything is new (the people, the office, the American accent and words...). It helps so much to know there are 2 of us and to share our disbelief at some of the things that happened to us during the first week (on average, 3 people a day asked one of us if we have kids - just to give an example, whereas this NEVER happened to us in Paris in the almost 2 years we've lived there!).

Maarten now also joined Twitter, so if you want to follow him, follow @maartenforsure and his new blog is http://maartenforsure.blogspot.com. I'm still on Twitter on @louisedejager!

Let me know what you think of my first impressions and if you want to learn about anything else!