Visiting Hamburg

It's been half a year since I last visited Hamburg. But when you walk there knowing that you're going to live there again, you look at it in a different way. I had this funny feeling that I was walking in a trusted environment. A place that I already know. I was reading a book in the tram, as if I've lived there for years. Cause I know that in less than a month Hamburg will be my hometown again.

I'm in Hamburg since Saturday. I got the keys to my new apartment and I've met my new art-director Eric van den Hoonaard, with whom I'm going to spend lots of hours concepting when I start working at JvM. On top of that, I've met up with all the friends that stayed in Hamburg since they gradutated Miami Ad School. And yesterday I even had a drink with Armando Bertolini, who's now living in Berlin but who's visiting Hamburg for a week.

These last few days were a small snippet of how my daily life in Hamburg is going to be. And it's nothing new to me. Except for one thing...when I walked in Jung von Matt to meet my new creative directors, I could already feel that this is where the adventure will start. Yes, I've had classes at Jung von Matt before, but working there and proving that you're worth the salary that you get, is a whole different ballgame.

My good friend Salvatore told me this week that creatives should always go for the agency, regardless of the city that the agency is in. I think he's right. I'm leaving a beautiful city where I have a lot of friends (Amsterdam) to go to another beautiful city where I have a lot of friends (Hamburg). In my mind, it doesn't feel like a big change. But I'm pretty sure the agency is going to make all the difference.