The Case for Early Daycare, or Kita (in Germany)

Kindertagesstätte, or more popular as Kita, basically means a daycare center for children in Germany. It is a collective term used for referring to Kinderkrippe or nursery for children up to three-years-old, Kindergarten for children age three to six, and Kinderhort, an after-school care for primary school children. This website gives a very comprehensive information about Kita. Our Kita, Kita Unikate Saarbrücken, is located in the same building as the University’s Mensa (canteen), only 200 READ MORE

Another Little Big Change

We’ve always known that we want two. One is too lonely, three would be too much. We just didn’t know that the second one will be around so soon ;). Aidan was just 18 months, when his little sister was born 4 months ago, so we were in the dreaded two-under-two situation. We knew that it’s going to be challenging, but we thought “alright, let’s have a crazy and chaotic three years, then get it READ MORE

Why is he so cute??

Our 16-month-old Aidan, unser kleine Mann It’s usually 10 pm, when Aidan is finally in his dreamland. He’s punctual like that, no matter whether we start the bedtime routine (change his diaper – put on a pajama – brush teeth – read books) earlier at 8 pm or at 9:30 pm. Most of the time, he would insist that both parents must be present at the book reading session, “Papa… da (there)! (pointing to the READ MORE

My Little Big Change

We did this photoshoot to celebrate one week together, kudos to our awesome friend @sreyasi_nc Today, April 17, was the estimated ‘finish line’ of my pregnancy. But… it turned out the little one got too impatient inside my belly and decided to greet the world exactly 2 weeks earlier. Not that I complained 😉 At that point I was actually urging him to come out ASAP because, my belly looked like it was about to READ MORE

La Bicicleta

by Carlos Vives & Shakira. If I think of summer 2016, I will have this song playing in the background 🙂 As a beginner cyclist–my first biking trip was four years ago, only one year after I learned how to ride a bike–, I’m quite satisfied with the biking trips I did this summer: Bolzano-Terlan-Bolzano (30 km), Bolzano-Salorno (34 km) and Saarbrücken-Sarreguemines (20 km). Through these trips I learned that my current limit is 30 km, and READ MORE

Not So Wise No More

Picture was taken from here I woke up sometime last week with a sore throat, I thought “Uh oh, flu is coming…” However, the pain then moves also to my ear, and my head… but only on the left side. That’s when I knew that my upper-left wisdom tooth was causing trouble, again. Last year, when I was home in Indonesia, I went to a dentist hoping that he would take this troubled tooth out, because READ MORE

Canyoning in Passeiertal

Picture was taken from here This was the most recent adventure I did :). The activity was organized by the Sports Club University Bolzano, but non-members or even non-students were also allowed to take part. With 30€ fee, transportation, barbecue and equipment are all included, which is quite a great deal. Furthermore, the activity was guided by professionals from Acquaterra, so it’s completely safe even for a beginner. To give you an idea of what READ MORE

My First Via Ferrata – Masarè

left picture is taken from here So… do I look like them already? :p Since last year I’ve been wanting to try via ferrata, but the idea was always dismissed by the bear (a.k.a our via ferrata expert here :p) by reason of my lack of stamina. Via ferrata, the Italian words for ‘iron road’, is a protected climbing route usually found in the Alps. It is called the iron road because there is (almost) always a READ MORE

Playing with duoLingo

Da die Katze viel freie Zeit hat, lernt sie Deutsch, so dass sie mit der Familie des Bären sprechen kann. Sie lernt mit einem Spiel, welches duoLingo heißt. Es ist interessant! Die Katze lernt so schnell. I knew of duoLingo for the first time on one of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) seminars, as one of prominent online courses for language. At that time I was thinking, “Hmmm… interesting”, but that’s all, I didn’t even bother to try READ MORE

Cat Scratch Pad: Whiteboard Wall Sticker

The idea comes from the bear actually. He’s been wanting to have a whiteboard, but unfortunately, the dorm where he stays is not so flexible about things one can put on the wall. I like the idea, I mean… sometimes we need to write or sketch things down out of our mind, and using a whiteboard will save some papers. Save papers, save trees. Besides, in my new flat I have empty spaces on the READ MORE