“Mommy, can we move to Mallorca?” my 4-year-old quietly asks while I tuck her in bed. Ever since we are back from our beach holiday on Spain’s largest island at the end of September, Birdy has been trying to convince as to return there ASAP. “Why do you want to move there?” I ask. As she starts […]
Prenatal Care in Germany Part 3: Preparing for Birth
Welcome to the third and final part of my prenatal care in Germany mini-series! Part one was about visits at the gynaecologist’s office and part two was dedicated to midwife’s services. This post is about preparing for birth, including birth classes and choosing the place where you want to deliver your baby. Birth preparation classes If you want to […]
Prenatal Care in Germany Part 2: the Midwife
The first part of the prenatal care in Germany series covered everything related to going to the gynaecologist: appointments, ultrasounds, and tests, trimester by trimester. This part is all about the second pillar of Germany’s great prenatal care system: the midwife (aka Hebamme) who will guide you through the ups and downs of pregnancy, childbirth, […]
Prenatal Care in Germany Part 1: at the Doctor’s Office
When I decided that I should write down my experiences and observations about the prenatal care system in Germany I naively thought that one post would suffice. By the time I had written up the first paragraphs I realized that, unless I split it up, I’ll end up with one super-long post. And who has […]
My Germany Bucket List – 10 Things I Want to Do
At the end of the summer, it will be 11 years since I moved to Germany and, believe it or not, I still have a long list of things that I haven’t done! Here are 10 things that I still want to see, do or experience in the country that I currently call home. My Germany Bucket […]
Parenting German Style: the Beach Edition
As a child, I spent many glorious summers on the Latvian Baltic Sea coast, swimming, building sand castles, and fighting a losing battle against turning lobster-red. Bringing my own kids to the seaside in Germany, I couldn’t help but notice that Germans do a few things differently. For one, I cannot believe how much stuff […]
Celebrating Midsummer in Latvia
Have you ever experienced the magic of the shortest night of the year? Some of my warmest memories are of celebrating midsummer in Latvia: lighting a bonfire on the beach, spending the short hours of darkness singing and dancing, and watching the sun rise over the sea. Just like the winter solstice, the summer solstice […]
How I Finally Hacked Spelling my Name in German
When I lived in Latvia, I never needed to spell my name. While not very common as a last name, “Ieviņa” is the sweet form of the name “Ieva” – the Latvian version of “Eve”. A Latvian will never get it wrong. Ever since I moved abroad a decade ago, spelling my name has become […]
Birch Sap: the Springtime Superdrink
In Latvia, where I come from, foraging is a national sport. In summer we flock to meadows and forests to pick blueberries and wild strawberries. In autumn our woods provide us with a bounty of delicious mushrooms. But the real foraging season begins much earlier in the year. Soon after the snow melts and the […]
Birthday Party at Kids at Work, Hamburg
This week, let me tell you a little about Birdy’s 4th birthday party and the fun location where we celebrated it: Kids at Work. Turning four in Germany Here in Germany, the (unwritten) rules for the fourth birthday are in somewhat of a grey area. For the third birthday, kids are invited to the party together with their parents. For […]