“I’m not a planner.” I must have said it two dozen times last year in the summer semester. The summer semester of 2020 was my first teaching semester in Germany – I arrived more or less midway through the winter semester of 2019/2020, so I had time to finish some old stuff, return to TheContinue reading “I’m not a planner”
Monthly Archives: April 2021
Growing up with online family
One of the aspects of the current pandemic that I have found super frustrating, is the lack of options to see our family in The Netherlands. For the past year or so, we have seen all of them only in digital format (like many others have, I’m sure). Although I personally can deal very wellContinue reading “Growing up with online family”
Connection issues
I’m not gonna lie. The first time around, I found it pretty strange to ‘connect’ to my unborn child, during the entire pregnancy, which was roughly two years ago. The first few months, there is nothing. My wife didn’t look very pregnant. She said she felt different, but I didn’t notice much of it. SheContinue reading “Connection issues”
The plan is not to have a plan!
I find it kind of interesting how many people with established careers advise the younger people to plan their careers and take their steps accordingly. I have noticed here in Germany that it is already expected from bachelor and master sttudents upon arrival at the university to have their careers more or less planned out.Continue reading “The plan is not to have a plan!”
How do you sleep at night?
It’s 3AM on a random Monday night. “Mama, mama?” the young boy calls from the other room. He has a room of his own, with two adjecent kingsize beds, of which he occupies (almost) one. His mother quickly rises to comfort him back to sleep, while quickly dozing off in the second bed. It’s quiet…Continue reading “How do you sleep at night?”
All the lovely stupid flowers (part 3)
There’s a lot going on at the moment in the flowering world. Because I took myself a nice long Easter break, me and the family have explored several new areas that are close to home and also span a nice range of habitats. It is interesting to observe the range of specialization occurring in plants.Continue reading “All the lovely stupid flowers (part 3)”
To my clickbait friends :)
A couple of days ago I was working on my daily routine of mindless scrolling through Twitter, when my attention was grabbed by one particular Tweet that asked an interesting question. It was something like ‘I posted a link to a recent blog post of mine that I found important to share with the world.Continue reading “To my clickbait friends :)”
A good Friday
Good Friday, as the implies, was a Good Friday. Not much on our schedule these days, but the weather, again, promised to be nice. We cannot let that pass without going outside. And so we did. After a spontaneous call with a local couple we befriended here just before corona hit the world, we decidedContinue reading “A good Friday”
Happy Easter
Easter Holidays for me already started a couple of days ago, and thus far I have made the most of it. The weather has been fantastic, and we have been outside quite a bit. Mostly, we have enjoyed family walks in the area (what else, given the circumstances). I have really started geeking out onContinue reading “Happy Easter”
The Mummy
Remember that Thai Basil bush that I wrote about earlier? The one that came with a free colony of aphids…? It’s still hanging in there and by now it has even started to flower. There are probably 15 individual plants in the pot, so let’s hope that there is some cross-pollination going on. If IContinue reading “The Mummy”
Robin Heinen 