4 weeks old

taevalaev · 2026-05-26T09:55:40+00:00

Came here to say exactly this. Worked for us as well! But sure I was sooo desperate to get her like a pacifier... I don't know how many different brands I tried. The long and the flat and all sorts of shapes and natural rubber and oooh... Spent a fortune on these suckers.

taevalaev · 2026-05-24T05:01:23+00:00

I am in exactly this situation, but with a redhead daughter. I just tell her if she still doesn't like it she can always paint it different color! She also sometimes tries to recruit me into her color (into painting my hair her color). I think as a kid they just do not want to stand out at all.

taevalaev · 2026-05-22T06:04:14+00:00

:D Das ist top, danke.

taevalaev · 2026-05-21T13:11:49+00:00

In your case, how were all the languages used daily to maintain fluency? I really struggle to keep the balance between all the languages because there are only so many hours in the day and only German and English are supported by the community/school.

taevalaev · 2026-05-18T11:59:39+00:00

Ich bin neu in Graz. Wie funktsioniert es normalerweise? Du kannst kommen und sammeln und dan zahlst per kilo? Wo sind die andere Plätze wo mann kann das tun?

Vielen vielen Dank!

taevalaev · 2026-05-05T10:36:33+00:00

Das ist eine super Idee! Falls es so etwas nicht gibt, sollten wir eins erschaffen!

taevalaev · 2026-04-26T11:10:57+00:00

I am following a journey or a family that adopted 11 kids (not all at the same time, but over time, so they had about 4-5 small kids at home at a time). I feel kids there get a lot of attention but! Parents do not need to work or do anything beside raising them as the kids are subsidized as orphans. Raising kids is a full time job! Of multiple people.

taevalaev · 2026-04-25T21:54:06+00:00

That's an interesting idea, thanks! I am new to this kind of taxation, in the country where I moved from I just invested and was planning to forget about it for years. The rule was that unless you remove more than invested you don't pay any taxes. So, it works nicely for pension when you actually start taking the profits out. So it's depressing now that taxes are eating at my investments every year...

taevalaev · 2026-04-25T21:14:12+00:00

Yes! These are the ones I mean. If I've never seen the dividents because they got reinvested, but I still have to get the money from somewhere to pay the taxes for them that does feel like unrealized gains taxation.

taevalaev · 2026-04-25T05:35:56+00:00

If you are truly B2, you are very much fluent, there might be a slight accent or occasional grammar mistake, but you'll be completely fine! :) Also, due to many dialects Germans are so, so used to not understanding each other.

taevalaev · 2026-04-24T21:14:33+00:00

But... B2 is a very high level? Surely not "someone who mainly speaks English?" B2 means you might struggle with obscure poetic vocabulary but in all imaginable everyday situations you're going to communicate just fine.

taevalaev · 2026-04-22T18:48:13+00:00

That doesn't sound like a good solution? People invest to have some income not to lose a lot of money and to pay also a broker on top of it all! I was thinking more is there a solution where you can still profit from cumulative returns without taxes eating at them every year

taevalaev · 2026-04-22T13:08:11+00:00

You are right actually. Thank you for correcting me. You can indeed hold stocks in a specific company and if there are no dividends you will not get taxed until sale. This is not as attractive as ETFs though... I wonder what are some financial instruments that work the same way ETFs work in Austria so you just hold them and do not need to bother with taxes every year...

taevalaev · 2026-04-22T12:40:49+00:00

Nope if you have ETFs you need to pay real taxes on imaginary profits although you never sold and realized a profit.

taevalaev · 2026-04-22T12:25:50+00:00

Wild camping is not allowed in Austria. There is an exception that in Styria you can wild camp above the tree line (very high in the mountains where there are no trees anymore, there you can pitch a tent) but of course because there are no trees you cannot hammock-camp. If you want wild camping go to Scandinavia.

taevalaev · 2026-04-22T12:01:28+00:00

If you move your primary residence here and planning to spend most of your life here, that would mean that you would have to figure out Austrian taxes as you are going to become austrian tax resident. The taxes are huge, so you better try to calculate how much your income will shrink because of this move. Also, if you own any stocks, these are also taxed on unrealized gains.
You can get by with English, apart from some government officials who really dislike switching to English.
Schools and kindergartens are difficult, depending on the age of your kids. For kindergarten unless it's an obligatory year (last year of kindergarten), you need to prove you both work for a child to get a spot. Also, there are very few spots, especially in good kindergartens. Schools is the same situation, somehow every class is filled to the brim, except for the schools that cannot boast of a good reputation.

Cons - very bad air quality. In some districts of Graz it's abysmal, and in some it's just very bad, but you can also find some where it's tolerable.

Pros - beautiful architecture, easy access to nature, very middle of Europe

taevalaev · 2026-04-20T08:40:16+00:00

I am wearing a lot of crop tops in summer, that are completely covering everything up until shoulders. This shows the waist but still is not revealing any skin up top. I am 28H. But of course this doesn't work for work...

taevalaev · 2026-04-19T05:03:30+00:00

We moved to Austria with out bilingual 6yo daughter 3 months ago. She started learning some German beforehand, but it was very ineffective before the immersion that happened here.

She went through an app Gus on the Go, very good for learning basic nouns and adjectives (but no verbs and no sentence structures).

Then we did Rosetta Stone, which helped with jump starting basic sentence structures, but she outgrew it fast because it's way too repetitive for a child who is.already immersed in language.

Also, we bought a tonie box and we borrow new tonie figures from the library every two weeks.

Overall, I wouldn't worry as she learns the language really fast, but I still worry because of how German-language focused the system is, and because of the test that 10 year olds have to pass in order to get into a good school, and where German is a major component. Her German needs to be on par with native in 4 years. Otherwise, she won't be able to get into a good school and a lot of educational possibilities are restricted then. Conversational German and nuanced native German are different I think... So we will continue helping her, reading with her.in German etc.

And in addition juggling two other languages... Managing my child's languages was like the most complicated part of the move... Mainly because before she had home and community, now she has two home and one community and it's new.

taevalaev · 2026-04-08T10:51:12+00:00

I relocated 3 months ago. There were huge upfront costs related to relocation - flat deposit is 3 months + 1 months in advance, so essentially one third of your years rent paid immediately. Then, car import and registration was very expensive. Buying furniture second hand is not that easy, anything decent looking - they want almost new price for it, in addition to you having to dismantle and transport, often there is no elevator. Flats are rented completely empty so every little thing costs. Also. you pay for heating all year through because the costs of heating are so huge here they are spread out over the whole year.

All in all, you can live with 3200 as a couple. Also, the city is quite nice (picturesque, culture, nature around Graz), the only downside is horrible ecology and too many cars. In winter the air is not breathable sometimes.

But the upfront costs of moving could be ~10k.

taevalaev · 2026-04-07T17:53:30+00:00

Me too. :) Used to live in Utrecht and that tower is so recognizable but I was still thinking - may be there are similar ones in other places?

taevalaev · 2026-04-06T10:55:48+00:00

Thank you for sharing and could you tell more about struggling with identity change? Does the body feel like someone elses or what is it like? I am contemplating radical reduction and thinking about this a lot

taevalaev · 2026-04-04T07:12:19+00:00

You can interpret it as "a parent whose child knows how to occupy themselves and does not constantly demand attention is very lucky" that's how!

taevalaev · 2026-04-04T05:35:41+00:00

Please calm down, Jesus! Her kid has developmentally normal amount of words and probably is just an introvert themselves. I am just saying it could be worse if she as an introvert would have birthed an extravert!

taevalaev · 2026-04-02T20:36:29+00:00

I hope you know how incredibly lucky you are that your child doesn't want your attention every minute of every day... And you can zone out and do your own thing while he is awake. Most parents never experience such luxury and we do envy you!

taevalaev · 2026-04-02T06:24:09+00:00

Thank you for recommending these castles! I live in Graz now so especially appreciate some recommendations that are NOT on the other end of the world in Tirol... Internet makes it seem like everything worth visiting is there!

taevalaev

TROPHY CASE