I gained my first and still formative impressions of Indonesia in 1998/99 and 1999/2000 at the Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, where I taught German as a student. In 2001, immediately after graduating with a master degree in German language, I started at the German School Jakarta, which was still called the German International School at the time.

The plan was to stay for two to three years. But thanks to numerous generations of fantastic students who have made it difficult for me to leave since my first day and still do today, I ended up staying much longer than planned. So much for the predictability of life. But as the Danish philosopher Sören Kierkegaard said so aptly: "Life is lived forwards and understood backwards."