Anyone in Germany care to chat?

[Brefugee]

I got a bit (lot) sick of all the German-bashing in that cake thread, some of it comes from just not knowing anything about the place, some of it is a kind of unwillingness to understand that things can be very different in other places.

There was a fair bit of niggling about how Brits might think German directness is rude - but as pp pointed out, Germans would think it rude if you walked into a waiting room at the Doctor's surgery without saying "morgen zusammen"

There was also German Cake Bashing (😂) at one point.

So. Anyone care just to have a long running thread for the expats/immigrants/Germans here who are in Germany, or from Germany and missing/not missing it, or are thinking of coming here?

haha - nothing! i started this, then got sucked into that and when i got back here there were loads of lovely posts!

That's really difficult @Cherryblossoms85. It's not your fault at all, he's being stubborn. Maybe you could look at spending some years there at retirement age together?

@39starstartry I'm with your in laws! Fußpilz...there's much more focus on preventing it in Germany.

Oh the wet hair thing!

I don't possess a hair dryer-haven't used one for years!

When the kids were young I used to bike them to school.

I used to shower, tie wet hair back & in the Winter it would be frozen when I got home.😂

We had the bathroom done recently & was telling the neighbour.

"Oh yes, I thought something was happening as I saw you with wet hair"😂

She's only about 40-mind boggling that this is still a thing!

our kids had to take "outdoor clothes" and regenjacke & Hosen to Kita. And Hausschuhe.

I've been here a long long time though, army brat and my parents had a lot of German friends (i miss the Lüneburger Heide now i'm in boring ol' NRW) so shoes off, stossluften (my Scharf-ess has vanished!) and "there's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing" are all things i grew up with.

During Covid the entire village did open windows constantly, which isn't so much fun during muck-spreading season.
It grieves me that the only Wensleydale i ever find has sodding cranberries in. I want the plain stuff. That and Hendos (and Marmite) are the absolute minimum Mitbringsel when my mum comes to visit.

Wet hair and sitting in a draft. 2 things that can kill any German within seconds, i tell ya!

Yy to the wet hair thing - this perturbed dh when we first got together. I remember one time he drove me to the station on a freezing day and it was steaming up the inside of the car I kind of saw his point then. But otherwise our hairdryer lay unused in a cupboard for years until fairly recently when i) dd's hair grew long enough to need it and ii) ds2 got into careful arrangement of his hair.

@ShoesoftheWorld just noticed my “fake forks” typo! 😂 Obviously, I’m not German after all as I’m not using the real thing 😂

Aldi or Lidl had self raising flour recently, apparently.

If anyone is still to get the Deutschlandkarte and wants to, there is an app mo.pla that gives you €10 cashback on your first month so it's effectively €39. You have to order it before the end of this month.

I got mine on the first day 5hey were available, I wonder if it will still work?

Off to do the weekly shop - I may break my habit and look in our spiffy new Lidl

Hello everyone, been in Germany for 15 years now, and used to hang out in the Living Overseas threads, but they all slowly died...
Enjoyed the cake talk, still considering cake forks, saw them in Tschibo recently, my favourite shop.
How many as a minimum do you think? For a family of 4?
Was thinking about having my windows cleaned as it is sunny this morning, and it struck me how expensive it seems to be in Germany, anyone else noticed this?

Has anyone found anything like Mumsnet for Germans? It would be next level of integration to get into that community.
AIBU I told the kindergarten teacher that DD does not have to wear a coat outside if she does not want to? It may be October but it’s still above 25 degrees here.

Seem to have skipped need for cake baking for kindergarten so far. They are only allowed ‘gesunde jause’, which suits me as just involves taking in fruit in a basket a few times a year.

I lived near Frankfurt for a couple of years about a decade ago so barely qualify for this thread. I remember finding bakery cakes disappointing but proper cake shop cakes nice. I’m intrigued that it could generate a whole contentious thread.

I remember my landlady dropping round the house for some reason and being horrified that I was drying clothes on an airer in the garden on a sunny day. It was a private garden, not overlooked and until that point I didn’t realise that it was something Germans don’t do.

The German parenting forums are terrifying. Honestly. Just don't!

There is reddit - r/eltern - I did get some nice, helpful advice about Kita there when nobody on any English speaking forum understood the settling in process and thought I was mad not to just leave DS, wave and come back 6 hours later.

Various facebook pages where they are absolutely vicious to each other. Take AIBU and add German bluntness and cutting insults.

I am part of the Kita whatsapp and that does my head in by itself, even though everyone is nice.

If you really want to find something, formulate any typical parenting query and google it in German. It will usually bring up something like MN.

If it's those and just for your family, one pack would be okay. If you're expecting for Kaffee und Kuchen every now and again, I'd get two packs.

https://www.tchibo.de/products/402020740/besteck-set-4-kuchengabeln

You would be absolutely slated for not wanting them to wear a coat at "only" 25 degrees

I love Tschibo. DS1 became very tired of it and would make a great show of steering me away from the Tschibo section in any supermarket. It was great fun annoying him by insisting on a browse!

My BIL calls these groups "Monstergruppen", too many people, too many silly questions. And there's always that one parent...

That's a bit odd, everyone I know who has even a shred of outside space dries their clothes outside if the weather allows.

This should maybe be on an Austrian thread but I do adore Kaiserschmarrn and miss it so much (Brit in UK but pre-Covid visited Bavaria (near Salzburg) 2 or 3 times a year. Hoping to resume visits in September.

Kaiserschmarrn is so delicious! The best one I ever had was in Vienna, I have now forgotten the name of the restaurant, unfortunately.

We also have cake forks (Switzerland).

Kaiserschmarren is very easy to make - I make it sometimes when DD comes back from school and needs quick and comforting food. This is a simple recipe: www.quick-german-recipes.com/kaiserschmarrn.html

Ooo, I’m definitely going to lurk on this thread. Already been reminded of the joys of the Tschibo section in supermarkets! I lived in JHQ for 2 years in the 80s as an Army brat and in Gutersloh from 95-99 and 03-08 as an Army wife. August will be our first trip back since then and I’m so excited. Great thread.

I love Tchibo, we have an actual Tchibo shop in our tiny town (i was thinking, while i was in Tchibo, actually) that i said I'm near Mönchengladbach because nobody has heard of my town. But actually we've been very famous (Kreis) recently as a) the first Corona Hotspot (the Kreis is big, it was on the other side) and the Garzweiler II demos at Lützerath which belongs to the town (other side of town, fortunately)

We have everyday cake forks (someone on twitter was taking umbridge at me separating 2 cakes into "everyday" - Donauwelle - and Sundays - Schwarzwalderkirschtorte) and silver ones. And they are used appropriately. There is a definite divide between everyday cakes you get at the Bäckerei and posh ones from a Konditorei though. My chef makes all ours though. But that is "his thing" and he used to make them for Kita/Grundschule etc anyway.

Also here everyone hangs their washing outside (except me because i usually use my boiler room) but not on Sundays. Of course.