O du wunderschöner Herbst - life in German and Austria thread

[admylin]

It is a wunderschöner Herbst at the moment isn't it. Lovely sunny bright blue sky with a chill in the air. Shame we're stuck in the house, ds has a flu like virus so the balcony is as far as we'll get.

Glad to hear you had a good time, canella. DM just doesn't compare to Boots, does it - if only there was a Boots in Bratislava, my life would be complete! Can't see it happening somehow, though. Your hair looks amazing btw - mine is quite curly too, but it's gradually getting shorter and straighter (thanks to blow drying) over the years! When it was long and curly, I never used to brush my hair in between washes as it just made it frizzy; the only problem was that it would then take well over an hour to detangle when I was washing it.

Your German course sounds good - it makes such a difference if everyone is motivated too. I know what you mean about enjoying not having a job though; I just can't imagine going out to work any more. I don't mind working in the comfort of my own home (doing paid work, I mean), but it's amazing how quickly the morning goes even if I don't have any work to do. A friend of mine was saying recently how she'd be bored if she didn't work, but I don't feel like I have time to be bored - the morning isn't long enough even when I'm not working; there always seem to be 1001 things to do.

Thanks for the welcoming messages!

LinzerTortured - my children are 8,6,3. (How old are yours?). They have settled in very well...the eldest started school last year, with everyone else so that made things easier. The middle one started this past Sept. They go to the local school which is 2 mins walk away- waht a relief it was to find a flat so close to the school.And the little one is in Kindergarten. SO I get some time to myself...to spend quality time with the 1001 things that are on my to do list!

Ah Scotland, I lived there for 10 years, met my husband there..and have not been back in a very long time due to children, moving countries etc. You go from Germany to the UK for toilteries..in the summer we drove to Germany to get my husband´s preshave - a cheap one from Rossmann (sp?)that seems to do the trick but is not sold anywhere in Austria.

Re German...I know the experience, I seem to forget faster than learn. But having a good teacher and a motivated class will help you along. Plus, as one teacher said when I was all frustrated and down about my lack of progress "This frustration is a sign that you are about to make a big step forward".I think she was right, but it is a pain to suffer it through. Good luck! I did 5 months of intensive (3hrs a day) courses, and we were given another 2hrs homework. That was really too much, and I was not able to take it all in.

I also have mixed feelings about work...after 3 yrs being out of work, it will be strange to work. The thing is I need to engage a different part of my brain, earn some money and get some positive feedback. My kids are great at letting me know that their Jause was horrid, I have forgotten to do blah, blah, blah...I am trying to teach them constructive criticism .

aargh, just realised I have missed the children´s dr Ordination times. I can´t keep up with who is open when and who is responsible for what...but I guess bedwetting and soreness when she does a wee is a Kinderarzt thing,isn´t it? With 3 children and having not had an MOT myself for a while, I could fill my days with dr´s visits!

Hope you have a nice day in spite of the greyness over here...any sunshine anywhere else? remind me, what does it look like?

bananas - whereabouts in the city are you? We're in the 2nd. I've just started part-time work 2 months ago (ds is 2y7m) and it's quite hard after 2.5years out of work. There are times when I'm really enjoying the chance to think but other times when I jut wish to be at home again.

Kindergarten called this morning as ds had been sick twice so had to leave in a rush to go and get him and he was sick again when we were putting his coat on to leave kg. So we're now snuggled on the sofa under the blanket hoping that he's better tmrw.

thanks for the compliment linzer!! my hair doesnt look so amazing today!

bananas - i'm not so crazy to go all the way to the UK for hair products!!!! but it was a nice thing to pick up during my first trip back for nearly 2 years! and will definitely be adding it to my list that i want visitors to bring (normally its teabags and paracetamol!!)

hope you get the appointments sorted - i'm not looking forward to my terminen later in the week!

zachsmama - hope your ds feels better soon!

i sometimes think it would be nice to work again to give my brain a chance to think beyond what is for lunch and what do i need to buy at Lidls! but think i'll just use this german course for brain activity for the moment! thankfully dh isn't in any hurry for me to get a job! wonder if i'll never work again if he doesnt push me to it!

bananas - My three are 8, 6 and 4 so very similar in age to yours. It's great that your DC are settling in so well and good that your eldest was able to start school with everyone else; it's bewildering enough to be the new girl or boy, let alone in a different country. Where did you live before you moved to Austria? Were your DC already bilingual in English and German?

I hardly ever go to the Kinderarzt with the DC any more, mainly because even when you make an appointment you can still end up waiting an hour or more. I generally take the DC to our local GP - don't have to bother with an appointment and we're generally seen within 15-20 minutes, often even sooner. The other drawback of our Kinderarzt is that she's only there in the mornings so I have to take the DC out of school/Kindergarten to go and see her - obviously if they're ill they'd be at home anyway, but I took DS to our GP for his last annual check-up as it meant I could go in the afternoon without having to keep him home from Kiga for an entire morning.

Re work - yes, it is good to give my brain something completely non-child-related to think about and I do miss working if I don't get sent anything for a while (I'm a freelance translator). The money is obviously an added bonus too! I've just found out from one of the agencies I work for that they've lost one of their major clients (who I did a lot of work for) so I'm wondering about signing on with some new agencies as work has been too quiet for too long.

zachsmama - Hope your DS is feeling better soon. I'm trying to visualise where the 2nd district is, but need to get my map out I think! I only really know where the 1st and 3rd districts are (thanks to the Christ Church playgroup and British embassy in the 3rd). We'll soon have enough MNers for a Vienna meet-up.

canella - Hope your appointments go OK this week. I've got my appointment with the dermatologist tomorrow, although I'm more nervous about driving there (I have no sense of direction and have never driven to this particular town) than I am about the appointment itself. Am not really too sure what to expect from the appointment but it's good that it's offered/seen as a routine check-up here; my mum had a maligant melanoma (she's fine now) so I'm always very careful about moles, not spending too much time in the sun, etc.

Morning everyone.
Pouring down again here.

Dh just drove out of the garage and knocked the back off the mirror and scraped the side of the car

The garage we rent with the flat is down a slope and such a tight squeeze you have to be 100% awake to get out of it (which he wasn't) - it'd be perfect for a Golf or Panda style car but nothing bigger. When you get out of the car you get a white mark down your jacket from the white washed walls as there just isn't room to not touch the wall on the way out.

Oh well, Canada might still call! I have half managed to get ds some new shoes. We went for winter shoes but ended up with sturdy addidas walking shoes which will be no good in snow. He tried every shoe in the shop though.

Canella well done for keeping up the German course. I stopped after I'd reached a level where I could get by but I still need ds to help me correct my endings so I should have carried on with learning really.

Oooh, sorry about the car, admylin. The garages here can be nightmare. We've never had a car in ours because if someone parked on the other side of the street we couldn't get out! I really don't know who plans and builds these things. Dh has moved his workshop into the garage so he can have a small sauna in the house.

Well, I've looked into the "coldest winter in a thousand years" thing and it seems to be something a bunch of Russian scientists thought up. Most likely nothing to worry about. Also heard today that the world isn't going to end on Dec. 21, 2012 so I guess that means we'll still have to buy winter boots for our kids. Actually, mine won't wear any kind of boots now so I'm now trying to find some decent winter shoes so they don't freeze their feet off. Ds17 wears a size 47 shoe. You can imagine how limited the selection is for a teenager if you don't want to spend huge amounts of money.

Wow, size 47 must be a nightmare for choice! Ds is 12 years old and inbetween size 40 and 41. In the dc section of the shoe shop there were boots but honestly, who designs them? They looked really awful. So we went to the mens section which starts with a few size 40s then a few more 41s but they were mostly too wide for ds. The only pair that fit him were shoes that my granny would have worn!

The garages around here all look so narrow. Were cars so much narrower in those days? Dh keeps saying it's a good job I don't feel like buying a jeep (actually one of his dreams!)

Next thing on my list of things we need - a warm winter jacket for ds, preferably not the 150 euro kind. I'm going to try Vosswinkel - a sports shop in the hope that something with no neon stripes or silly logos on is available.

westvan - size 47 wow!

Thanks for the get well wishes for ds. He's not being sick anymore but we're both having a day off anyway to make sure he's properly better.

Linzertorte - 2nd is near the Prater, well our bit of the 2nd is anyway!

Oh no admylin, will you have to get the car repaired? I managed to hit my wing mirror against a pillar when I was reversing in a multistorey car park - the glass was shattered and part of the surround was knocked off too, but we only bothered to replace the mirror itself as the car was on its last legs anyway!

westvan - You've reminded me that I need to look for winter boots for the DC too; I don't know when we'll have time though, as we'll be away the next two weekends and weekday afternoons are hectic enough as it is without trying to fit shoe shopping in. I'm trying to imagine how big size 47 feet are - I think DH only takes 42 or 43!

zachsmama - Ah, I thought it must be somewhere fairly central. I think I may have said earlier on the thread that we were planning on going to the Prater at the weekend, but decided the weather wasn't good enough for the Riesenrad. We have a Niederösterreich-Card which gives us free entry to lots of different sights, including the Riesenrad, but still haven't managed to take the DC on it despite having had the cards for two years now.

Must go and pick up DD2 now - she's walking halfway home with a schoolfriend today. I'm getting a bit annoyed with her friend's mother though, as she never remembers when we've arranged for the girls to walk home together - they're in different classes so don't always finish at the same time. I know that if I don't go the meeting point in the morning, the other girl won't know that she's supposed to be walking home with DD2 - as was the case again today. I only spoke to her mother yesterday and said that DD2 would be finishing early as her RE teacher is ill, so they could walk home together - but did she remember/tell her DD? Aargh.

And another aargh because I would have had a very rare five DC-free hours if the RE teacher hadn't been ill - DD1's class has gone on a trip to Schönbrunn this morning so I didn't have to go in for English. Hopefully the RE teacher will have recovered by tomorrow, otherwise DD2 will only be at school for three hours.

Hmm, just wrote a long answer and dd cam epast and knocke dthe button on the computer so it switched off! I've sent her to learn French vocab now.

She has real problems learning the spellings. I think I'm going to try and find a way of getting her checked for dyslexia. The other day she said sometimes all the letters and numbers just seem to swim around and get muddled up infront of her eyes especially when she's tired. Have had her eyes checked and she's OK so no need for glasses.

Hope the mirror on the car is OK as it is. The actual mirror is fine but the surround fell off and broke in two. At 4pm we'll find out how much it's all going to cost with TÜV too.

Linzer I used to have so many of those arghhh moments with getting the dc back from school. Ds had a teacher who always brought them back late from daytrips. That was in Berlin, I was nervous enough thinking about my dc wandering Berlin and getting on and off the busy S-Bahn in Mitte. Or they would be kept in late and even when they're walking alone you start to worry when your dc is 3/4 of an hour late in year 2 or 3.

Good to hear the little one is better zachsmama, I think there is something going round. My DC have had it too. We live in the 9th, so just across the Kanal from the 2nd.

Linzer, thanks for the advice re drs. It is so hard to get an appointment with the Kinderarzt. I took her to the GP yesterday afternoon and got her sorted, I hope. My children learnt German when we spent a year in Scandinavia (just before coming here) and they went to a German kindergarten there. So, by the time they got here their German was nearly perfect. I wish I could learn so easily. We had been in the UK for too long, and since it was not where either of us grew up, we were ready for a change. Plus quality of life here is a lot better here than in SE England where we were before. Hope your daughter got home okay and the other girl remembered to wait for her.

admylin, hello! sorry to hear about the car. Cars, garages and me do not get on at all. Had one in the UK and we had to give it up when I got pregnant. I used to get stuck trying to get in and out the car, and then when the baby was born there was no way of getting the car seat in the car when it was in the garage. I think cars must have been narrower.

westvan - another hello! size 47 and 17 yrs old? wow,parenting must be such a different experience at that age...and so much more expensive too. Hope you managed to find something that meets all needs. I see the teenagers round here (live near a school for big ones) wearing Converse in winter, and instantly feel cold just looking at them.

Good luck with all those medical appointments. Still to book the Frauenarzt, got to find one first, has to be female and nearby (not fully integrated yet cos don´t travel across the city for a dr . I survived the eye dr yesterday. They put those drops in to dilate the pupil so I looked like I was on drugs when I went to the AMS (unemployment office)...

It sounds like a good idea to get your DD checked out admylin, even if it's only to rule out dyslexia. We took DD1 to be assessed at a Lehrinstitut last weekend and get the results on Friday; it will be interesting to see whether they say anything different from the psychologist in Vienna. She seemed to be doing much better at school at the start of this year, but it's been going downhill a bit recently.
Hope the TÜV doesn't prove to be too extortionate. I was quite relieved that it only cost about 25 euros to have the wing mirror replaced, although like I said we didn't bother getting the rest of it repaired.

Have you looked on the Vienna Babies Club website for a Frauenarzt, bananas? They have a list of doctors here, although there don't seem to be any in the 2nd district - not sure whether any of the others would be near enough to you. You occasionally see people asking for or giving recommendations in the VBC's monthly (?) e-mails as well.
So where did you grow up? It must have been interesting to live in Scandinavia, although I've heard it can be quite difficult to integrate there.

Well, I found my way to the dermatologist's quite easily as it was well-signposted, so I needn't have worried about getting lost! I have to go back in a fortnight to have a suspicious-looking mole removed, but am now wondering whether I should have made an appointment for next week (the dermatologist is only there one afternoon a week) as I'm a natural born worrier and two weeks is too long to worry about all the possible scenarios! I shall just have to keep busy.

Yes, dd even wants to get herself checked as she gets frustrated sometimes and says she is stupid. I'm not sure where to get it done in Germany though?

We didn't pick the car up yesterday as dh worked late and the garage was closed when he came out. Today we'll find out how much it has cost.

We want to book a holiday for Christmas to Dubai. Any one have any tips - should I try a travel agent or those online package deals websites? I've seen alot of travel agents at the Hannover airport too. Dh's brother, newly wed with 5 month old baby, lives there but we want to relax abit too so want to stay in a hotel.

We initially took DD1 to a child psychologist in Vienna, who diagnosed Teilleistungsschwächen (which I think are the causes of dyslexia). She's just started going to an LRS (Lese-Rechtschreibschwäche IIRC) course at school, so her (new) teacher has obviously picked up problems too. She also had an assessment at a LOS centre last week - there are centres throughout Germany (it was founded in Saarbrücken, apparently) so I'm not sure whether there may be one near to you. Otherwise, is there a child psychologist you could go and see?

I don't know much about Dubai I'm afraid - some friends of ours went a couple of years ago and all I can remember is how shocked I was at the price (about ?2000 per person!). You generally seem to be able to get better deals online, but I've found that it can sometimes be useful to go to a travel agent first, find out what's available and then see whether you can get it any cheaper online.

Thanks Linzer, I'll look up LOS.
Trying to get dd to learn some more vocab for French as she didn't get far yesterday.

Hi everyone, been away ages.

We have moved. hurray etc etc. Bloody Vodaphone still haven't connected us though, so still no Festnetz & internet, hence lack of contact. Any suggestions on how to deal with these idiots??? So much for German efficiency. Pah.

In the mean time, I have managed to get Lymes disease, and ds3 school start has been a disaster (on day 3 called into school to be told things cannot continue like this, then last week, the Sonderpedagogin recommending special school (after just 4 weeks after starting school moving house and not knowing anyone. It has been traumatic to say the least. Still, the sun is shining. But we habve no phone did I mention that?

Hope you all well. Hello Ad etc.

Nice to hear from you again, was just wondering how things were going your way!
Sorry things aren't going too well by teh sound of it but how are you liking your new house?

We're with Telekom and they've always been really quick for our many moves. Would you consider changing? Maybe phone Vodaphone and threaten to change if things don't get sorted quicker. We have a flat rate thing with phone and dsl and that entertain package for 50 odd euro. Don't know how to work the TV thing so we don't use it!

What was the problem with school? Have you spoken to your ds - what's his version of what is going on?

re phone, problem is it is a brand new street (with an almost identical name to an existing street down the road, thanks Gemeinde ) and at first, Telekom hadn't made the necessary connection to the street itself, so Vodaphone was saying they couldn't do it cos of Telekom. But Telekom have now done the nec, and indeed, our neighbours are connected, but eveytime we phone Vodaphone, they just say Telekom can't give an appointment cos they don't know the street. However, most times when we phone Vodaphone they say you're in Josephastrasse, and Telekom say they don't know Josephastrasse, and we yell, no it's Josefaweg not Josephastrasse. And so it goes on. I don't know how long we have to put up with this shit till we can tell them to poke it without getting into a legal wrangle. I would happily tell them to shove it. I was all up for signing a new contract at the weekend, but dh more cautious than me.

Re school, ds3 is sitting under table with fingers in ears, refusing to do the work, saying eg it's 'scheiß langweilig' . Main complaints of teacher is he won't stay in seat, he can't stop himself making noises which disturb the class (either sharing his thoughts on the work or making annoying noises) and he often refuses to do it, and he is disastrously disorganised.

All of this classic ADHD symptoms ime. Teacher & Sonderpedagogin say they think ADHD with Hochbegabung. Teacher suggested moving up a year which I don't want as he's not mature enough, and due to growth problems, he's tiny and already picked on in his current class about his size. He also is finding the large group very stressful which I think is exacerbating his difficult behaviour. And Sonderped. suggested special school. Anyway, say psychologin again yesterday who was very supportive unlike the last time and totally against special school suggestion. Meeting with teacher again tomorrow, so we'll see. He has a chart with 3 goals on which the teacher fills out each day (nicht kommentieren, sitzen bleiben & organisation) and he generally comes home each day on average with or :)

Anyway, he's keeping me busy. (if I ask him how school is, he always says fine, so dunno if he really thinks it is, if he just says fine regardless or what)

How are yours getting on at gymi? My ds1 hates his english teacher with a passion. Dunno if I should go and see her. Do you have much to do with your kids' teachers at secondary level?

This year seems to be racing by. Does anyone else find that? Sorry I've gone on. Not got time to plough back through everything. Will try to get back into the loop.

Btw, the move has been great, love the house and location, there's a lot of positives, sorry if I've dwelt on the negs.

Ernest, thank goodness the psychologin sounds nice, atleast she's not pushing for Sonderschule. If he can't sit still you could ask about those balls to sit on - dd's old class teacher introduced them for two boys who couldn't sit still, they can sort of rock on them but you have to buy them yourself I think. They really helped the 2 boys in question (one of them was Hochbegabt too).

At Gymnasium you get official meetings with the teachers where you book your 5 minutes with the different teachers but it's a waste of time really so if you have serious problems you send in a note to ask for an appointment or ask the teacher to phone you. To be honest, I wouldn't unless it's really bad. What does he not like about teh English teacher? Ds hated his first Gymnasium teacher but he's lucky this year.

Westvan has the most experience and good advice. She wrote further down to canella:

"Canella - all I can say about English lessons is "grin and bear it". My two were born here and are fully bilingual but we realized early on that there's not much you can do about them being bored or not being challenged in English class. It does get more difficult in Gymnasium and mine rarely get top marks, usually because they substitute different vocabulary words or grammatical structures than they're currently covering in the class and the teacher takes off marks for that. We just laugh (in private at home!) at the teachers' odd pronunciation and mistakes."

oh ernest - nice to hear from you but sorry things have been so crap!! no help with any of your problems but just wanted to give you an un-MN hug! you sound like u really need it!

Aw thanks, i'm ok, glad ds3 is getting help at last and also glad for something to do, been so bloody busy with the move i was dreading a crashing blow down to boredom, ha, that hasn't happened!
Today I get my birthday piano, which as well as being exciting in itself also completes the sitting room iyswim.

Q for you all. Our elektriker was supposed to put up sat. Dish for uk tv before we mved in (15 Sep!), after much avoiding, not answering phone calls, not turning up etc, he finally comes at beginning of last week, only to announce he can't point it in right direction. (though he seems to have done neighbors to uk tv no prob?). Anyway, we gave him yesterday ultimatum to do it by today or we pay someone else to do it and deduct costs from his bill, and copied to builders. So builder calls me up and says she has spoken to him and he says he will do it early next week. Do I stick to my guns and insist on today, or do I accept early next week? Blody elektriker. He always seems like a nice bloke when he's here, but acts like a total are constantly.

How are you Canella. Any news? Any news from anyone else? What,s going on?

Hi Ernest, glad to hear the move went well but sorry to hear about the problems at school. Hope the meeting goes well today and that you can get things sorted out soon. A couple of friends of mine here are going through something similar - one had her DD assessed and it was decided she wasn't schulreif (so slightly different to your DS's situation) so she had her last day at our school yesterday and is about to start at Vorschule. My other friend's teacher has also suggested she take her DS to a psychologist and think about sending him to Vorschule for a year. I remember how awful I felt when we were called in to see DD1's teacher and told that she was struggling to keep up, but I can see now it could have been far worse - there was no talk of Vorschule and the teacher was quite supportive, giving us extra books to help with her reading, etc.
Sorry too to hear about your problems getting connected - very frustrating and the last thing you need atm, I'm sure.

canella - Hope your Frauenarzt appointment goes OK (have just seen your post on FB!); just think how much better you'll feel once you've got it out of the way, though. I like to think that my German is fairly fluent but I struggle with gynae talk, although it's usually far easier than I think (I discovered that cervical erosion and polyp are Erosionen and Polyp at my last appointment, for example!).

It's the start of a long weekend here today; DH has taken today and Monday off work (Tuesday is a bank holiday), but has swanned off to the hairdresser's so I'm on my own with the DC atm (who are being kept occupied by their new CBeebies DVD while I MN tidy up). DD1 then has her dyslexia lesson, followed by an appointment for DS at the speech therapist's (DS doesn't think he's pronouncing the 'sch' sound properly) and then we get the results from DD1's assessment test at LOS this afternoon. We're off to Kärnten tomorrow, so I really should think about packing at some point too - time to get off MN and do something productive, I think!

Hmm, difficult one about the electrician Ernest. If it were me, I'd be inclined to give him one more chance - but then I'm usually too lenient with people. It sounds like it might be slightly less hassle for you to wait a few more days rather than having to get someone else in to do it - but that would really have to be his last chance.

Gosh lots going on for Ernest...where do you live? My daughter just started school in sept. She is an August baby, a live wire, and I wondered if she could sit still for very long. By chance, about 5 children are younger than her (late sept and even oct birthdays) and at parent´s evening, some parents mentioned that they were concerned about their child´s ability to sit etc. The teacher has got them all clipboards and has a pile of rugs. Apparently, if they have trouble sitting at the desk, they can take their clipboard and rug and settle down on the floor..as long as they can write well there too. Hope you get your tv and phone connected soon.
Linzer- already on the weekend? Today is a normal school day in Vienna, but Monday and Tuesday are off. Have a good time away. Let´s hope it is crisp autumn sunshine rather than drizzle and greyness. I am half spanish and lived there for about 20 yrs..aspects of life in vienna remind me of life in spain. I am a double expat...I get my chorizo at spar and my tea in M&S in Bratislava!
Chore for the weekend is to find some warm boots and clothes for the children..are warm waterproof boots expensive everywhere or are there any bargains to be had? And has anyone seen a warm and waterproof coat for a 3 yr old? I have seen warm or waterproof but not both...and we like to go out in the rain, snow etc.
Have a good weekend all...stay warm and healthy!