Frühlingserwachen - spring finally seems to have arrived in Germany and Austria...

[LinzerTorte]

... or at least I hope so.

For everyone in Germany and Austria, and anyone else who would like to chat!

I usually only drive on the motorway when I go to visit my English friend, who inconveniently lives half an hour away. I was a nervous wreck the first few times I did it, but have got used to it now - although I still don't enjoy it. Unfortunately the trick of driving faster than everyone else wouldn't work here as I'd have to drive well above the speed limit (and would no longer be able to claim the moral high ground over DH, who has had a few fines for speeding on the motorway).

Canella You can't really go wrong at 19 pounds! The nearest Travelodge to where my friend lives is 4 or 5 miles away though, so we'll probably go for the Premier Inn - which sounds very similar, but isn't exactly a cheap option as we'd have to book two rooms (and needless to say, all the 29 pound rooms have gone - it'll cost 126 pounds altogether, without breakfast!). The guest house where we're staying in Chester looks far nicer, has had much better reviews and is far cheaper - but of course there's much more B&B competition there.

x posts bananas Yes, some of the drivers here do cut their corners a bit - but driving in Vienna seems far scarier to me (have only ever been a passenger when DH is driving, though). I have absolutely no sense of direction though, and find it quite easy to get lost even in B, so have been known to put the sat nav on for a five minute journey!
Enjoy the sunshine; I'm out in the garden at the moment and am hoping the DC will want to stay out as long as possible (although DD1 is already complaining that it's too hot).

Well, they ate the rösti without complaining and they haven't even been fighting yet! Both of them are still doing homework.

How do you book the hotels Linzer (in UK)? Do you contact the hotels directly or is it a site for reservations? In my search for an affordable hotel in Hamburg for dh I ended up on the EasyJet website and they had some good offers - unfortunately when i phoned the hotline with my chosed hotel it was fully booked so I ended up booking one on the Deutsche Bahn website!

Bananas, I learned to drive in the South of France with a very macho driving instructor who kept shouting 'accelerate'! I think he put me off driving from the start, he'd make me over take tractors on country roads too. He'd say overtake and I'd say no way then he'd shout 'go go go' until I overtook....I was exhausted after those lessons.

Did you get the work clothes online or did you go around the shops?

I booked the hotels directly; there wasn't a huge amount of choice at Manchester airport or in the town where my friend lives, and I used the roomfor5 website to find the guesthouse in Chester. We used a hotel reservations website to book the hotel where we'll be staying in London in the summer, however, and discovered afterwards that if we'd booked directly with the hotel, breakfast would have been included. DH thought we should cancel our booking and rebook with the hotel, but it seemed like too much extra hassle to me - I was also slightly worried about something going wrong.

It's been lovely and sunny here this afternoon, so I've spent most of it sitting outside in the garden with my book while the DC played (no quarrelling for once!). Have also been downloading some apps for my iPod now that I've got it working again and have decided that an iPhone would def. be very useful! I have six months to talk DH round, anyway. As I keep telling him, man gönnt sich ja sonst nichts - the only problem is that I have been gönning myself a little too much lately but have been earning less than I did last year.

Well they didn't want to deal with me because I didn't have insurance... so much like America it's disheartening. Told me to come back when I have it. BUT they also said they don't deal with EHIC cards/ NHS stuff...Basically need German insurance for that place.
DEEP BREATH.

ah bebe....I can´t believe it. What a tough, s**t time you are having. Any other place around there? Poor you. When are you back in the UK? I seem to remember you were going back around Easter. Can you be seen in the UK then? At least while you find a dr in Germany who will take you.

Yeah trying to see if I can get an ultrasound appt in UK... tho I cannot seem to get in touch with anyone with my practise today...I vaguely remember them having short hours on Fridays... (I already have a regular MW appt just really to touch base with them) Cannot remember who else I can call. Posted on the local MN to see if anyone else knows.
I can try and find another German GP will have need to see if I can find out over the phone if they will deal with me which I'm not looking forward to...
It's apparently 600euros for a proper 20 week scan...30 minutes worth of work for 600euros (once again I find I'm definitely in the wrong line of work)
Someone said for that amt of money I could fly back to the UK for the day

Oh no, how frustrating bebe. I hope you manage to find somewhere else that will accept EHIC cards - I wish I knew what to suggest, but I'm not very familiar with the German health care system. A friend of mine here is a gynaecologist and I'm seeing her on Monday, but I don't suppose there's any point in me asking her as the system in Austria is probably quite different. Do I remember rightly that you have an appointment with the midwife booked for when you're back in the UK?

Have just dropped off the DDs with a friend (DS went there straight after kindergarten) so I'm now child-free until tomorrow morning! Will be heading into Vienna a bit later to meet DH and go out for a meal.

Wow, Linzer you're so lucky, another evening off! I'm nearly atthe stage where I can leave my 2 at home alone to go out in the evening but usualyl I'm too tired or dh works too late! Hope you have a nice evening.

Bebe, Easter isn't too far away, hope you can get an appointment back home. Maybe you could get some travel insurance while you're home for the rest of your stay which would cover you and baby? Shouldn't be too expensive for 3 months worth.

All you ipod/phone people..I'venever even held one, what is so good about them? We've got old fashioned mobiles - should be in a museam really and no idea what an ipod does!? Looked on Amazon, is 200 to 300 Euro the price? There are so many though. The dc say loads of their school friends have them too - what are we missing?

extra insurance i.e. travel won't cover me because the pregnancy is 'pre-existing'

Yes, I paid just over 200 pounds for my iPod touch - I seem to remember it was cheaper on Amazon.co.uk than on Amazon.de. I've got all my music on it (and have bought a docking station so I can listen more easily, i.e. without earphones), you can go online and there are a huge amount of apps you can download - everything from useful (maps, train timetables) to addictive (Angry Birds, or so I've heard - I'm not even looking at it!). Some of them would be handy to have when I'm out and about (the ÖBB train times app, for example) so I was thinking that it would be quite useful to have an iPhone as I can only go online with my iPod at home (or where there's wi-fi), but I'm not sure I can justify the expense now that my iPod is working again. Everyone I know who has an iPhone loves it though, so I'm definitely going to ask for one for my birthday!

bebe I found insurance that would cover me in the USA despite my pregnancy being a pre-existing condition, but it was regular health insurance rather than travel insurance IYSWIM so a different situation from yours.

My sister got travel insurance when expecting. It's probably similar to the EHIC card and won't cover you unless it's an emergency. But, atleast you can go and see the doctor if you have pain or feel unwell, just not for regular check-ups.

Sister was 4 month when she came to visit me in Germany and had told her travel insurance place and they said OK. On day 5 of her visit she fainted in a bar one evening and was taken by ambulance to hospital, kept in for the night etc and insurance paid everything. I suppose you'd only get the travel insurance if you were only visiting but in a way, you will only be visiting your dh when you come back after Easter.

Good thing about taking out insurance is that they won't mess you about waiting for ages for a card like the EHIC one.

Bebe I was just discussing your situation with my (German) husband - hope you don't mind! I was wondering if a charity like Caritas might help somebody with no insurance in your situation, and asking him to help me understand some lines on their website. However it seems like there isn't any provision because it is almost impossible not to be insured - if you were unemployed and on benefits you would be insured by the state, but if you are a dependant of an employed person (your husband) their insurance has to cover you - he has just done some googling in German and said your DH must be insured or he wouldn't be able to be working here, even if he is technically self employed... Seems a crazy question but are you totally sure your DH doesn't have insurance through his employer? If he does it HAS to cover you unless he has voluntarily chosen the private insurance over public...

By co-incidence we just had Watchdog on in the background (we have UK TV) and there was a story about the EHIC card - it is just for emergencies so nobody will take it for routine check ups, so there is no point shopping around unfortunately as the provider cannot recover their costs from the NHS for non emergency care.

The only thing I can think of if the EHIC card is your only option is to pretend to have an emergency situation - pain or bleeding - and go to a hospital and they will then see you using your EHIC and scan you to ensure all is well (not a full on 20 week scan but a look...) - you would have to be quite brazen to do that but it would be possible! Early in my relationship with DH he came back over here from the UK to do some exams and I visited him for weekends here and there - being a care free 25 year old without dependants then I didn't even think of health insurance just for a weekend visit, but I got cystitis really badly for the first time in my life and didn't know what it was - DH took me to hospital, and even without any kind of health card they saw me and sis an ultrasound on my kidneys! (I wasn't pregnant!) and didn't try to charge me - that was in Regensburg and almost 11 years ago, but I was incredibly impressed (thought the treatment was better than I would have had in the UK) so I think emergencies are handled totally differently to routine care, and you wouldn't be turned away for lack of insurance.

I hope you find a solution here but I guess if not then your only option is to have your antenatal care in the UK - I assume you are going to be back in the UK full time well before the birth and know you will not be allowed to fly after about 34 weeks (worth checking the exact cut off with various airlines if you haven't already).

Good luck!

oh thats a nightmare Bebe.
Sorry but if I couldnt get insurance sorted and i was you i'd be heading back to the UK with or without dh. You and the baby need some regular monitoring that despite your best efforts you're not getting here.

admylin - i am very much in love with my ipod touch (which i got free from the shop where we bought our furniture) and dh is very much in love with his iphone (which he got as a hand me down from his db). But to buy them outright they are very expensive. But its the ease of having my emails at hand, being on FB and checking things quickly on the internet that i love. The games are also good - for me and for entertaining the dc when they're bored somewhere. I also have a shopping list app on mine - saves paper! Think i should have shares in Apple by how much i rave about them!!!

Well dh is away the whole weekend at a conference . Was looking forward to a quiet eve but ds1 was a nightmare at bedtime (was shouting "i hate you" cause i was putting him in the shower!) and dd was upset by the 3 and the 4 she got in her 2 tests this week. wouldnt have been better if dh had been here but at least i could have shared the misery with someone. So the wine is def open tonight!!!!!!

We're off to the swimming pool tomorrow to see if i can persuade ds2 to go under water. They've got their last 2 swimming lessons this week - ds1 can now swim and dive down (so will get his seepferdchen) but think ds2 was just too young for it. He's refusing to go under water at all.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

It might be worth checking the caritas thing out locally. Becuase there will be provision for people who fall through the net. I worked for caritas in spain for a while and know that was the case there. It might be worth phoning for advice bebe - they will probably speak english and have dealt with many situations like yours.

I am now really puzzled how we got both routine and emergency help in Finland with our EHIC. (DS did not even have a card as I forgot to get him one!). We were just treated, no questions asked and paid what the Finns would pay (iirc ?7 for first three visits in a year and free after that). I guess it might be that the Finnish policy goes above what the minimum EU requirements are ?

canella- wine sounds like it was well deserved. hope you enjoy the swimming. is getting dc showered a big deal in general or just yesterday? I ask because dds are dreadful about having a shower. It´s a daily battle that takes about an hour.

No swimming for us today - we are house bound. dh at work as usual. ds has got a cold which has affected his lungs. His breathing did not look normal yesterday afternoon so we rushed to the dr, got there 45 mins after her opening hours and she still saw us happily. Anyway he´s on his inhalers again- good job we have them all from the summer.

Linzer- very lucky you! hope you had a nice meal out!

Enjoy your weekends!

I didn't realise ipods were for the internet too - I thought they were very expensive mp3 players! Now I want one! Actually, dh has just got a new mobile, one of the cheaper smartphones but it has WLAN to go online with - however it won't connect to our home modem although the laptops all work with it. Not sure I dare change any more settings to teh modem though incase we lose the laptop connection again.

Canella, dd was like your ds, she was a great little swimmer but she couldn't go under water. She practised in the bath and everything but she hated it. In the end (just a year ago) she forced herself to just do it a few times in order to get her bronze badge but she still hates it. You will need alot of patience and praise, good luck!

Which subjects did dd get a 4 and a 3? We've had plenty of those and it is tough on them when they want to do well.

Ds used to be against showering/bathing but he's started now (teenager in May!) having loads of showers and spraying his body spray, stands at the mirror blow drying his hair etc! Changes all his clothes every day (grrr - huge washing pile) all we need now is for him to turn up with a girlfriend and the transformation will be complete. Grubby little rascal to handsome fresh smelling teen!

Dh is at work already, dd has gone swimming with 2 of her friends and ds has just emerged from his bed! I've done the shopping already and sent a job application of for Regensburg for dh....he's still not sure he's getting his contract again here. So, have a nice weekend everyone!

Admylin I don't have a smart phone of any kind either, I kind of think they are something you manage fine without until you have one, then you get addicted and can't live without! I guess I will get one, one day, but atm don't really miss what I have never had!

Bananasananas hope your son is better soon - colds always go to my son's chest too, leaving him wheezy and prone to nasty coughing fits where he thinks he will be sick, although my daughter can get the same cold and have nothing but a runny nose! Poor boys!

Canella good luck to your 2 getting their seepferdchen! DD got hers last year but I stupidly failed to keep up the swimming regularly enough, especially over winter (the local indoor pool is a small unattractive pool at the Realschule, open to the public out of school hours, and nicer pools are an off putting drive away, though the Friebad is great and not far, it's only open May-Sept obviously). She has now lost most of the ability and confidence she had at the end of her seepfedchen course and I am not totally sure how to get it back at the moment - have vaguely thought about her re-doing the course but it is quite expensive to do just as a refresher, and quite demanding time wise (4 times a week!). We were told at the parents eve for school starters that the kids need to be able to swim 50 meters (without any kind of float obviously) by the time they start second class and that it is the parents responsibility to enrol them in classes outside school or teach them as the schools don't have the facilities... You would never get a UK school issuing demands like that I don't think!

I have been pondering something about school actually, maybe those with school age kids can advise, although I think it may be a bit Bayern specific... DH and I are agnostic/ atheist, Bayern is strongly Catholic - DD had her Schuleinschreibun on Thursday, and I was all disorganised due to DS having come down with another virus and being too ill for KiGa, therefore needing to arrange a babysitter for him etc. and had not really thought through the questions I would be asked when doing the paperwork etc. Anyway the only one that threw me was the religion one - I was only asked if she is Catholic or Evangelical... I was wondering what others have answered that question (obviously if you are one or the other it is a no brain question, but if you are non religious...). I am uneasy with her being taught Christianity as "truth" thb and with other religions not being on the syllabus here the way they would be in UK RE lessons, but also know she is a child who likes to be like her friends - I don't want her being off on her own in a separate room with a colouring sheet while the other children are indoctrinated into taught about Catholicism... I am also aware that if we "go with the flow" and put her in with the Catholics it is a huge thing as she may/ will want to do Holly Communion or whatever like everyone else - she is not Christened and we don't pay Church tax and I would just not be able to enter into the spirit of all that little girls in pseudo wedding dresses stuff! She is quite bright in her way (not sure she is academic, but she can get her head around concepts quite well for her age) and she understands very well that some people believe the religious stories she hears at KiGa and others think they are just stories, that some people believe that dead people go to heaven and others believe they turn back into soil for the flowers to grow in.... and I have even mentioned Buddhist belief in karma and re-incarnation just to show her people have all sorts of beliefs. I let them put her down as Evangelical as the "lesser of 2 evils" - they said there are usually a group of about 7 children from first and second classes combined in the Evangelical group and the rest are Catholic - no other option (though DH tells me Ethics will be an option later on, after 4th class perhaps).

What have others selected as religion for your DC at school if you are not religious yourself, and what impact has the decision had on your children?

Sorry that is a long one, not concentrating well either as decided to get laptop out quickly while kids were playing happily outside (have been outside with them for hours already), but of course the instant I switched it on they came to find me to nag and nag for me to do things for/ with them - argh!

Hope you are all having good weekends!

2and1ontheway, I know when ds was in primary school in south of Germany the muslim dc just didn't have lessons when the catholic and evangelisch had their lesson. It was once a week (I think) and they just went home as it was last lesson. In Berlin there was an option for doing the religions or for Werte und Normen - I think it was offered because the majority of the dc were muslim.

It did bother dd that her best friend was in the catholic group and now it bothers her that 2 friends are in a different group but she is with her other friend. If you want her to try the religion class she can, one of the Turkish girls went to religion class because she didn't want to be left out and her parents were the liberal kind of muslim so prefered that she got 45mins of teaching than be sent home. What does your dd say?

2and1 We're not particularly religious but have gone with the flow and are bringing the DC up Catholic, and DD1 had her first communion last year. I know that one of DD1's friends was left to decide for herself and so was christened about six months before her first communion, although I don't think she opted out of RE classes. The mother of one of DD2's friends was in a similar situation to you last year as she's not religious and her DH is quite anti-Catholic, but the RE teacher said it was OK for her DD to try out the classes to see if she wanted to go to them and she decided she did.

Continuing on the theme of religion, we went to an open day at a local Gymnasium today - well, I say local but it would be a 45 minute bus journey. It's got an excellent reputation and seems to have a very caring and supportive environment, but it's also very Catholic so I don't think DD1 would have much chance of getting in. One of the first questions on the application form is whether the parents were married in church (we were planning to, but never got round to it!) and there's a whole page on whether the child is a Ministrant, goes to any (Catholic) youth groups and the parents' involvement in the church (I doubt that going to the monthly Familienmesse counts for much). DD1 isn't keen on the idea of the long bus journey anyway, but it'll be interesting to see how the other secondary schools in our town compare.

admylin I can't wait until the DC voluntarily start having showers; they have them once in a blue moon at the moment, and it's a real struggle to get them to have a bath.

bananas Sorry to hear about your DS - how frustrating to be housebound in this lovely sunny weather (even if it's not as warm out as it looks). If DS gets a cold his lungs are always quite badly affected too, but he's definitely been a lot better since we saw the paediatrician in Perchtoldsdorf, who recommended that he inhales once a day.

Canella Hope the wine helped last night; that def. sounds like a stressful evening. Hope you enjoyed the swimming today; I really need to start taking the DC more regularly again, although at least DD1 is doing the swimming course at school.
I can't believe your school expects children to be able to swim 50 m by the start of the second year 2and1 - I doubt DD2 will be able to (although DD1 went from not being able to swim at all to being able to swim a couple of lengths after two or three lessons at about the same age, so I haven't completely given up hope!).

This thread moves fast. I´ve had real problems with my computer for the last week, but have bought a new graphic card today and it seems to have fixed the problem.

2and1 - we´re not religous either and I was really thrown when asked which group I wanted dd to be in. Most children here are evangelical and so I put her in that group. In the first year she had a lovely teacher who covered creation stories from around the world etc. This year the teacher is much more bible focussed, but is often ill, so hard to judge. I did find it quite amusing last week when dd asked me where her name originated and when I answered it was biblical, she claimed she had never heard of the bible. We´ve always made it clear to her that we don´t believe, but it is up to her to make up her own mind. There are maybe 2 or 3 children in each class who don´t take part and they go off and colour in pictures.

Canella - hope the swimming went well. Both mine have their seepferdchen, but as 2and1 says it´s quite hard keeping it up. When we go swimming as a family the dc just want to muck around and I realised after a while that they couldn´t swim very far because they were out of practice. Now i try to make sure we swim some lengths awell as messing around.

Hope you´re all making the most of the lovely weather.

morning!!!
swimming went well yesterday - DS1 was really good - swimming well underwater and had some good practice diving down to pick things up. DS2 def wont get his seepferdchen but has made huge leaps in what he can do - he had so little air in his arm bands yesterday but still managed to swim about and managed to jump in and be under the water without any panic. Wont book him in for the next block of swimming classes tho - they start tennis lessons in a few weeks and I want them to concentrate on that. And since the weather is better then we'll be in the pool more often so i can just continue what they've learned.

2and1 - exact same problem here with the religion classes. We wrote "no religion" on the form for ds1 where it asked what religion he was and that seemed to confuse them completely. The headteacher wrote a note back saying it wasnt possible for him to have no religious lessons so which one did we want. We'll go with the Evangelische ones - thats what we do with dd and then discuss it at home to explain that its not necessarily the whole truth. The boys kiga is a very catholic kiga and the boys are forever discussing Jesus but only as if its a fairytale (which it is in my head!). Hope you get it sorted.

Bananas - the shower thing isnt normally a problem for us (sorry its trouble in your house) but ds1 is so over tired in the eves that he just sometimes gets proper grumpy. He is so busy at kiga then he plays out nearly every day with his friends in the village. So by the time i wanted him to go in the shower he was exhausted! cant wait admylin till they voluntarilly (?sp) go in the shower.
bananas - hope your ds feels better soon - shame to be stuck indoors when the weather is so nice.

DD's 3 and 4 were for Deutsch and HSU but both related to the stuff she had learned at the Schullandheim - all about water. I was cross with her because she just hadnt bothered to revise even tho she knew she had a test and hadnt even told her so we could help her revise. She gets her Ubertritt Zeugnis in 3 weeks and is now stressing that she wont get in the Gymnasium because of these results. I'm sure it wont make a huge difference but we'll have to see on the 2nd May.

admylin - do you not find that really stressful that your dh only has a short contract - it must be a bit unnerving to think you all might have to move again. Does he have anywhere that he wants to end up working at in a longer post or will it always be short term contracts?

well off to get sorted - weather nice again so think we're going to go to the Wildpark thats near us where there's some great playgrounds for my dogs boys to wear themselves out at. Dh will be back tonight but it took him 5 hours to get to Dresden so think it'll be late. Hope i get a bit of peace this eve since there has been none so far!

have a nice sunday

Thanks for the advice and experiences on the religion classes at school everyone. admylin I haven't asked dd - although I would be totally guided by her and let her have her preference rather than impose mine if I thought it was a meaningful question to her atm, I think the Catholic/ Evangelical distinction is a bit complex for a 5 year old to make a decision on (as opposed to Christianity/ Hinduism or some such distinct choice which could be explained fairly easily, or wanting to learn about the "Jesus god" or to learn about all the gods people in the world believe in etc.) Maybe if we took her to each kind of service on consecutive weeks she would have a direct comparison but I really don't fancy doing that atm largely just because selfishly it's not how I want to spend my last 2 Sunday mornings before the baby arrives - and - it is something I would do if she asked me to but I am reluctant to initiate! She has been to Christenings in both types of church but not especially recently (in fact the last Catholic one was when she was only 3.5) and I am not sure she'd remember enough to compare...

I am glad to hear there is a degree of flexibility and being able to try the classes out so I guess I will try to remember to keep asking her if she wants to swap once she is at school... I assume most of her friends will be in the Catholic group but I don't know 100% (so can't just ask dd which friends she wants to be in the religion class with) as I don't really discuss religion with her friends mums, and there is no church of any kind in our village so I guess church goers get in the car and drive to church, and I don't know from observation who does what! Our immediate next door neighbor gigglingly confessed to me last easter that her DC won't eat fish and she had let them have Wiener Wurst on good Friday, as if she was confessing to some quite significant piece of naughtiness, and was rather non plussed by my not being shocked... so I assume she makes the assumption everyone is Catholic...

I think I will do a post on the children's book boards about books on world religion for year 1 age children, as I feel she will miss out on the broad coverage of different religious traditions she would get in a UK school, especially as where we live is not culturally diverse the way a city would be...

Bananas my kids still love baths - what age do I have to expect that to change! DS would have two baths (or maybe more) a day if I let him, but he is only 3.5 and he loves being naked still ! He is afraid of the shower and doesn't like hair washes much but is happy to get in the bath and stay there til the water is cold! DD (5.5) has phases of liking showers because it makes her feel grown up, but more often gets in the bath with DS and they play for hours - I am hoping to subtly persuade her to switch her over to showers thinking it is all her own idea before long so that when baby is sitting I can bath the 2 boys and put DD in the shower (separate cubicle in the same room) all at once!

Canella sorry about your DD's 3 and 4 - hope it doesn't contribute to gymnasium entrance decisions, hopefully not as they have a lot of tests don't they so 2 weaker marks shouldn't weigh in too heavily hopefully - maybe if she is worrying about it, it will serve the purpose of a bit of a wake up call to take responsibility for revising in future!

Have good Sundays everyone!

Looking into getting private scan in UK while there (cannot get one on NHS as they're all booked) have to call BUPA on Monday otherwise I'll be going with babybond group. :)
Had nice time out again with Moo, we found ourselves at a beach and she had a great time in the water. :)

Hope everyone's Sundays are going well.

It's lovely and sunny here today so we're all out in the garden - DD1 is helping DH with the gardening while I read and MN keep an eye on DD2 and DS. The DDs have their piano concert this afternoon and we've promised them that we'll go for an ice cream afterwards, which will be our first of the year.

2and1 My three do actually like having baths but hate having their hair washed, so it can be a bit of a struggle to persuade them to have a bath if it's a hair washing night. They'll play quite happily for ages in the bath once they're actually in there, though.
I was quite surprised at how similar Catholic and C of E services are when I first went to church here - so much of the service could be translated word for word. One of my friends here (an Irish Catholic) felt that her son was being indoctrinated by the RE lessons at school (her DS started saying a blessing before meals, talking much more about God, etc.) but I can't say I've noticed any difference with the DDs (apart from the fact that DD1 calls God "der liebe Gott" if she talks about him in German).

Canella Hope you get to enjoy a nice peaceful evening tonight - it's so frustrating when you've been looking forward to it and it doesn't happen.
I'm sure your DD will be OK despite the two test marks; as 2and1 said, they seem to be constantly being graded so two lower marks hopefully shouldn't make that much difference in the grand scheme of things. We're keeping our fingers crossed that DD1 will get a 2 in German in her end-of-year Zeugnis so that she at least has the option of going to a Gymnasium; if she gets a 3, I don't think that even having proof that she's dyslexic will be much help.

That shows the differences between the different states in German schooling. Canella said it wasn't possible to not have religion class in Bayern, but in Baden Würrtemberg they just sent the dc home if they didn't have religion. I also remember them saying (but can't remember which state as my dc have had primary schooling in 3 states!) that once you sign up for one class they can't opt out until the next year or something like that.

Just had to come in from my sunbathing session on the balcony as it's too hot and i'm getting a sunburn! Wish we had a garden, perfect garden pottering day! Ds is doing school work and dd is sulking in her room for some unknown teenagerish reason. Dh is at work again, trying like mad to get another publication under his belt.

Yes, Canella, it is a pain when dh always only gets a contract for a few years. It's very unnerving to think we all might have to move again and I have given up on trying to settle. He's hoping to get his Privat Dozent here in a year or so, that's like assistant professor and then he would be sure of a long term job. Trouble is he's still waiting to see what the big boss says and if he'll give him one or two more years to prepare as he needs a few more publications to qualify. He's getting plenty of teaching experience as he has now had quite a few students, medical students who are doing their Doktorarbeit.