Sommer, Strand und Sonne - life in Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

A thread for all those living in Germany or Austria, and for anyone else who would like to chat.

Hi there - another MNetter in DE here - near Essen,NRW.

My DCs are now (almost)7, 4 and 18mos. The eldest one had 2 years in kiga and it really was only after he'd done the 1st year that the German came. DS2 is just (today!) beginning his second year at kiga and is not as verbal as DS1 as he's been processing 2 languages for longer and is taking his time learning - but he's getting on OK and is defo speaking more German - and understands pretty much everything he's asked.

We were pretty blase about the whole move and were surprised how long it took DS1 to pick up the language - though now after 3 years his german is waaaay better than mine!!

DD1 has 2 words - Mama, Dada and Tschuss! We'll see where she gets!

Nice to chat with others in the same situation!

Hi and welcome doradoo. How do you like living in Essen?

DH and I are going out shopping for the day tomorrow to make up for our missed trip to London; it won't be quite the same but better than nothing. Having complained about the shops where my parents live, I've realised they're actually quite good compared to where we live in Austria. I miss being able to go to charity shops (have found loads of books in the ones here) and the shops here are generally much more affordable. It's a good thing we don't live in the UK as I'm tempted to spend far more money here but DH would probably be on a much lower wage.

Welcome doradoo. Nice to get some more 'members' on the thread! How long have you been in Germany?

Linzer, I agree with the joys of finding books in second hand shops! I've just re-read a book from last year as I've run out again. It was a good one though! Have a nice shopping day! Tell us what you get seeing as I haven't set foot in a shop in UK for over 2 years I'm getting withdrawl symptoms. Online shopping isn't the same!

Hi Doradoo!

Another one here who misses shopping in the UK. I have to admit I spend a lot less money here though, especially on clothes. (Something DH is obviously very pleased about :) )

Hello to everyone - it´s great to see some new names on the thread.

lanook -I hope your dd is not so tearful today. Could the Kindergarten maybe pair her up with an older child that could keep an eye on her. This worked quite well in my dc´s Kiga when new children started.

Linzer - I´m very . I can´t wait for my next trip to England for a leisurely browse through a bookshop.

We had a great weekend with dh´s relatives despite the rain. Mind you, I spent all day yesterday washing bedding and cleaning up, so I´m pleased his aunt has offered to go back to hosting next year.

Morning all!! Welcome to the newcomers - as much as I love the thread regulars its always great to get some new posters! Unfortunately i'm typing this on my ipod and cant go back to check the names and i've forgotten them !! Old age!!

Ds2 was only 2.7 when he went into kiga and his german was non existant. I have to say it was a while before he was "happy" at kiga - probably about a year but we just had to persevere with it. It did help that he only went for a couple of hours each day to start with but as we became more friendly with other families in the village, his german improved and he became happier at kiga. But his German language is now (2 years later) on a par with the local kids. A new kiga member of staff didnt know he spoke another language!

admylin - impressed with your letter - way better than anything I could write. Have you heard back from him?

hupa - how is your ds settling into school?

linzer - hope you enjoyed the shopping. I'm another one who misses the variety in british shops. How is it going staying with your parents? Are you there for 3 weeks?

later - glad you dont have to see your dn again before the baby comes. Hope her behaviour improves after the baby comes. The weeks are going by so fast - not long till your due date.

So we had a fab holiday in Austria - rained a bit in the night but every day was dry and the last few were hot. Did some serious hiking - got to the summit of 5 mountains!!! All about 2000m - didnt start from sea level obviously but still climbed up about 500m - 700m which is good going for the dc. There was much moaning from my pre teen dd but the boys did really well. Feel ashsmed tho linzer that i said "hallo" and "tschuss" to everyone we met - had no idea that wasnt the done thing in Austria .
But would thoroughly recommend that part of Austria for a summer holiday - there was a bit of something for everyone.

Feel like i've come back to a washing nightmare tho - with 3 dc in the house, i would never not have the machine on for a week so feel thats all i've done since we got back. Need to find a holiday house next year with a washing machine.

Just got back from a morning in town, didn't manage to spend a cent on myself. In UK I can always find stuff be it books or clothes or even shoes. Here I can atleast spend some money on dd! She got some tops, a ladder for her gerbil and some paint brushes for school art!

I have just had a huge order from a acatalogue too - sending it all back. One thing had funny buttons on that didn't show up on the photo, one was meant to be linen but was more like kartoffelsack material, one pair of jeans were more like extreme 70's flairs rather than decently bootcut, etc etc - I can't find clothes here. Maybe I should be looking in the really expensive shops but I know what things cost in UK and then I can't bring myself to be conned out of so much money. Oh well, as dd said I'll just have to get some light tops over there when we go on holiday!

Sounds like you had a lovely active fresh air holiday canella! How is the kitchen looking?

I didn't even get an answer from the headmaster yet. Not sure what to do? Give him a few days more chance to answer as I know he'll just be back at work this week so maybe busy? It's going to be a long hard school year. Have to try and think positive.

Here's a tip for readers in DE - www.bookswapper.de - you register books you don't want anymore and can swap for books off the site - it's all for English books!

Thanks doradoo - have registered already and will have a look tonight for books that i'd happily give away.

Admylin - i also struggle to find clothes here that I like and being a size 14 doesnt help i dont think. I've bought a few tops recently tho from Vera Moda - they seem to fit me well and they are often long length which i like.

That looks like a good site, doradoo. I had a look at a UK book-swapping site not long ago but it was only for direct swaps; this seems like a better system. Shame it doesn't cover Austria, though!

admylin A shame about your catalogue order; I find it much easier (and cheaper) to buy clothes in the UK too. I used to shop quite a lot at H&M but haven't found much I like there recently. It must be frustrating that you haven't heard back from the headmaster, but I would give it a few more days. When do your DC start back?

Canella Sounds like you had a great holiday. I wouldn't worry too much about saying hallo and tschüß - you'll just have outed yourself as German. No, seriously, the German spoken in a lot of regions of Austria is often more informal than where we are. Have just checked with DH and he said that yes, people in Steiermark would tend to say "grüß euch" rather than "grüß Gott". The more mountainous the area, the more informal the people, I've found!

hupa Glad to hear you had a good weekend.

Later The amount I spend when we're over here would put DH off ever moving to the UK, I think!

Talking of spending, we had a good day out but inevitably spent rather a lot. We started off at Tesco - I wish we had shops like that in Austria rather than having to go to two or three different supermarkets to get the weekly food shop done - and then did the rounds of the charity shops (I managed to buy yet more books; I 'm sure I have enough to keep me going until Christmas now, esp. as I haven't even finished all the books I brought back after Christmas). We also did a bit of clothes shopping, went to Superdrug and Boots (I just can't get excited about DM in the same way, which never has any good offers either) - and that took up virtually all our time there; there are plenty of other shops I'd have liked to go to, but it will have to wait until another time. Mind you, we'd run out of money by mid-afternoon anyway!

I can hardly believe we'll be flying home in four days; this visit seems to have gone even more quickly than usual (we're here for 2.5 weeks altogether, Canella). We'll then be back in Austria for less than two weeks before we fly back to the UK again for the christening.

Thanks for the website recommendation doradoo - DH and I have books "double parked" on our bookshelves and rarely re-read, so I've listed a random pile and got a "token" for the first 5 - now I can't actually find anything on there that grabs me (and that I haven't already read)! But I have a few books to read atm, I am sure when booklessness looms something will appeal, there are certainly plenty of books listed.

Ooh thanks for the website recommendation, Doradoo, I'll definitely check that out this afternoon.

Admylin How frustrating about your catalogue order! I bet you were really looking forward to it arriving, too.

Linzer Glad your shopping trip was successful.

I think I've just won the supermarket Bad Mother of the Year award...
I only realised when the woman behind me in the queue was checking out my shopping (as I do to other people all the time) that my shopping consisted of:
Burgers (craving), Haribo (craving), wine (for DH) and snuff tobacco (for my brother, he requested it for when he comes over next week).
The penny only dropped when she checked out my shopping, then my huge bump, then looked away with a sneer. Oops!
The Haribo have really hit the spot though :o

Just wanted to report back: we had a lovely time in Cologne. I had no problems breastfeeding in cafes, restaurants, galleries & boats(!) and people were generally happy with us taking the baby & pram into places.

Especially impressed with the ICE train from Brussels-Cologne with its special parent & baby compartment with space for prams & kids. Amazing.

Thanks for reassuring me before we left. It really was a lovely trip.
Best wishes to you all.

Citizen- glad you had a great trip.

Later I love looking at other people´s shopping. There´s one little old lady here who regularly has a few vegetables, a bit of meat, some cat food and a bottle of vodka in her basket. Maybe she entertains a lot, but I doubt it.

Canella- ds has settled in well at school, but yesterday dd was ill and he wasn´t at all happy about going while she stayed at home. He made me laugh the other day when he said he´d go in for the zweite Stunde because he wanted to play a bit before going to school. Needless to say, he wasn´t pleased to find out he had no choice about when he had to be there. Have you got everything sorted for your ds- Schulranzen, things for the Zuckertüte etc.?

doradoo thanks for the tip. I´ll check it out, although I must admit I find it really difficult to get rid of books.

Summer had briefly returned here, so I´m planning to make the most of it whie it lasts.

Citizen - glad it all worked out. I find people more tolerant here of breastfeeding than in the UK (altho i never had any prob there for the few weeks i did it).

Later - LOL at your shopping basket! Hope its not too small a community you live in or you'll be getting a name for yourself!!!

Hupa - bless your DS - think he's yet to realise that thats it for dossing about in the mornings!!! I've got DS's Ranzen and enough stuff to fill half the Schultüte but nothing else. The boys go back to kiga next week - we've paid till the end of August for DS1 so he'll go for the last 8 days - so I'm hoping to get some shopping done for his school stuff then. Unrealistically aiming to buy it all in one day!
Oh and of course his colour coordinated first day outfit!!!!

Off to a maze this afternoon in a maize field! Went last year - the dc have to find clues - took us well over an hour to find them all. Might be harder in the heat today - we're in the middle of summer finally.

Thank you for all your replies - i'm sorry I have not responded - I thought the post had been lost when I posted it and have only just got round to trying to post again.

DD is 3.5 yrs and had been in an english speaking nursery where we used to live and there had struggled to settle for quite a while - I look back now and she really took 6 months to get comfortable. I feel guilty as I rushed things and it completely backfired. I also have a DD 2.25 yrsI am slow and want to sort out a group/kita for her as well at some point when the first DD is settled.

We live west of Frankfurt in Hessen and I am really keen to learn German - my DH company is paying for some private lessons and I have bought Rosetta stone (don't know if anyone has experience of it). we lived in belguim before and so much english spoken that neither of us learned french or flemish and it spoiled my enjoyment of being there in the end.

I am slowly trying to find toddler groups and afternoon activities as I have both children each afternoon and finding things to do is a challenge right now.

thank you again

I wanted to ask about cheapest/best ways of getting back to the UK - I understand ICE might have a fast train to london from frankfurt next year so until then how do people go back and how often? I would like to start thinking of going abck when DH is away sometimes.

And - sorry - has anyone got Alice for their internet connection and have you managed to receive emails through microsoft outlook? I cannot get the settings correct on the outgoing mail server and have tried several times. thank you!

Lanook, I know how you feel having two close in age and no family nearby. I lived in a small village when my 2 were babies and I was very lonely,although we knew people in the next town no one came out so far to visit, we had to drive every where to activities and to meet ups and then the general exhaustion. It does get better though!

We don't have Alice but I tend to use the hotlines and even if it's expensive to get the telekom technician to guide me through it on the phone, it's worth it for my sanity. Is there a service hotline for Alice? You might be lucky and get a someone who speaks english.

Cheapest way for us to fly to UK was with Easy Jet or HLX, sometimes Air Berlin. Before the dc start school you can fly anytime so you can take advantage of the cheap flight offers. The prices are always higher in the school holidays.

well, we've had guests for teh last couple of days and they left this morning at 6am, getting up at 5am to see them off was hard work! I am planning a siesta this afternoon after lunch!

Lanook - i'm in Bayern but not far from Hessen and I take the train to Frankfurt and fly from there. It depends how west you are but there are always good deals from Frankfurt Hahn but its a 3 hour drive for me to Hahn so i've never been.

Admylin - hope your enjoying your siesta. I didnt sleep well due to thunder so i think i deserve one too!

Went with a friend (who's ds is also starting school) and got all ds1's stuff for school this morning. Was 44€ which altho is a lot of money, was less than I thought it was going to be. Now just need to get the schultüte sorted.......

Lanook - I think I'm not too far from you (Wiesbaden) and I tend to fly from Frankfurt with FlyBe when I go back to the UK. It all depends where you are flying to, but if you book in advance they seem to be the cheapest. (Although my brother is coming to visit next week and he found a better deal with KLM, but it would mean changing in Amsterdam). I think in the past we have found cheaper flights from Cologne-Bonn too (HLX - I think they are TuiFly now, Germanwings etc) but it's a 2 hour drive from here.
I'm afraid I can't help with the Alice problem, but as someone else suggested, if you try the hotline they might have an English speaker. Good luck!

Admylin - hope you enjoyed your nap. 5am is a ridiculous time to be up!

Canella - how are you getting on with the Schultüte? I would have no idea what to put in one, but DH seems to think it's fairly straightforward.

Had a bit of a scare this morning but rushed down to the Dr's to find everything was fine - phew! We're off to Hamburg this weekend for a wedding and the weather forecast is sunny and pleasant! An old friend lives in Hamburg too so am hoping to meet up with him for a coffee on Sunday before the drive back. I'm really looking forward to it :)

lanook I´m in north Hessen and if I´m on my own usually fly from Paderborn to Stansted with Air Berlin (unfortunatley I think they are discontinuing this route). If we´re going as a family we drive to Calais and take the ferry to Dover. Usually we´re only going to London, so not much of a drive once we get to England.
Sorry can´t help with Alice.

Later I hope you had a great time at the wedding.

admylin Has your dh heard any more about his job?

My niece is arriving later to spend a few days with us. She´s 15 and is really brilliant at entertaining the dc, so I´m looking forward to a relaxing week!

Sorry so many questions! I want to find out about toddler activities - maybe LaterAlligator? I need to fill my afternoons with 2 small children and right now don't know too many people or things to do. Lots of things seemed to be aimed at slighter older children (mine are 2 and 3 yrs).

Any ideas/help would be really appreciated.

Lanook could you google Familien-Bildungsstätte for your area. Sometimes they offer courses for small children with a parent or even maybe an english speaking playgroup. That's how I met a few people when I first moved and my dc were that age.

Another idea would be to put an ad in the local paper asking if anyone wants to meet up. I answered one ad like that and it turned out that both ds were the same age and our dh's came from the same area! I know it sounds wierd to answer or place ads but you get to a point where the lonliness drives oyu crazy!

Hupa, nice to have a niece like that. Hope you do get abit of a rest! How's school going?

Remember the letter I sent to try and get some info from the school about dd's dyslexia - and asking for an appointment. Well the headmaster just passed the letter on to the class teacher who told dd to 'tell your mum that you can only get help when you start your therapy'. So same old answer. Now I have to try and get through to them again as it's still not what the Jugendamt told me they should be saying. Bit fed up at them ignoring my request for a meeting, not that I was looking forward to it anyway.

Oh no, how frustrating admylin. After all that effort you went to with the letter as well. I really hope you can get something sorted soon.

lannook You may find that most toddler groups etc. don't start up again until September; we moved to Austria in July (eight years ago) and most activities had already stopped for the summer. Playgrounds can sometimes be a good place to meet people too or at least find out about local activities.

hupa Your niece sounds great. DH's niece is 17 and really good with the children; we were hoping that DD1 could go and stay with them at the end of this week, but unfortunately she doesn't want to go (I know she'd enjoy it once she's there - she's stayed with my ILs on her own before - but I can't and don't want to force her to go).

Canella I need to buy all the school stuff too (was going to do it this morning, but ran out of time), although at least we don't have a Schultüte to worry about this year. We'll also need things for DS at KiGa as he's now a Vorschulkind, but at least it's just pens and pencils etc., not exercise books.

We arrived back home at midnight on Saturday after a very long journey. It made me realise how much I take the efficiency of Austrian trains for granted; there seems to be a major problem/delay about every other time we take the train in Britain. This time, our train to the airport got stuck behind another one that had broken down for the best part of two hours. Luckily we still made our flight, but it was all a bit of a rush at the airport.

DS went back to KiGa today, but the girls don't start back for another fortnight. At least they'll be at the school warm-up week next week, so I might be able to get something done in the mornings. It's chaos here at the moment; I've unpacked (sort of) but haven't got enough room to put everything away. The bookcase is now full, and I need to declutter my clothes before I can put away the new things I bought.