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.

I think Onkel Deprius' dunkles Erbe was the first one, it starts with the family sitting down to Schmeißfliegensalat!

Die 3 Fragezeichen seems to be popular here, in every book shop there are loads of them on the shelf and we always have to order the books my dc read! Ds is enjoying Andy Mcnab and the Cherub Top Secret books at the moment in German.

My fridge has started humming again, I wonder if it wa sjust recovering from the night of open door. Inside at the back it was covered in ice so maybe that switched the thermostat thingy off until it all melted. I hope so....on teh other hand my washing machine is getting very loud, I know it's on it's last legs. I just wish it would hold out to the end of the year atleast!

I'm meant to be bringing dh's teaching statement up to scratch for his job application. He has to write 2 to 3 pages of his future research plans and 1 page about his teaching intentions/directions to add to the application. Not easy.

Where's the job he's applying for? Is it the Ann Arbor one, or has he applied for that already?

Have just googled Die Rottentodds and you're right, the Onkel Deprius one is the first in the series so I'll order that later. I also googled Die drei ??? and surprise surprise, it's originally an American series called The Three Investigators.

Good news on the fridge although not so good on the washing machine; fingers crossed it holds out for a bit longer.

Yes it's the Ann Arbor one, he's sent the initial application cover letter and CV but they want the 2-3 pages research and 1 page teaching statement. It's difficult to write as dh has taught many medical students on their way to their titles but never really stood and taught lectures or such like. Have to be creative to stretch it out to a full page. Double space between lines maybe but that would make it obvious!

Linzer I assume that's The Magic Faraway Tree (by EB). I loved those books when I was a child. I find there are generally fewer original German books in bookshops here than English in UK bookshops. There aren't that many recent German books that become international bestsellers, either.

admylin glad to hear your fridge is coming back to life. Our washing machine is also getting more and more rattly (our downstairs neighbour brought round a thck foam mat to stand it on, so it was obviously bothering them .

Canella glad to hear school starts went well. Hope you enjoyed your child-free morning.

Monday at kiga was awful, the main erzieherin for the group was away on a training day and dd apparently cried all morning. Yesterday and today she cried when we left the house and screamed when I said goodbye at kiga, but they managed to distract her and calm her down fairly quickly. I guess the resistence to going will continue for a while, but if she's ok while she's there, that's not too bad.

That must be so difficult for you silken, even though it seems to be a fairly normal stage for 2-3 year olds (from what I saw at the DC's nursery). I always felt so guilty about leaving the DC if they were still crying, but I knew that they wouldn't calm down until I'd gone - and that once I'd gone, they would calm down very quickly (I would sometimes sneak a look a few minutes later). Like you said, as long as she's happy while she's there, that's the main thing - it's hard leaving them when you can see they're unhappy at saying goodbye, but it's not a phase that lasts for ever.

Well, that's what I thought when someone first told me about the Magisches Baumhaus books and assumed I would have heard of them, but when they said there were about 50 books, I thought maybe not EB after all... they're actually by an American writer called Mary Pope Osborne. The DC love the Magic Faraway Books too; I'm reading the Folk of the Faraway Tree to them as their bedtime story at the moment, in fact.

Magisches Baumhaus books are great, the dc go inside it and pass through to different times or magical places and have adventures. Shame my dc never liked the couple I read to them when they were smaller as I love anything to do with history! Not sure how educational they are meant to be but the idea is good! Another tip for your dd1 Linzer, very easy and sweet stories about a boy who makes friends with a vampire-boy Kleine Vampir and it's actually by a German author. There are over 10 books so the good thing is if she likes them you can just keep supplying them!

Silken, that must be so hard. Well done for sticking to it though. I had similar with dd and I pulled out of the whole kindergarden thing for a year longer. I'm too soft though as dd sometimes tells me!

Still no further with the teaching statement thing. Will try later when dd is at hockey. One of the other mums is taking her today and I'm taking both girls on Friday.

That's weird with those books. Are they popular in the States, I wonder? Maybe tadjennyp can enlighten us.

It certainly sounds like most of my friends' 2-3 year olds are reacting simiarly to starting kiga. I would love to leave dd when she isn't crying, but, as you say, Linzer, it isn't possible when they start crying when you say you are about to leave.

I was wondering that too, silken. I don't remember ever seeing any there, but as DD1 was 15 months old when we left, I was probably looking at books for a slightly different age group. Gregs Tagebuch, or rather Diary of a Wimpy Kid, seems to be very popular in the UK too, but I've never seen any Magisches Baumhaus (Magic Tree House?) books. They sound really good from your description, admylin; I must admit I don't know much about the storylines as the DDs read them themselves. Thanks for the kleiner Vampir recommendation; I ordered the Rottentodds book earlier, so will let you know what DD1 thinks of it!

DD1 had a friend over this afternoon and although they get on well, there's such a difference between them - DD1 is still very child-like (still likes playing with toys, hasn't discovered boys, etc.) and her friend is 10 going on 16! She was showing DD1 all the photos of Justin Bieber on her mobile (including one that DS and DD2 weren't allowed to see, as she claimed it was "nicht jugendfrei" - must check with DD1, but I'm assuming it wasn't anything too bad), playing her all the music she had on her phone, etc. I think most of it went over DD1's head!

Not seen any Magic Tree House books over here, but then dd is only 5. Have an urge to go to Barnes and Noble and browse investigate on your behalf! Will catch up properly on thread tomorrow. Glad all school first days have gone well! Night all.

Morning.
Well, finished the research statement last night with dh and with the teaching statement I just managed a page long but I am sure it's not good enough. Does anyone fancy having a look at it for me and tell me what you think or how I could just make it sound abit more impressive?

Linzer, hope dd enjoys the Rottentodds! Dd liked it because every now and then there's a picture and she liked the style, she likes to draw them. Sometimes the drawings are so good that I ask if she traced them but she doesn't she can copy exactly just by eye.

Silken, hope the morning drop off isn't too painful for both of you today. Poor thing, how is your dd when you pick her up? Is she fine back at home? Also, how did you manage to put a foam mat under the washing machine? Hope the noise sensitive neighbour helped lift it!

Wonder how all the new school starters are doing? Anyone heard from ernset? She must be back from UK too for school starting.

men...

Life in Austria..[confusing]

families....[confusing]

and part time school

tis cinders by the way

Morning!! got a bit of MN time before I have to go to the Gottesdienst with ds1. We're not even slightly religious but he enjoys going to the church with his friends so I go along with it. Then explain our beliefs afterwards!

Admylin - hope nothing else breaksdown. Is the fridge still working this morning? Well done on getting your dh's statement finished. I'd be happy to read it for you but wouldnt be able to do it till this afternoon - is that too late? will pm you my email address.

silken - aw my heart went out to you yesterday when I read about your dd - we have all been there and remember the gut wrenching feeling. It will get better but you dont know how long it'll take. I agree with linzer - if she's ok once you go then I would try not to worry but its upsetting for both of you if she's crying all morning. I promise it will get better.

linzer - i've just looked on dd's book shelf - she's been reading harry potter lots recently but in english (she says its not right in german!!) but in her german books there is a Die drei ?? book, a Die Knickerbocker bande book, lots of Funf Freunde from the library and some Haus Anubis books since she loves the programme.
I was also confused by hanni and nanni! dd has the whole set of malory towers and st claires books and has read them over and over. *the twins were pat and isobel).
I think you should be glad your dd is on the younger side as opposed to her 10 going on 16 friend. These kind of girls scare me - if they are acting old now then what will they be like in a few years? My dd is also not interested in boys and happily bought playmobil with her birthday money but likes music and clothes have to be just right so think she's somewhere in the middle. But she's already entering puberty so dont think it'll be long before it all changes.

Had to spend 2 hours at an Elternabend at the Gymnasium last night!!!!! They wanted to introduce us to all dd's teachers. Just thought the timing was bad - it was dd's 1st full day at the ganztagschule then the Elternabend was at 5pm so she didnt have time to come home in between (it was for the dc too) so by the time we got home at 7 (11 hours after she'd left for school in the morning), she was exhausted. But it was interesting - wonder whether to phone the English teacher to discuss dd at some point or whether to just let dd do the class work? she has english for the first time today so we'll see.

Did anyone else look at the Aldi brochure for next week - they had womens tank tops but were calling them "pullunders" . Made up English word!

of you having a Barnes & Noble nearby, Jenny - we used to spend hours in the cafe there browsing through books. They had a lovely children's section too with a little model railway, so one of us would take DD1 there while the other had a coffee and read in peace.

admylin I'd be happy to have a look at the statement too; in fact, DH is good at that kind of thing (he often comes up with better suggestions in English than I do) so I can ask him to have a look at it this evening if you like, as he'll be back from Turkey this afternoon. He'll need something to do while I'm at the parents' evening.

Oh dear, Alice - any particular aspects of life in Austria? Today is the one day I can't complain too much about school hours as it's the only day that both DDs have the full five hours.

Canella I just posted on your FB about pullunders - why?!? Just why?!? It's like calling an exercise bike a "home trainer". And (as I also posted on FB), the word Shortys annoys me even more for all number of reasons. Damenshortys - just no!
Ah, that's it - Pat and Isabel. That might actually be an incentive for DD1 to read them as she has virtually the same name as one of them (not in German!). I loved all the Mallory Towers books too; I wish I'd kept my Enid Blytons for the DC.
I hope our Elternabend tonight doesn't last quite as long, although we don't have any new teachers to meet of course. You could always ask your DD how she feels about the English lessons, whether she's happy doing the same work as the rest of the class or whether she'd like something a bit more challenging. The DS of one of my friends has just gone into his third year of Gymnasium and they're doing things like writing three-page essays in English - there's no way I could have written an essay in German when I was 13!

Thanks canella, I've sent it to your email address. Linzer I'll send you a copy too, any feedback would be great.

I read all the Malory Towers books too, remember reading under the covers in bed until 2am because I couldn't put them down!

Hope your Elternabend doesn't go on too long tonight Linzer, that was a really long day for your dd Canella. Sometimes I think the Gymnasium teachers forget to distinguish between the 5th and 6th year groups and the almost adults who they teach. Alot of the year 11 and 12 dc are over 18 in German schools. They expect alot from the 5th year class and forget that they are still children.

Agree about 10 year olds going on 16. I'm so happy that dd has a group of friends who still play out and would rather draw cats and horses that bother with Justin Bieber and boys and make-up. There is a large group of girls in dd's class who already wear make-up and go into the city centre after school with friends or even worse, down to the quarry.

admylin, can't remember if you already have my e-mail address but it should be on my FB page if not.

I've seen the girl who came round yesterday wearing make-up before now, but I can't imagine DD1 in make-up - it would just look wrong! She does look far younger than her friend, though; she's about a head smaller, for a start.

I'm trying to do an English invoice at the moment, which is proving very time-consuming. I did my first ever job for a British client last week so can't use my normal invoice - translating it wouldn't be a problem, but it's an Excel macro with ? and decimal commas instead of decimal points. I can't work out how to change it so I decided it would be quicker and easier just to create a new Word invoice from scratch, but I can't believe how much time I've spent on it already.

Thanks for proof reading the statement Linzer. Should I try and send it in an email too? Didn't think to look on Facebook, will go and see now.

It's a shame you can't find an invoice to download online.

I think the same about dd and make-up! Even yesterday she said she'd been in a shop with her friend to buy some sweets and she saw another girl's earrings for sale so she must buy her earrings in that shop. Then she said why on earth do people think it's nice to hang things from their ears! She is so not into that sort of thing even though if she wanted to she would be allowed to get her ears done!

No, that's no problem - I just thought that if you already had the statement as a Word doc, it might be easier for you to e-mail it to me rather than copying and pasting it into a PM and possibly losing all the formatting.

I did download an invoice so at least I didn't have to create one from scratch, but it took me a while to find a suitable one and then I still had to tweak it, look up my British bank account details to add, etc. Have finally finished the template, anyway, so now all I have to do is fill it in for this particular client and then e-mail it off.

DD1 would be completely uninterested in having her ears pierced too. I was completely against the girls having them done when they were younger - not that they wanted to, but their cousin had hers done at 5 and I said there's no way that mine would be having them done that young - but now that DD1's coming up to 10, I would be OK with it. I'm sure DD2 will want hers pierced at some point (she probably would now if I offered, but I'm not bringing it up!). She's far more into her appearance than DD1, likes wearing nail polish (although not any other kind of make-up yet, thank goodness), will - unlike DD1 - wear dresses, etc.

I also had to stifle a barking laugh a snigger when I first heard "pullunder". For a start it doesn't even make sense (haven't checked FB yet, so sorry if that's already been said). The word I hate most is "wellness", which I thought the Gemans had invented, but I suspect it's used in the US, too.

Canella I got your pm btw, but dh is away until Sat so I can't ask him about dates. The weekend of the 24th won't be possible though, as we have a guest staying.

Thanks for all the sympathy re kiga. I can't really say how it was today until I pick her up agaiin. She got upset when I told her she was going there today, which gave me a chance to comfort her, then she was calm leaving the house and arriving at kiga, just wailed when I said goodbye. She seems ok at home, but DMIL is having difficulties getting her to nap at her house, which causes its own problems.

Argh, our monitor seems to have died. The computer was on its last legs anyway, so most of my recent work is on my laptop, but my job record is on the computer and I need to number the invoice (will just have to guess otherwise!). If only I'd got round to putting everything on our external hard drive...

I'm not a fan of wellness either silken, although I have occasionally heard it used in English. The company I used to work for was very keen on using as much English as possible, pronounced as incorrectly as possible. One of my favourites was "employee review", pronounced as if employee was a French word and with the stress on the wrong syllable in review...

And what about fineliners? Is this a word we actually use in English? I'd never come across them until DD1 started school. I'm sure we don't use Killer for ink eraser (or whatever the word is in English; we used tipp-ex in my day) either.

Linzer, I hope it's just the monitor. Have you tried having a switch on and off at the mains or a wiggle of the cables? That's what I always try.

Did anyone watch The Super Nanny on RTL last night? It was so sad, those poor small dc being constantly hit. One of them flinched whenever his mum walked past him. I only saw the start as dd came back from hockey so I was in the kitchen - I hope they got help. Do you get German TV too Linzer?

Well, it sounds like the computer is working OK - it's making all the right noises when I turn it on - but the screen is just black. I've restarted the computer a couple of times but haven't switched on and off at the mains, so will try that and adjusting the cables now.

No, we just get ORF1 and ORF2 here - spoilt for choice! Virtually everyone has cable or satellite but we don't bother as we only ever watch British TV (used to watch Supernanny on that - Jo Frost is another one who annoys me with her mispronunciations. She says something like assetable instead of acceptable).

Monitor still not working - a job for DH, I think.

Kita drop off with no tears this morning . Result!!!

Wanted to "like" your comment like I would on FB! So chuffed for you both.

Been out for breakfast with friends this morning and now home for a quick tidy up before our I have to go pick up dh's friend who's coming over for the weekend.

Hope you all have a good weekend.

Yay silken, that's great news!

Had some sad news yesterday - the DH of a friend of mine passed away at the weekend. It wasn't unexpected as he'd been battling cancer for years, and it was always a matter of when rather than if, but still incredibly sad to think that he won't see his 9 year old daughter (a nursery friend of DD1's) grow up.

On a more mundate note, parents' evening last night was mind-numbingly boring as it was exactly the same as DD1's parents' evening, we had virtually the same handout with all the same points on it and it took the teacher about five minutes to go through each item. Spent quite a while talking to the other parents afterwards, and one of the other mothers has persuaded me to start teaching English in the afternoons - well, one afternoon a week and just a small group. I said 5-6 max, and she has triplets so the group is half-full already. Then had a phone call from another friend this morning; they're moving to Tunisia next year and her DD will be going to the American school, so she'd like her to have English lessons too. I was in two minds about it but this other mother was very persuasive, and I'd definitely prefer to teach a small group rather than a class of 20 or so (which I'll still be doing). I'm actually quite looking forward to it now, although I still think it will be hard work for a not-huge return compared with translation.

DH and I decided on the spur of the moment last night that we could go to London in the Herbstferien (actually, another friend of mine who's planning on going there put the idea into my head), so we've now booked flights and just need to find a hotel that has room for us - our first two choices were already fully booked. DS is very excited about going to the Science Museum; I didn't even realise he knew about it, so that must have been DH's work.