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.

admylin - I didn´t need a lawyer - it was all sorted out between the 2 insurance companies. I think you´ll have to wait to see how much they agree to pay you for your car before you can go ahead and buy a new one. Be prepared that if your car was quite old you might not get much money for it. I think the insurance only pays it´s value at the time of the crash which is not neccesaiy the same amount as you will need to buy a similar car.

I know, that's what is bugging dh - he sat last night looking at offers online and we'll probably have to put a few thousand toward ssomething of similar standard to our old one or we'll have to get a smaller car but as dh said, thank goodness I was in a big car when the accident happend because a small one would have hit the tree straight away.

I would be very annoyed if I was in your situation, Canella. He probably just isn't thinking (typical man!); it sounds like a good idea to have a chat with him when he gets back, as hupa suggests.

DD2 is quite proud of her brace and was allowed to choose the colour of the little bands that go round each piece. It's only a small one as it's just to twist one tooth back into position and tbh it looks better than having an extra long bottom tooth (the orthodontist's first attempt)! Now DD2 and DS want braces too...

hupa I agree - no English is better than incorrect English. It annoys me that no matter how many times I say cat, black, etc., the teachers still persist in saying cät, bläck, and so on (the children sometimes do as well, unless they're repeating it straight after me). I was talking to a friend about the a/ä thing the other day; her name has an a in it and people will actually tell her she's pronouncing it "wrong".

lol at "I forgot the bloody towels" admylin. Even now, I wouldn't say bloody in front of my parents (I used to get told off for things like saying "lie" instead of "fib"!) The DC were asking me to teach them some Schimpfwörter in English the other day, so I was trying to come up with the mildest words I could think of, e.g. bother. They already know that silly isn't quite as bad as saying blöd (which DH often tells them off for saying), so I think they were looking for something a little stronger!

Can you imagine on future school exchanges and all the German dc say bloody this and that infront of their host parents! I think verdammt isn't quite as bad sounding as bloody is it?

hi all x hope you're well
just letting you know we've not melted away...

Admylin
Glad you are feeling better. You could speak to your insurance company about the lawyer, they might be able to help you.

Canella
I would be annoyed at DH for that too. Hope you can have a chat.

There was talk of a move to Nashville at some time in the future, but right now Munich seems very likely. Strangely enough, when I first heard I was sad at the thought of leaving Geneva but the more I think about it the happier I am. Slightly concerned about the school though as I think DD might struggle a bit. She will go into 4. Klasse so the deciding year next year.

I will start a new thread for my ramblings, rather than hijack your chat thread.

Afternoon all!

Admylin - I'm glad you're feeling a bit better and that you weren't injured. I hope things are sorted fairly quickly and you end up with a lovely new car to replace the old one.

Hupa I'd be quite angry if my children were taught things like 'mather' etc in school. I agree with both you and Linzer that no English is better than incorrect English. I'm wondering what it will be like in a few years when our (as yet unborn!) child starts to learn English at school...

Canella I'd be a little annoyed witih my Dh too, it sounds more like he just hasn't thought about it than anything malicious though. I hope a chat with him sorts things out :)

Hello to Bebe, Jenny, MmeLindor and anyone else I have missed.

Well it's been a very productive morning here! After a panic that I have NO idea what I'm doing and am likely to end up giving birth in the middle of the supermarket or somewhere equally hideous, I have now spoken to the hospital, arranged to go down for an Infoabend, booked us into a Geburtsvorbereitungskurs with a lovely midwife, pencilled us in for a Säuglingskurs and have a few phone numbers for Hebammen for after-birth care. I am on fire! I think I'll have a cup of tea after all that!
We are expecting guests this weekend so let's hope this burst of productivity lasts long enough to get the flat cleaned.

On an even more positive note - I got 1s for my last two pieces of translation coursework!!! After a bit of a wobbly start (my first 2 marks were both 3s :( ) I'm feeling a lot more confident now. Actually, I think I'll even break out the biscuits to go with my tea :o

Lateralligator, that was a very productive morning indeed! And well done for the course work. Before you know it the nesting instinct will kick in and you'll be cleaning and decorating! Mine kicked in really early and I had everything ready for ds's birth about 4 months before he arrived!

I think I am going to go to a lawyer - I've looked up some Verkehrsrecht lawyers and our ADAC-plus card gives us atleast one meeting and the rest goes on the lorry drivers insurance. I just know when the first post from police and insurance starts coming I won't understand it all so I'd rather it all went to someone who knows what he's doing.

hello - just stumbled in here, been meaning to pop into the overseas section for ages. hope you don't mind me hanging around.

Welcome!! The more the merrier!! Are you in Germany?
I'm posting thro the new MN app at the moment - its all so much easier! But maybe that will increase my MN time which is def not a good thing.

Ooh, thanks for reminding me about the app Canella - I've just downloaded it and it looks great. How's the running going? I did the 20 min run yesterday, which wasn't half as bad as I was expecting it to be - although it was definitely more of a "light jog" than a run, as Laura keeps telling us we should be doing.

admylin Sounds like a good idea to consult a lawyer, esp. if you don't have to pay for it yourself.

Hi and welcome to Halbwahrheiten (love the name btw).

Later It sounds like you're being very organised! Well done on the coursework and hope you have a lovely time with your visitors.

Right, must go and get dressed and then get the DC up.

Linzer you must listen to the old dead ringers sketch where they are impersonating a previous education minister talking about hard swear words like 'heavens to betsy'! Tis really funny!

Hupa I agree that there is no excuse for teaching poor English at such a basic level. I'm not saying I never make mistakes, far from it, but when they have a native speaker to check with (you!) they are wasting a fantastic resource.

Glad you had a productive morning yesterday Later. Hope you manage to see a decent lawyer who can really help you admylin. I'm very of all you managing runs. I did check out that podcast but I'm not sure if I can run with my breastfeeding boobs!

DD has to have her tonsils and adenoids out in a month. They are apparently massive and she has problems with bedwetting which is linked to sleep apnoea. I'll stay the night with her in hospital which will be the first night I've spent away from ds2 . Not looking forward to it at all!

Hope you all have a great Friday. Dh is back from his trip tomorrow afternoon, hurray.

thank you! I am not in germany at the moment, but I lived in munich until 7 years ago and feeling a little homesick at the moment.. also stumbled into the overseas section for passport advice then found I could actually be quite helpful in answering questions :)

I was fairly lucky some of the time when I was at school because I had a teacher who had actually lived in london for a while, teaching german, so her english was brilliant, and she spoke with a lovely london accent. In some years at school I had teachers whose pronounciation was atrocious. One of them spoke with a bavarian accent and the other couldn't even string a sentence together so it made sense.

So you're German then, Halbwahrheiten? (Keep wanting to call you Halbweisheiten, not sure why!) Are you in the UK now? The thing that gets me about the way that English is taught in schools here is the pronunciation - I've complained many times on this thread about a being pronounced as ä. People are usually quite surprised when I tell them that it isn't and say, "But that's what we were always taught at school."

Hope your DD's operation goes well, Jenny - I'm sure it will all be worth it once it's out of the way.
Btw I sometimes lurk on the C25k thread and there's at least one other runner who's bfing IIRC. Shock Absorber bras are supposed to be very good; I have one myself in fact, but it's a little tight (I suspected it would be when I ordered it, but they didn't have it in my size). Five years of bfing haven't left me with very much to worry about, but it's a handy place to put my keys!

Have just been out food shopping and to the hairdresser's, so now only have about an hour left of the morning. But I need to have a coffee before I do anything else. Have ordered a new coffee machine from Amazon as the coffee holder bit just won't stay in place unless I'm actually making coffee and DH declared it "kein Zustand". I was hoping it would arrive today, but no sign of it yet so we'll probably have to wait until Tuesday now (no post here on Saturdays, and bank holiday on Monday).

Hello all.

Halbwahrheiten Hello! Do you live in the UK now then? Doesn't a good teacher make such a difference.

Admylin Good luck with the lawyer. I hope things are sorted quickly.

Linzer I'm really impressed with the running stamina! I started jogging last year and was terrible at making myself go. I had a shock absorber a few years ago for the gym and really liked it. Hope the coffee machine arrives soon!

Jenny Good luck with your daughter's operation.

The driving licence saga is finally over!! (Well, almost...)
Yesterday morning I drove all the way up to the town we lived in when we first moved over here tp try and get some proof of when I moved over here, as the Führerscheinstelle needed proof before they would issue me a German licence. It took a bit of a discussion and an ?8 charge but I got the document I needed, drove straight back down the motorway to the Führerscheinstelle before they closed and the lovely lady there took my papers, processed it all really quickly and I can pick up my German driving licence in 2 weeks!
Looking at the document showing when I moved over here, it seems I could probably have got the same thing from the local Bürgerbüro, but I have it now so I am happy :)

Oh, and after my panic, I had my Dr's appointment on Tuesday and the baby is absolutely fine! She found a heartbeat almost straight away and said it's fairly normal that they are fairly quiet between 22 and 25 weeks.
Saying that, I think he/she has been fairly active over the past few days, so all is well!

Yes, I live in the UK now, with my british husband and my british/german/romanian children :o (the joys of being born to a mother with dual nationality!)

Good teachers make do make a difference, but my english was still crap pretty bad after I finished school. When I first met my husband he thought I was welsh :o

The thing with the pronounciation is, I think, because of american movies and such. although most schools actually teach british english most of the time (my school had a year that we learned specific things in american english), the pronounciation is very much american. Might also have something to do with the american presence after WWII, but I don't know about that.

Alligator gotta love the german pencil pushers. I HATE paperwork. I am actually really naughty and haven't even managed to tell the Meldeamt that I don't live in germany anymore. They seem to think that my Erstwohnsitz is with my mother, but I am permanently absent. makes no sense to me. They also don't know I am married and are only vaguely aware that I have children. I keep meaning to remedy that, but the paperwork makes me dizzy.
Glad your baby is ok :)

jenny good luck with the op.

Linzer Halbweisheiten works, too. ;) I'm daft enough.

Just back from the orthodontist's with DD1; she's put another two rings over the brace on the one tooth, so fingers crossed it will stay in place now. I now have 15 minutes to myself before I have to pick up DD2 and DS from Turnen, as someone is coming to have a look at DH's car this evening so he's gone to the garage with DD1 to hoover it out.

Later Great news about the baby and good news that you're almost there with the driving licence now! I'm enjoying having a break from the paperwork this year (tax return aside) but have two passports to renew next year, which is a bit of a hassle. That's British rather than Austrian paperwork, though; it would be easier and cheaper if the DC had Austrian passports (I just like the idea of them having British passports!).

Halbwahrheiten How old are your DC? DD1 also has triple nationality (British/Austrian/American), but only because she was born in the USA. I was talking to a British friend about the a/ä pronunciation thing the other day and we agreed that although they might think it's more of an American pronunciation, it just sounds wrong (not American) to our ears!
Sorry to hear you're feeling homesick; it's very difficult when you're so far from family and friends, and often more so when you have children (I feel quite sad that my parents don't get to see their only grandchildren more than a couple of times a year).

later so chuffed the baby is ok!! And glad youre finally getting somewhere with the drivers licence palaver!

linzer glad you got dd's teeth sorted today. With 3 dc it always feels like lots of appts! You sound like your doing really well with the running. I need to confess i've lost the way a bit. My leg was too sore to run at the beginning of the week after that bite and then I was too busy today. And its now school holidays and we go away on weds! But i'll definitely get back into it when we get back. On the sports bra conversation - i've never found a good one so wear 2!!! I wear a very sturdy normal bra that had gone a bit grey with a sports bra over the top!! Absolutely no jiggling when i run .

jenny hope your dc gets on ok with their op. Dc are so amazing at bouncing back.

Well we finally ordered our new kitchen today. DH (who's had a talking to about his weird behaviour while he was away!!) did some good negotiation on the price but its still a scary lot of money. Thankfully this is our forever house so it'll be money well spent. Now the hard work starts - got to get the room ready - old kitchen out, tiles off the wall, wall prob replastered, old floor up and new tiles down. Will be a busy summer. I foresee much grilling!

Oh forgot to add my tuppence about pronunciation of "a" - why is it so hard to say!!! A german friend yesterday asked if DH had "jet läg" Grrrrrrrrrrr!! But think i've now confused my MIL completely by telling her its not "häppy birthday" - she now isnt sure which "a" is the right one!

Just wanted to nip back in and let you know that I will not be joining the MN German gang. Seems that the wanker colleague in Munich is superglued to his chair and so DH will not be moved back this year after all.

We are both strangely disappointed, DH said he has "ein weinendes und ein lachendes Auge".

Thanks for the advice and the welcome. I may be back sometime in the next year or so.

Mmelindor , that's nice for the dc to stay put another year though. And if your dd misses the dreaded 4th year she can just go straight into a Gymnasium if you want and she's got good grades (without all the stress!)

Canella, when does the work start on your kitchen? Good that it's summer so plenty of salads (thank goodness we can eat them again) and melons and fruit. That's what we live on in summer mostly with abit of meat for the meat eaters every now and then! You're getting people in to do it all though aren't you?

Linzer are you selling your car? Hope the braces stay put this time. Is dd not bothered by them? My 2 had braces very briefly and ds moaned and complained the whole time he had to wear them. Dd wasn't too bad but all her friends had one so she liked being part of the brace gang!

Welcome Halbwahrheiten, great to have a 'real' German on here! I think the language being taught here in Gymnasium is amazing compared to back in UK. I can't believe the phrases and level of French and English that the dc are expected to know. Apart from the 'bloody towels' in dd's project book I'm very impressed. Is it OK to say verdammt as a dc in German?

Later. glad you got your lisence sorted atlast. I think when I looked it up I was looking at non-european exchange which is why teh eye teat and first aid course came up. I shouldn't have to do that for a UK swap. Might still do it but after my accident last week the police didn't say a word about the creased pink paper document! One of them laughed when he saw that in 2038 I have to renew it though!

Jenny when does your dd go in to hospital? It's great that you can stay over with her. Will it just be the one night?

Well, I go to see a lawyer on Tuesday and I'm keeping the hire car until then - hope he says we can keep it longer as we still haven't found out how much we'll get for the old car and damages and as dh likes automatic it's not easy to find a replacement. On our limited work contract it's also not worth buying an expensive or new car either as next summer we won't know where we'll be.

MmeLindor sorry about that. But it's nice for your dc to stay put for another year and you to miss out the stress of year 4.

admylin I was always told that people think it's amazing what the Gymnasium expect in terms of language skills, but I always found that there wasn't enough speaking going on, so even if we were able to write, the spoken was pretty weak.
What surprised me in the UK is the disregard for grammar and spelling. Our school put so much emphasis on those, and also on having a good vocabulary (whether in German or any of the languages we were learning) that it is deeply ingrained in me. I find myself getting a bit lazy these days
I think there are some profanities that are generally more accepted than others. Mist we never got told off for, verdammt sometimes. Scheisse was off limits. I never swore much, and wasn't surrounded by people who did, still don't (although MN is teaching me bad habits..), so I could always get away with the occasional mild one. I don't think I would have ever dreamed of using the kind of language some kids in the UK use.

strictly speaking I'm not a "real" german, my parents migrated when I was a toddler.

Have a parcel heading my way from germany in the post with chocolate, maultaschen, teewurst, a spaetzlereibe and a bunch of other lovely things. :o I have to say, I've never managed to make myself like Cadbury's chocolate after growing up on Milka and Lindt... Hurry up, postman.

Halbwahrheiten, hope the postman gets to you soon! Sounds like a few essentials coming your way! I must admit to having gone off Cadbury's abit but I don't have a sweet tooth, more a salt and vinager crisp tooth but we're OK there as we can get chio chips in that flavour now. Just very bad that the bag is so big and you have to finish it once opened!

Just been brave and driven dd to her pool party at a friend's house. I was nervous every time I saw a car coming around the corner or a cyclist. I keep getting flash backs of the big yellow lorry oming at me too...

Hope everyone is having a nice Feiertag, warm and sunny here. Ds stuck in his room finishing his book project. They had loads to do over the last few days, almost all his class mates are sitting working at it too. I think the teacher has given them work for an older group to be honest as some of the questions are really hard.

Well done for getting back in the car, admylin - it must be quite nerve-wracking but I'm sure it will get easier. I've got out of the habit of driving twice now (not because of accidents) and virtually had to start from scratch both times.

Halbwahrheiten One of my friends teaches English and German at secondary level and said that as long as the children can get their message across, spelling and grammar are of secondary importance. We were definitely penalised for spelling and grammatical mistakes when I was at school, but our spoken German was atrocious - the first time I went on the school German exchange, the German pupils' spoken English was about 10 times better than our German.

Re the swearing - I am still annoyed about the fact that SIL told me off (indirectly, via DH) for saying blöd to her DD when she was about 3 (not calling her blöd, just using the word to her), but her parents now don't seem to bat an eyelid if she says Scheiße. Generally though, people here do seem to swear far less than in the UK; I honestly can't remember the last time I heard someone swear here.

We've had a nice bank holiday here; some friends came over for a barbecue and then we went for a Wanderung (sounds much more impressive than walk) to some castle ruins. The DC are off school tomorrow too; are schools closed in Germany as well, or is it only Austrian schools that like to close on Tuesdays after Monday bank holidays? I'd far rather that school closed next Friday (between Fronleichnam and the weekend), when most parents will be off work anyway.