Schenk ein den Wein - as autumn comes to Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

Der Nebel steigt, es fällt das Laub;
schenk ein den Wein, den holden!
Wir wollen uns den grauen Tag
vergolden, ja vergolden!

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

Always good to have an excuse to open some , and this poem seemed quite appropriate!

Thanks Linzer!! Will properly post in the morning!! Off for a bath now.

Tag! Crazy day here with next door's little one and the birthday boy to sort out! Be back tomorrow.

Thanks Linzer, we had guests last night and a really good bottle of red wine and this morning no headache so it must have been a good bottle!

The English lesson sounded good. I suppose when you're setting up the first time round it's alot of work but you can keep the lessons for another time. Sounds like you're going to by busy!

Dd sort of managed her Reisebericht but not 100%, she was so fed up and tired that I told her one half done homework isn't the end of the world, especially when she is usually very good and even does extras. The school photagrapher is coming today, one group photo and one for the Schülerausweis and another 30? out of my already empty purse! Just sent in 20? this week for Kopiergeld.

Forgot to say that the verse is from Oktoberlied by Theodor Storm.

I also have a headache this morning admylin, despite a lack of wine yesterday evening! (Maybe it's withdrawal symptoms as I do have a glass of wine most evenings...)

All the bits and pieces for school really add up, don't they? I'm always saying that British parents would never stand for it! They've just introduced Schulstartgeld here (?100 every September for every school age child), although that would only just about cover the average cost of a school bag if you have a child starting school. And I doubt that a sizeable proportion of British parents would be mad enough to fork out ?150 for a school bag.

How did the party go, Jenny?

Off out for my run now - carefully timed so that I avoid bumping into DD2's class, who have a Wandertag today.

morning!!

happy birthday to your ds jenny - hope he had a fab time.

linzer - your so dedictated with the running! i've lost my way with it (again!!) - really need to get back into to it now the dc are back at school etc.
So sad about the dh of your friend. It always breaks my heart when parents of young dc die. My mother died when I was 9 and it is something you carry with you your whole life. so sad.

admylin - hope dd is a bit happier when she comes home today. Oh these teenage hormones would test your patience. Will she get into trouble for not having done all her homework? maybe thats what she needs so she tries harder the next time? agree about the school stuff adding up - I took 100 euros out the cashmachine on friday and apart from going to the butchers, I think i've spent the rest on school stuff for the 2 of them.

hupa - so jealous of your weekend away with friends. Sounds like you had a fab time. Thanks for asking after ds - he's still enthused about school - think being one of the older ones is helping as he is managing the work easily but he is properly exhausted every evening. He is really tall for his age and is easily tired but school is definitely exhausting him. How is your ds getting on?

silken - so glad your dd is settling into kiga. Will keep my fingers crossed that it continues. Think between ages 2 and 3 is a really tricky time for naps. Some dc dont want them but then are beyond miserable by teatime. but i always think kigas are amazing at somehow getting them all to sleep. let us know how she got on.

Well i need to get off MN and start my cookfest! Went to get something out the freezer last night and realised the freezer had been left open - not sure who it was - may well have been me . So the stuff had started to defrost so couldnt put it back in! grrrrrr! so am going to have to cook all the meat that was in there. Thankfully it wasnt too full or i'd have been crying.

Oh and i also need to go to speak to the photographer who took ds's 1st day at school photos. We had to pay for them up front and we got them yesterday - the main one is awful. ds1 is a handsome boy and I cant imagine why anyone would have singled out this one of him. He's got him shrugging his shoulders which gives him a double chin and no neck! awful. So i need to go to get dd some school stuff and his studio is just next door. Dreading it tho - not good having confrontations in german.

phew - so glad i copied that before I pressed post! it deleted the whole message!!!!!!

Hello

I wanted to join if I may. Can I ask when the Xmas markets start in Germany and which is the best to go to near Frankfurt?

Hi Devilisinthedogstail!
Not sure about Frankfurt area but our Weihnachtsmarkt opens around 24th of November and goes to 22nd December. If you don't like crowds it's best to avoid weekends and late evenings though with dc. Without dc, any time is good.

Linzer Thanks for starting a new thread.
I´m glad your English lesson went well.
I think your idea of visiting museums in the morning is really sensible and the earlier the better. Having said that apart the Launch Pad which was so busy because it´s hands on, the rest of the museum was relatively quiet. If you´ve not been before, I´d definitely recommend the dinosaur exhibition at the Natural History Museum.

Canella I´m glad your ds has settled in well. My ds is also getting on really well. He really hated the last year of Kindergarten and I think he finds the struture of school much better.
I hope you got on well with your complaint to the photographer. I thinks it´s a bit cheeky to ask for the money up front. Ds´s Kindergarten photos were always terrible, so we never bought any. By some miracle his Einschulungs photo was actually quite good.

thedevilsinthedogstail the Frankfurt Christmas market starts on 22nd November. I´m not sure if it´s the best, but it´s probably the biggest in the area.

jenny I hope your ds enjoyed his birthday.

Thanks for the museum advice, hupa. I haven't been to the Natural History Museum for years - not since we lived in London pre-DC, back in the days when you had to pay so we didn't go very often then either - but I'm sure the DC would really enjoy seeing the dinosaurs, blue whale, etc.; I remember how exciting I used to find it when I was their age.

Hi thedevils, how are you settling in in Frankfurt? Did you decide against Wiesbaden in the end?

Canella So sorry about your mother; it's tragic when anyone dies young, of course, but particularly so when they leave young children behind.
I ended up joining the C25k thread as I was struggling to stay motivated on my own, and as a result have even started shredding too - my legs are really aching today. Running seems almost enjoyable in comparison!
How annoying about the photos; we've also always had a choice as to whether to pay for them or not, but the photos have generally been quite good. It's also much better now that we can choose from seven or eight photos online, both with the school and KiGa photos.

DD2 went to the English Schnupperstunde at school yesterday and really enjoyed it. I must admit it would make life slightly easier for me if she finished at the same time as DD1, so I'll sign her up - the money that I'm earning from teaching English can pay for her English course. Another three mothers have said they're interested in my English lessons, but I'd need to set up two new groups - not a problem in itself, but one of the mothers thinks her DD would be distracted by one of the other girls and doesn't want them to be in the same group... all a bit complicated.

Linzer, so funny your dd going to English class! Who is doing it? Is it another native speaker? Sounds like you're going to be busy anyway with teaching your classes.

Canella, how did the cooking go? What did you end up making out of all your defrosted meat? My freezer is also due a defrosting session really. I just keep filling it up though so keep saying I'll do it when it's almost empty.
I also usually get ?100 out of the cash machine and it never lasts long. This last 2 weeks has just been so expensive for some reason and we still have to go and get a load of gifts to take on holiday with us. Dh has a rather large family (he's the eldest of 10!) so not easy.

Did you get the photo problem sorted? Our photographer was meant to come yesterday but cancelled so it's on the 28th now. Last years were so rubish, the lighting was bad and on the group photo half the dc were pulling faces so I didn't bother buying them!

Dd didn't get in trouble for her half done homework but the German teacher was in a bad mood anyway and he picked 2 dc to read out their homework and both had done it wrong so he told them off instead and then made the whole class re-write the rules for writing a Resiebericht (which I still find abit confusing but you have to stick to those rules only).

Jenny, how did the birthday go? Did you organise a party?

Thanks for the new thread, Linzer.

DD seems to have settled properly now at kita. They told me she was singing away yesterday at lunchtime and entertaining everyone, which she wouldn't do if she wasn't happy. She took a little while to fall asleep on Tuesday at naptime, but was fine yesterday and went in happily this morning saying "after sleeping, Omi and Opi will pick you up". (She hasn't quite sorted out pronouns yet!)

Sorry to post and run, but have to go and be productive this morning.

I know, I bumped into DD2's teacher at school yesterday, who asked me whether DD2 was going to English, and I felt almost embarrassed about having to admit that she was! The other thing is that the teacher isn't a native speaker, although she does speak very good English - DD2 asked me afterwards whether she was American (she has a kind of translatlantic accent). It was quite interesting to watch her teach (she spoke in English for the entire lesson, but kept saying "super!" - don't feel like I know how well enough to say anything, though); I wish I'd persuaded DD1 to go to the Schnupperstunde too, as it would have been interesting to see how they teach the 4th year (they have a Canadian teacher).

One of the girls that I'm teaching will be going to an American school in Tunisia next year, so I should probably teach her a few American words for everyday things - especially as virtually the first thing she said to me when she came out of school yesterday is that she knows the word "rubber".

Good news that your DD didn't get in trouble, admylin. I don't remember ever having to read out my homework at school; it seemed to be a lot easier to hide at the back of the class in the UK! When I was at university in Berlin, the lecturers would call students out to the front of the class to summarise the previous lesson, which was an absolute nightmare - we never had to do anything like that in Britain, and then to suddenly have to do it in German in front of a class of German students was just mortifiying.

Great news, silken.

That's good news silken!

I had a list somewhere of words to be careful about in the US especially ones like rubber and pussy cat!

The system in Gymnasium is that you have to participate in class and the teacher marks how often you do so then somehow adds it up to give you a grade on the oral communication. In History, Geography and all 3 sciences the final grade is 70% oral and 30% for the tests. I just find it quite difficult and unfair to manage a class of 30 pupils who all have to 'join in' atleast 3 times per lesson. Anyway, the first chance to join in is to read out the homework as the teacher goes around to check it's actually been done. Somehow, quiet dc don't have a chance! In my school days the top of the class dc were usually very quiet!

Thinking back, our homework was usually handed in and marked. Teachers would find that to be much too much work for them here. It takes them over 2 weeks to get a test marked and handed back!

I always used to call cats 'pussy cats' when the DC were little so one of DD1's first words was pussy - luckily she was a late talker and didn't start until after we'd left the USA! Was also thinking that I should probably point out to the girl's mum that it would be better for her to start using eraser rather than rubber. Must also remember things like scotch tape instead of sellotape, band aid rather than plaster, etc. - I used to get blank looks if I forgot and used the British term.

Yes, Mitarbeit seems to be much more important here. All I can say is thank goodness I went to school in the UK! According to my English A level teacher, you could write everything I'd said in the two years on the back of a postage stamp - but I still got an A, which wouldn't have happened here. When I did my degree, my highest marks were for the oral exams - which were one-to-one; my contributions in class OTOH were definitely not very impressive, but it didn't seem to matter. As an aside, one of DH's friends who studied Italian wasn't allowed to graduate for ages because she couldn't pronounce her r's correctly in Italian - that wouldn't have happened in Britain either!

Afternoon all!

I haven't had chance to catch up with the whole thread so far, have been a little busy over the past few weeks.My mum came to stay for a week, and....

baby James was born on Sunday afternoon! He was a little earlier than expected (37+4) and is quite small (under 3kg) but he is, of course, perfect :)
He made his grand entrance 2 hours before my mum had to get on the plane home so she was over the moon that she got to meet him as otherwise she wouldn't have seen him until November.

I have a baby!!!!!

That's wonderful news Later - congratulations! So the doctor was right after all, then. That's great that your mum was able to meet James before he flew home. (Lovely name btw; DH vetoed any English-sounding names when the DC were born and I sometimes wish I'd fought my ground a bit more.)

Hope you're both doing well and that you're getting at least a modicum of sleep! Any pictures?

Pictures? - I must have over a million already We've been a bit snap-happy, poor little mite!

I'll try and get back on later to post a few.

That sounds quite normal! We took several million of DD1, a few hundred of DD2 and there are probably a few of DS around somewhere.

Although now that DH has got a new toy camera, he would probably take at least a few million if we had another baby (which is not going to happen).

Congratulations Later! Good timing too! Come and tell us about the birth when you have time, I love birth stories!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Same here with the photos, we've got albums full of cute baby pictures, loads of when they were asleep as they looked so cute. From about age 5 for ds we swapped to digital and there are no real photos. Must get some printed but I never get around to it.

Later - you made me properly "aaawwww" out loud!!! Congratulations! So chuffed for you that baby James came early and that the doctor was right. And so lovely that your mum got to see him .

Would also like to coo over some photos if you put some up. Aw another german thread baby - too exciting!!

Congratulations, Later! Lovely name, and lovely that your mum got to see him before she flew home.

Would also love to see some pictures and hear your birth story.