Die Kaffeestube - German and Austrian cyber Kaffee und Kuchen

[admylin]

Kaffeeklatsch for anyone in a German speaking country or interested in German, Kommt herein und setz euch!

admylin that does sound an odd game during school sports . Does your dd have an expensive official sports outfit? My dd just takes any old shorts and T - shirt - saves me stress when I realise I have forgotten to wash her kit in the holidays and it is still festering in the bag - just switch it for other clothes! She says this is fine and the same as the other kids...

Linzer Hope the rest of the lessons speed by for you, no wonder you're counting, they sound a nightmare! I bet that boy is totally different at school though...

The homework was all for tomorrow apart from Ethics, which is for next week, but I was on the phone when she came in and I just handed her a snack and told her to get her homework out, so failed to notice she was doing Ethics first - lax parenting . Left to herself she does Ethics and German and any art/ craft/ drawing first (in that order) as that is what she enjoys, and then she has even less concentration left for the dreaded maths worksheets which then take even longer than they would have otherwise... The teacher has been at the school forever (taught some of the parents) so I can't imagine getting her to change. It is crazy, on some "short" days she only has 1 piece of homework and is all finished and ready to play before 12.30, but on Tuesday she is at school longer, so has less afternoon, but seems to get the most homework. At least football training has been moved to Mondays, it used to be a nightmare getting h/w and lunch done in time to get to 3pm training. I am not sure she's ever had as much as today though - I let her off one block of sums, which she is going to do in the morning before school.

DH started his new job yesterday at the European Space Agency. He seems relatively happy with it (though it's early days) but the commute is now crazy - he left at 5pm and is still not home due to signalling problems. Even yesterday when there were no delays it took 1 hour 45 mins on the way there and 2 hours on the way back as he had to wait for a bus. The commute is now 10 mins car - 30 mins S-bahn - 30 mins U bahn - 15 mins bus - 20 mins walk, plus any waiting around time making connections and of course any delays, his old commute was 1.5 hours but an hour of it on one train, and train to office was a walk not bus AND walk... I am not sure this is going to be sustainable but very strongly don't want to uproot the kids just to move to some other back o0f beyond village on the other side of Munich, and I don't think we can afford a house in a town... Hmmm...

Wow, that homework is crazy thatis, and your dh's commute too! I hope he got back at a reasonable time. Working at the European Space Agency is pretty cool though. I wouldn't bother flying back either if I didn't feel guilty that the dcs don't see their gps very often. It was our choice to move here after all. My dps might come over in September, but dh's don't wish to travel out here anymore.

That does sound like a very weird game admylin.

I am not surprised you are counting those lessons down Linzer: they have been a complete nightmare for you.

Not too long now nohun!

Dd finished Kindergarten this morning. No school now till September 7th! Wish me luck. She thinks I should arrange 3 playdates a day for her! (I know people hate that word on MN but they are called that here).

Waves to everyone else!

Jenny that's a long break for your dd. Hope you can make some sort of arrangement for a few regular play dates. 2 or 3 a week are enough I think and they don't all have to be at your house!

Linzer good news that your parents aren't flooded but a shame for the town and the seasonal business will be rubbish for them this year. Where I'm from in the Lake District the town lives from tourism and it doesn't seem to stop the tourists even if it's pouring down they'll still go off into the hills and walk the fells but floods are a different matter.

thatis that's a long commute. I know alot of people do that sort of distance every day but the connections could be better and in winter when it's dark and cold that walking bit will not be good. Your dh must be tired out when he gets back home.

I wonder if the homework is a reflection on the different education systems? They do say that Bavaria has the toughest system. Ds and dd never had that much homewrk in year 1 and an A4 page of maths would be in really big print so there would be maybe 5 or 6 sums to do! In German in year 2 and 3 dd would be given a Gedicht der Woche that she had to copy into her book and sometimes learn off by heart but they would be given it on Monday and it had to handed in by Friday, also A4 but between 3 and 5 verses!

I have to go shopping today, cupboards are empty again. My growing teens have managed to munch their way through the lot! I don't feel like dragging all those drinks and bags full of stuff up the stairs. Why oh why do we not have decent internet grocery shopping?

admylin I know how you feel, but I doubt online grocery shopping will make it to Austria in my lifetime! I also get fed up of lugging all the shopping up from the car to our house (we have about a 30 m path, including lots of steps, up to our house).

Jenny Good luck! We still have 2.5 weeks to go here, but I must admit I'm looking forward to the holidays. I'd never heard of the word playdate before we moved to the USA; I do find myself using it occasionally on here, but I don't think I'd use it in RL. And how have secondary schools suddenly become "high schools" in the UK? That's another word I keep seeing more and more.

Thatis I had over an hour's commute when I lived in Mannheim and that was bad enough (and a real nightmare if there were major delays). Glad to hear your DH's job is going OK otherwise, though. DH moved offices to the Westbahnhof last month so his commute is now a bit shorter, although he doesn't actually seem to be getting home any earlier.

Am just waiting for a phone call from DH as he's gone to physiotherapy for his back and I'll be driving him to the station afterwards, as he's off to Bulgaria (or maybe Bucharest - whichever trip was postponed a few weeks ago, anyway) for the rest of the week. I'm hoping to go out for a run with our neighbour afterwards if the rain eases off; I'm getting so fed up with the weather. It's supposed to be quite hot at the weekend though, and then over 30° on Monday - it's either one extreme or the other.

Linzer I'm still here but I will go shopping soon - I think!
Yes, it's the extreme weather that's worst as you don't get time to get used to the heat then it's suddenly 30°.

Is your dh suffering from his desk job lifestyle? Mine is - he complains of back ache and every now and then every muscle in his arms and legs ache but he doesn't do any sport or exercise. I've told him over and over to go to the doctor and get some physio then to join the hospital gym like all the other doctors. They have their own gym so they can go for a quick workout so it'd be perfect for him.

thatis That is really a ridiculous amount of homework. Ds is in the 1. Klasse and usually gets reading or a few short sentences to write in German and maths is always finishing off anything they they didn´t get finished in class, so quite a few children rarely get maths homework. I think you´re right though, that the teacher is unlikely to change her ways if she´s always given so much homework.
That commute does sound like a nightmare for your dh. Is there a chance that a colleague could give him a lift part of the way - maybe from the U-Bahn station?

jenny I don´t envy you that journey, but I´m sure you´ll have a fantastic time in the UK.

Linzer I think you ought to buy a bottle of Sekt that you can open after the last lesson with those boys. You´ll certainly of earned it.

admylin Have you heard anything back from any of dh´s job applications? Would he be happy to stay in Hannover if his boss wasn´t such a nightmare?

I went to see my brother´s twins for the first time at the wekend. They´re 4 weeks old now and really sweet. At the moment they must be the easiest babies in the world - they sleep all the time, wake up for a feed and then go back to sleep. My SIL had such a nightmare pregnancy and said she´s really enjoying the peace and quiet to recover. They also moved house when the twins were 2 weeks old, so I think they deserve a bit of peace. I´m sure it´s the calm before the storm and they´ll liven up a bit as they get older. Lovely though they were, I didn´t for a secong think how nice it would be to have another baby - being an aunt is fine.

I´m off to Barcelona tomorrow and am meeting up with friends from England. I´m really looking forward to it, although I hate flying without the dc. I always think I´m going to crash, but I think statistically there´s more chance of me having an accident in the car. At least I should see some sunshine while I´m away.

Today she has an A4 sheet of 62 sums, a separate number chain thingn (apparently the number chain is fun - she has 8 boxes with the first and the last filled in and can put any sums in the boxes as long as the final total is the number in the last box - the fact she finds this fun suggests it isn't maths she hates and struggles with, just the endless repetitive sheets of sums, which tbh must surely turn all but the most devout maths freaks off), a song to learn for a performance, and handwriting practice. This is a relatively sensible manageable amount (esp as she finished at 11.20 today) and not off putting so she is getting through it at a good rate without procrastinating or switching her brain off and writing random answers, which is what drives me crazy but I can understand why she just gets fed up!

Hupa I agree your SIL deserves the contented sleepy twins after a hard pregnancy and house move with 2 week olds! Tiny babies have never made me broody, I do prefer the teeny toddler phase, Henry is probably at my favourite age right now, at not quite 14 months.

I really felt the loss of online grocery shopping when we moved, but now I feel superior when UK friends seem unable to cope if they can't get a delivery slot on the day they need/ the delivery is running late - and they seem to have lost the ability to take a child around a supermarket and think it is an actual impossibility and that without their online delivery or their OH home to watch the children there is no way they can be expected to acquire food!

Oops DD has forgotten the melody, need to check if the song is on U Tube...

Hupa lovely to be able to hold twins, have a cuddle and then hand them back!! I don't think I'd have coped with twins. Hope you have a lovely time in Barcelona and good weather.

Thatis sounds slightly better today on the homework front! Took me ages to get used to the different way of schooling (as compared to what I experienced) but now I am really happy at the standard of education my 2 are getting. Ds is already miles ahead of GCSE level French and he's only in year 8 and the science that they are both learning is amazing. I've tried to get them to chill about the constant testing and infact it's better to be tested 3 times a term on the present subject than once at the end of term on everything like we were.

I've been shopping and only forgot 2 things but will have to go back out later as one of them was gerbil food and I suppose while I'm out I can get beer for dh (the other thing I forgot) - after all Germany is playing tonight so we'll be sitting watching it!

Morning all!!

hupa - have a fab time in Barcelona!

admylin - hows the new dishwasher? I also miss internet shopping - it was a lifesaver in the UK when the boys were little and a nightmare in Tesco!

thatis - thats way more homework than ds1 gets in the 1. Klasse. Yesterday was about typical - he had an A4 page of sums (probably about 30 on there), some reading to do, some handwriting practice and some religion work to finish off. That still took an hour so I can see why your dd is getting frustrated.

linzer - I'm also fed up of the weather. As is ds2 who had an outing to the open air theatre yesterday and came home wet thro to his pants . Your round Germany trip sounds a fun way to get through the long summer holidays. Your very welcome to stop here on the way!

tadjennyp - wow thats a long summer holiday over there. Think you'd go quietly crazy with 3 playdates a day!! But at least you've got you're trip to the UK to look forward to (once you get thro the very long journey!).

nohun - not long now till you move. How are you finding life in Germany?

silken - whoo hoo to the evenly cooking oven but grrr to the internet. How hard can it be for them to sort out???

I've already been to the shops this morning - there was a kids desk on special offer so dh sent me out to get it. The woman in the shop helped me to get it onto the trolley but I nearly put my back out getting it in the car. Not amused that he sent me to get it! Now need to jiggle the boys room about to accomodate 2 desks altho not sure will be able to do homework at the same time - think i'll have to be sat in the middle like a referee .

I'm planning on having a lazy morning today - got a bit of a dicky tummy (again!). But really need to be packing - I go to Scotland next Weds . Can hardly wait. 5 days without dc - I can go out in the evening till as late as I want. How many bets that I'm asleep by 10pm one night??

Ploom hope you didn't hurt your self too much, I take it the desk is still in the car until your dh gets home? I think you'll find that homework will need to be refereed!

The dishwasher has just been delivered and I'm now regretting saying it'll be easy to install and am just about to sit and do a search on how to fit a dish washer - there are some strange unidentifiable bits of plastic that I have no idea where to stick!

You're a braver woman than me - I'd have no idea how to install a dishwasher.

Yes the desk (and a chair for ds2) are still in the car. Thankfully I've got no need for the car today cause I had to put 2 of the back seats down to get it in!

Morning all,

I got DD1's English lesson out of the way early this morning as I asked whether I could go in at 8 instead of 11.50 since I wasn't teaching DD2's class today (they've gone on a trip to the farm). I got the children to talk about their hobbies and have just had to check that I didn't invent the word waveboarding; quite a few said that their hobby was Waveboard fahren and I wasn't quite sure what the verb was. I only came across waveboards a couple of weeks ago as our neighbour's DD has one, and thought at first they were called something like waifboards.

Ploom Thanks for the invitation; I'd love to pop in for a quick coffee, although I'm not sure how feasible it is. We'll only be spending one day at Playmobil FunPark so want to get there fairly early and I don't know how much of a diversion it would be. How far away from Playmobil land are you? Bet you can't wait for your holiday - all those late nights and lie-ins. I can only ever manage one late night a week (or possibly a month ); we had two in a row in Vienna a few months ago, and it took me about a week to recover!

admylin Yes, DH definitely has a more sedentary lifestyle now than when we first met; although he's not necessarily sitting at his desk all day, the only exercise he gets is cycling to the station (which takes about 10 minutes at most). Having a gym at work is ideal if you have the time to go in your lunchbreak; having said that, we used to have a gym at work and I think I managed to go all of about twice in two years. I also vaguely remember going to some exercise classes at work involving a Thera-Band (or whatever it's called in English) but didn't stick to those either.

Thatis I've never experienced online shopping so can't say that I miss it, but I don't enjoy food shopping here so would jump at the chance to order online if it was ever introduced. I used to really enjoy grocery shopping in the USA with DD1 - nice big supermarkets, lots of choice, free samples to try, nice cafe at the supermarket for us to go to afterwards - but Austrian supermarkets just don't compare.

hupa Enjoy Barcelona! I know exactly what you mean about the flying; I just don't want to go on a plane without the DC, so on the very rare occasions that DH and I have been able to go away together for the weekend, I've insisted that we go somewhere within driving distance. Completely irrational as you're right about a car accident on the way to the airport being far more likely, but I'd still worry.

admylin it's reassuring to hear something positive about the school system here. My nephew just got a 4 for his Year 10 English spoken exam, but we chatted for an hour on Sunday and he's easily more fluent than I was at A level. MIL reckons his teachee has it in for him .

hupa I've said before that I would be secretly happy to get pg with twins. I don't know why I think I could cope with them, though. I certainly didn't particularly enjoy the tiny baby stage with DD. Toddlers are so much more interesting.

Thatis I think I would be tempted to do some of that maths hwk myself when there's more than one page of it. Practice makes perfect most effectively if it's done wirh full concentration. Or maybe put a time limit on the hwk session and then ask your dd how much is left and how long she thinks she will need to finish it. Then set an alarm for whenever she has to go back to it. Will she have a different maths teacher next year?

ploom apparently the Telekom computer says our street doesn't have broadband (it does), and of course the people in the call centre can't change that, so we have to wait for someone to change the data and then for a date for someone to connect our port (whatever that means). How hard can it be?

If Linzer is coming in this direction, then we should have a meet up .

Question for those with children at kiga: how much does the Elternbeirat contribute to decision-making and event planning. I asked our Chefin today when the next meeting was and mentioned that some questions had come up wirhin our group, but she fobbed me off saying that would be for an Elternabend and that the Elternbeirat is just for "organisatorisches".

Silken although the education is great (at the Gymnasium atleast) I despair at the spoken English! Dd was reading to her class and the new teacher corrected her!! She told dd to say gled instead of glad! Dd said she just stared at her and a few of her class mates laughed.

I'm afraid I was one of those bad parents who didn't take Kindergarten seriously and never went to the parent meetings (also got told off for not coming). We didn't really get on, they told me off for not speaking ONLY German to my dc when I picked them up and for not dressing them in 3 layers of clothing and a hat at all times so we didn't get on too well.

Linzer also not sure about waveboarding as my dc have them and when I was trying to tell family back home about them they didn't get it. I guess 2 wheeled skateboarding would be silly wouldn't it?

OK so quite a few DIY websites say it's easy to fit a dishwasher yourself so I could give it a go after my next cup of tea maybe. The instructions that came with the machine are not very clear but if I take my time and wait for ds to get home he could be better at it than me!

Oh yes Hupa Barcelona sounds great - I've only been once, I did a month long TEFL course there one summer 17 years ago! Loved it then, it's somewhere I intend to get around to going back to, have fun there kid free!

admylin these stories about the non native English teachers in Germany and Austria are shocking - I would say unbelievable, but obviously I believe you, it's just so wrong - gled indeed! I don't know if I will be able to let it slide if it happens when my kids get old enough to "learn" English - though I know they will learn something from the formal / written grammar aspects in later years, their correct spoken English should be respected!

Good luck with the dishwasher installation!

I am pretty sure "waveboarding" is the correct term and that I have heard it used on British television

Silken the class teacher teaches almost everything in the first few classes - DD has another teacher for craft and ethics, but I think pretty much everything else is the class teacher- and the teacher stays with the class for the first 2 years, so DD will still have her next year! I guess I could just tell her the answers for the maths, I don't know if I could make my writing look exactly like hers, but maybe I will cheat a bit if she gets ridiculous amounts of maths again. I did give her raisins to "check" her answers with and turned a blind eye to her using them as counters, which she should be way past needing to do, it's just easy on the brain I guess!

I don't know the answer to your KiGa question despite the fact I have had at least one child at KiGa continuously for the last 4 years, and will continue to do so without a break until about 2017 I think (that will be 9 consecutive years)! I guess I should get more involved - maybe when DS2 goes - I was thinking more of doing a voluntary bit of English nursery rhymes and party game type stuff (with staff present, not to repeat Linzer's nightmare) once a week once I don't have a child at home than of joining any committees, which do seem only to organised fests/ St. Martinszug and new bits of garden equipment/ work gangs to build stuff in the garden :) At DD's school we were told the parental representative didn't have to worry about the job being too hard as they really only needed to help organise the Christmas Market/ Fair thing, so that may be an indication???

Sun is out so I opened the garden doors, now there are 9000 flies in here! DS2 has also stopped playing and come to tantrum at me so best shut the laptop!

admylin That reminds me of when my German teacher at the VHS corrected my pronunciation of trampen to trempen "because we pronounce it in the English way". At least your DD knows that she needs to pronounce it correctly; mine (esp. DD2) will adopt Austrian pronunciation (of English) in class - not quite as strong as the Austrian children's, but definitely not her normal English accent. She does come home and tell me about all the teacher's mispronunciations though, e.g. cät, cärrot. She's also turned into a really good mimic of DH's accent/dialect; I'm just hoping that she isn't going to start mimicking my accent when I speak German...

How's the dishwasher installation going? that you didn't dress your DC in three layers, btw; I find that a minimum of five layers in summer and ten in winter will keep the KiGa off my back.

silken A meet-up sounds good; I should have factored in an extra day to our plans! We'll probably be returning to Austria from Heidelberg at the weekend (25th/26th Aug) and I'm wondering whether I'll pass by your/Ploom's way then (all I know is that we used to go through Passau when we drove from Mannheim to visit my ILs in Linz - which possibly isn't much help).

That's good to know, Thatis - I decided that if you can say "I like skateboarding", you can say "I like waveboarding" but did worry I might have made it up!

Children have the same teacher for all four years at primary school here (other than for craft and RE too) and it seems to be a huge issue if a teacher retires after two years, for example - how on earth will the children cope? I usually drag out my "I had six different teachers at primary school and I survived" story.

Oh, and I agree with admylin about standards - other than of spoken English - generally being higher here. I also think that the zero tolerance policy wrt any kind of spelling mistake etc., while being quite demoralising for children like DD1 who end up with a page covered with red marks, leads to a higher standard of written language. Or maybe I just read more English than German so am more likely to notice people making quite basic mistakes in English.

Linzer the fun will start next year when they go onto a session of learning about American English and then go back to good old British English the year after that! Points knocked off for writing phrases that would be fine in the US etc. thatis prepare yourself for what is to come!!

I've finally understood what all the parts delivered with the dishwasher are for so I think I'll get it installed by this afternoon! Please let me get it done before dh comes home and starts messing it up. Do any of you have dhs who try to install things before reading any sort of instruction?

Standards are really good here. Dd was learning for a biology test (year 7) last night and she was going through the subject of digestion and all the enzymes, where they are produced and what they do - far nore detailed tahn I ever did.

Dd came home yesterday moaning about her English teacher - the dc were being taught to pronounce statue as "sta-too". Dont think the teacher corrected dd tho but dd persisted in saying it properly!

Agree that the standards are higher here for a comparable age in the UK.

silken - i've emailed linzer to tell her where we live - think she thought we were further south than we were.

Yy, admylin. I have also often resorted to trying to assemble stuff before dh has a chance to do it wrong! We seem to have sorted it now, though, I read the instructions and hand him the right parts and he does what he's told .

OK, I give up!!

Have got the machine fitted in the space, plugged in and pipes attatched but it won't work. Says there's no water going into the machine but tap is on and it worked with the old machine.

Looks like a Handwerker is needed - fed up, wasted day, fingers hurt from twisting screws and I still have to cook dinner :(

Oh no admylin; how frustrating. DH is another one who often doesn't bother with the instructions but, rather annoyingly, he's usually far more successful at putting things together and getting them to work than I am - and I always carefully follow the instructions.

There will be no American English allowed in this house. Although DD2 does enjoy putting on an American accent sometimes. I find that American words come up in my English lessons sometimes and I usually tell the students that yes, that's what the Americans say and in Britain we call it something different - and hope I'm not confusing them too much. I'm quite gespannt about how English is taught at secondary school here after everything you've said about it; I suspect I may have to bite my tongue (or possibly my pen) quite a lot.

Ploom I must confess my geography is about as hopeless as my sense of direction. For some reason, I thought both you and silken were fairly close to Munich - as, of course, Bavaria is such a small Land and really only consists of Munich and its suburbs. Anyway, having discovered that you're actually north of Heidelberg means that we'll possibly be passing your way on the Tuesday or Saturday/Sunday instead, but I'll have to check with DH when he gets back as he laughs at my sense of direction is better at geography than me.

Linzer I remember the other Britsih dad in ds's class phoning me one evening to ask what I thought: his son, who speaks perfect English was being forced to learn American words like elevator and sidewalk and how dare they blablabla..he went on for a while but I had to remind him that the German dc have to learn it, after all American English exisits and if they want to understand the differences then they have to go through that module in school! Our dc just have to sit through it and use their advantage to get extra points by joining in as much as possible!

Now I have to decide - do I call the shop I bought the dishwasher from? The Kundendienst from AEG or just get an electrician to come and have a go at getting the machine to work? The electrician will cost me of course. The shop wanted ?80 to fit it but couldn't come until end of June (busy) so I said just deliver...so fed up I haven't done my dishes, all sitting in the sink now.

It's definitely a good thing that they learn about the differences between American and British English. I wish I'd been taught some of the differences between Hochdeutsch and Austrian German at school or even university although you could of course argue that Austria isn't as important as the USA. The only thing I remember learning is that Paradeiser are tomatoes, but everyone here says Tomaten. Ohne Schlag would have been a far more useful expression to learn.

Not too sure about the dishwasher, I'm afraid - would you need an electrician or a plumber? I'm hopeless at anything to do with DIY; back in the days when electrical appliances came without plugs, I used to have to get friends to wire my plugs for me.

We seem to have more Americans in our circle of occasionally seen friends/ acquaintances here than Brits - in fact we only see one British family regularly, but there is a (very) American lady with her 2 children living a few villages away... Not that we see them too often as we don't really have much in common and her kids are a bit young for my older 2, but DD is rather fascinated with language and notices differences - DS1, who is nearly 5, told the 3 year old DD of the American lady "You don't speak English you speak American, but it's OK, I do mostly understand you" which I liked :) I think they'll be aware of the most obvious UK/ US distinctions before they learn them at school, and as they are used to German / Bayrish and only Hoch Deutsche being appropriate at school but understanding Bayrish being essential socially, I don't think that specidic distinction should cause too much of a problem!