Cyber Glühwein und Lebkuchen - the German and Austrian advent thread

[admylin]

A thread for anyone living in Germany or Austria, or anyone else who fancies a chat.

Happy first Advent to everyone!

Previous thread: here

Oh and linzer hartz4 is what used to be called Sozialhilfe.

Linzer the church service reminds me of school in the UK, we always had to go to church at the end of term or beginning of term! When my 2dc were in school in the UK for a short time they also had an end of term service and a service to say goodbye to the 6th class who were all leaving to go to secondary school. They thought it was funny that they had to just move their mouths to the songs/hymns and the lords prayer as they had never heard them before in their life!

jenny and Grinch I feel rootless too even though I grew up and lived in the same house and small town until I was 17, which is when I couldn't stand it any longer and left to live and work in France! I couldn't stand the gossip and everyone knowing everyone elses business! I've been moving around ever since and it must have been destiny to end up with a dh who has to move because of work! My dc both want to move again too and both hope that dh's next job will be in the US (dd) or Asia (ds)!

outnumbered the job was to University of New South Wales, tbh I didn't even look which city that is in! It's probably Sydney I'd guess. Is your dh thinking about going for jobs abroad too? Hope he gets something soon but it is a positive sign that he's atleast getting interviewed. Some of dh's jobs are getting 100 applications! He'd only get into the first round if he had a lot of own funding to bring with him.

Santa I think your idea about moving on every few years is great and you'll make a true world citizen out of your dc! Who knows you might also land somewhere after the 2nd or 3rd move and feel like you want to stay there forever. Mine don't feel 100% German or British, they feel like a mixture of India, Uk and Germany and from the Indian side they have 3 'cultures' to mix with as dh is Indian but had Bangladeshi and Pakistani roots and 3 different languages so plenty of choice!

platanos was the 1000? for your dh's braces or dd? Our orthodontist wanted 3500? per dc at first and I managed to get it down to around 1500? by telling him that I didn't want his luxury high tech fancy treatment amd extras. He even wanted around 300? for a set of x-rays and chech-up that, when I phoned the Krankenkasse, they said they would pay anyway. It was too late to change so we have had to stay with him for now but I'm not happy at his methods of making extra money by selling treatment that is really covered already.

Promised dd to take her to town today after school to the last day of the Christmas market. I really hope it won't be too crowded or we'll be sneaking round back streets to get away from it. I was in the crowd with my dc just in front of the knife attacker at the opening of the new Berliner Hauptbahnhof and it's put me off crowds since then.

admylin We never went to church when I was at primary school, although I'm sure we used to say the Lord's Prayer and we definitely sang hymns in assembly. I was talking to our neighbours the other day about how I have to try and mouth along to the Lord's Prayer etc. at church here and wanted to say I feel like John Redwood (singing the Welsh national anthem), but I don't think even DH would have known what I was on about!

DH feels the same about where he's from; his parents still live in the same house where he was born, but he said there's no way he could go back and live there again. He hasn't really kept in touch with any of his old school friends and his only close friend is from university. I'm still in touch with far more friends from school/university/old jobs than he is, but I don't know whether that's because men are generally a bit rubbish at keeping in touch (or maybe it's just DH!).

outnumbered I'd have loved to learn more languages at school, but French, German and Welsh were the only ones on offer at GCSE level (and you couldn't do all three), plus I did Spanish GCSE when I was in the sixth form. I found some of the university courses I took when I did my year abroad in Berlin were quite difficult as it was assumed that everyone had learned Latin.

Linzer and outnumbered I did Latin GCSE outside school (a retired Latin teacher ran an class for overprivileged middle-class children at the university) and learnt the cases in the following order: nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative .

I think the main difficulty in German is with verbs like helfen, where you think the object should be accusative but it's actually dative (isn't it?) Are there other verbs like that - can't think of any offhand? Most other sentences can be reworded in English to make them clearer: "I'll send you the letter" becomes "I'll send the letter to you" - letter is acc., you is dat., so you get "Ich schicke dir den Brief". Is that the sort of thing you mean, ploom? You did say you didn't have problems with prepositions.

Learning Latin helped me a bit with the cases in German, as you have to add the prepositions in as you translate from Latin into English, ie. you add to or for when you see a noun in the dative. (Have to say I can no longer remember what the dative ending for even the simplest Latin word is - puella, puellae, puellam, puell-oh help!)

That's true, cheas; I'd forgotten about verbs that take the dative. In that kind of instance, I don't suppose DD1's way of learning cases would be a huge help - e.g. to ask "wem hilfst du?" ("ich helfe dir" = dative), you'd have to know that helfen actually takes the dative in the first place.

Other similar verbs that I can think of off the top of my head are antworten, stehen (e.g. der Rock steht dir gut), passen, gratulieren... I'm sure there are quite a few more. And I always have to stop and remember the difference between antworten and beantworten, as antworten takes the dative (ich antworte ihr) and beantworten the accusative (ich beantworte den Brief).

Sorry, that's not a huge help, I know. I can't actually remember any trick for learning them, other than speaking/listening to as much German as possible so that, for example, ich glaube dich just sounds wrong. In a slightly more helpful vein, I've just found this table of common verbs that take the dative.

Hmmm I did Latin for one year (3rd year I think, year 9 these days) but I'm afraid I didn't take it seriously, I just remember Matella est Mater, Patella est Pater, or something.... and that our Latin teacher used to make us run around the quad 5 times in the middle of the lesson, because it was a double and she said it helped us concentrate... I worked out that the translations followed a pattern and going from the titles and a few key words I could write my own little short story without bothering to learn all the vocab and still average about 70% (which of course in the UK is an A or B) so I just merrily bluffed my way through, the teacher recommended I take Latin GCSE the following year, but then she was sacked in a big scandal (well big for our tiny, dull little Methodist school where nothing much happened - it was pretty widely known she was in a relationship with the female piano teacher, and it then became public, and they both disappeared and could never be mentioned in front of staff again - now I wonder how they could have dismissed them for that, but who knows what the official reason was). Anyway I never got to take Latin, which given my dodgy old approach to it was probably for the best! All I did at school language wise was French, which was compulsory - I got an A at GCSE but only due to being good at "playing the system" of exams, and a teacher who helped us question spot and understand what the examiner would be marking for in advance - I was rubbish at the actual language!

Ploom my insoles were proscribed by the Hausartz and I had to take the prescription to one of those scary looking shops that sells wheelchairs and prosthetic breasts, and they scanned my foot with a very fancy scanner that produced a contour map, and then they sent that off and I got a call to collect the insoles a week later... No idea if that helps you? I am sure your Hausartz can do the same. I haven't seen a specialist but I know I have to, DH is out of sympathy until I do, being a typical man who feels if you have a problem you either find a way to solve it or put up with it, but don't expect sympathy if you aren't doing anything actively about it. Which is true of course, but I am inclined to procrastinate and don't have that much faith in doctors for things like this that have no black and white obvious treatment...

The dc who do latin in dd's and ds's class say it's the worst subject and far too much workload. The teacher sends regular letters of complaints to the parents that they aren't learning their vocab etc so my 2 are glad they're doing French although ds doesn't like it that much (even though he gets 1s) as he thinks it's a waste of time and they should all be learning Chinese or Arabic.

Snowing here, that was NOT forcast. Even less inclined to go to the city centre later but dd will still want to go so now the big debate is - do we bus and tram it or drive and hope we get a parking space?

I'm very impressed by all the explanations and understanding of the cases in German everyone. I guess them most of the time and important things like letters get grammar checked by ds!

Thanks for those other examples, linzer. I know I regularly come across verbs where I'm not sure whether they take the dative whenever I have to write something in German, so I knew there must be more than just helfen. Actually, the best way of remembering (for me, at least) is probably to assume that if I'm not sure, then the verb almost definitely will take the dative .

I'm sure I have more problems with verbs I originally learnt as translations (helfen, glauben, antworten) than with verbs I've picked up by osmosis since living here. I certainly learnt stehen as a phrase "es steht dir gut" and can't imagine I would make a mistake in that case.

It's snowing here, too, advent, although I think the local paper was forecasting it. A white Christmas would be nice, but I'd like for there to be no new snowfall overnight to Boxing Day as I have to drive 100km to play in an early church service (rehearsal at 8.30am - eek).

Ah, all those verbs I have problems with are in part two of that link: erlauben, gratulieren, etc.

The grammar talk is all over my head :( I have only really learnt German by picking it up as I've gone along, so I know I make lots of mistakes, and what I do say correctly is because I've heard it said that way, not because I've worked it out intellectually; DH heard me on the phone to the VHS office the other day and said afterwards that I didn't make any "real" grammar mistakes during the (3 or 4 minute) phone call (which means I probably made some small ones but nothing huge) and I was very proud :) But usually I make mistakes every time I open my mouth, some days horrendous glaring ones in every sentence so that I get to the point where I don't want to open my mouth any more, other days I do much better (does everyone have "good / bad German days" for no explicable reason? )

It snowed here over night, but only a light coat, and its been raining since about 9am so the new stuff's washed away, and just the dirty heaps of old piled snow at the sides of the roads remain. DS2 was loving fake falling over in the snow and rolling about, lying on his back and flapping snow angel style etc. Unfortunately now its turned to mostly freezing swampy mud he still throws himself down on his back laughing and shouting "Iz wet" every time I take him into the playground or football field for his daily run :o I have been doing a lot of coat washing and he is now switching between his own coat and snow trousers, an old but too big coat of DS1's and Matchhosen, and a too big but outgrown by DS1 snowsuit - he looks like a cushion come to life in the oversized snow suit, but for some reason he has got attached to it and doesn't want to take it off in the house! He is also getting through a lot of hats...

Which reminds me DH actually did some washing yesterday while I was at work, inspired by his own dryer fixing - we are enticingly close to the bottom of the laundry mountain, one more load may just do it... until this evening's lot of course!

Glühwein is warming on the hob and DH is home from work early for a weeki off over Chrismas :) Mind you we were planning to go to the lovely forest Christmas market to cut a tree this afternoon, but the rain and mud have put us off :( so I am just back from choosing a tree with the kids in the glamorous and atmospheric supermarket car park... ah well, it's a perfectly nice tree :)

I did grow up in one small town, not leaving until I went to university, and I don't feel I have roots there at all. I don't feel rooted to anywhere, and I feel that's a good thing. We're planning this lifestyle not because we feel unsettled, but because we feel there is so much of the world to see, and life's too short to fit it all in if you only do two-week holidays here and there every year. Obviously it's not everyone's cup of tea! But we are very excited about it, and think it will be wonderful for our DC.

I am soooo hoping for snow this Christmas, but it doesn't quite feel cold enough here. Boo. We are enjoying the Christmas Market though, have been a few times. DS loves the carousel, and would stay on all day if he could.

Hello! Ds1&2 are you-tubing on my computer so just a post from my phone.

advent that sounds horrible having to witness something like that. I'm not surprised you avoid crowds now! I had an awful experience - though nothing as bad as a knife attack- with some travelers at a motorway service station when I was with ds2 (then nearly 2) and ds3 (then 8 weeks). It really left me shaken and I am much more weary when in busy places too.
Re work and applying overseas... When we first moved back to Germany we never thought it would be forever. The only reason we came here was because my mum had terminal cancer and I wanted to make the most of the time we have left, being closer to her. I am glad we moved back as the time me and the boys had with my mum being so close was very special, and I know she thought so too. Me and dh had always dreamt about emigrating to Australia or California. But a lot has changed in the past 4 years since moving to Germany. We now know we have 2 children with special needs, and as it is so difficult with them in every day life, we really need all the help and support we get here. Simply because of that we can't leave Germany until the boys have finished their education and are hopefully able to lead an independent life. It's not a nice feeling, a bit like being trapped here, on the other hand, this is a nice country for them to grow up. It's just us who had planned life slightly differently.

Interesting talk about feeling settled, roots etc. we moved once when I was 8, and the never again. My dad still lives in the house my parents built when they moved to lueneburg in 1985. I still call it home even though I don't really have many friends left there. We were a very close family, my mum was the warmest person you can imagine and always made out home and our family time special. It's different now with just my dad, but I still like going back to their house and would love to one day live there myself. Otoh I have always been the one from us siblings who wanted to go and live in different places. When I was 16 I spent a year in the USA, the went to study in the uk, after that I went to oz for a year, and then back to the uk. But it was always good to know that I have a 'home' I can go back to.

While me and my brothers were still at home, my parents decided they didn't want to uproot us again. Even though my dad had plenty of opportunities being a prof at Uni. They did always completely supported me though in my plans to travel and live abroad. Then, when my youngest brother had started Uni, my parents started using my dads work as a way of getting around a bit. They went to California for 18 months, came back to Germany for 6 months, and then went to Istanbul for 2 years. Unfortunately my mums cancer just wasn't going away so eventually they decided to move back home for good.

Anyway, far too long post... And from my phone so probably filled with typos...

Hope everyone has a nice weekend and for those traveling: safe journey!

I loved yesterday's grammar discussion, I wish I'd learnt some Latin... Accept that when I was at school I probably would never have understood it, so I suppose I would rather like to learn some now... Although at the moment I'm re-learning French and still picking up German... That's probably enough for now.

The 2 things I have found helpful when it comes to understanding grammar is the German teacher I had here (she was brilliant) and also teaching grammar. But I'm glad I've learnt German here, it somehow makes the weird stuff more acceptable when you know it just is how it is well that makes sense to me

On the roots side of things: I moved a couple of times when I was young, first from Croydon (the glamour) to near Peterborough (more glamour), around a bit and then back to London, around a bit more and then Germany. I suppose home to me is where my Mum lives - because she is the one who can get us all together usually and being together as a family gives me a feeling of home more than any flat or house has. Now I feel home with DP and I'm sure the addition of Nutellachen will cement that. But having friends I can whinge with and celebrate with are also very important. Then there is the little stuff like knowing where to get good food, cultural references and just understanding how things work. But those last things are much harder and can in some ways take a lifetime in one place to achieve- like learning the language and the funny sayings, some are similar and some aren't.

But my Mum moved a lot as a child, because grandad worked on the railways, it had a huge impact on her education and because she was always the new girl she never made real friends knowing that she would soon move on. She is very clever and has run her own businesses but it seems like the lack of stability (her parents were always more interested in her brother - the son and heir) has caused huge damage to her self esteem, confidence and self belief. She does make friends but she doesn't often realise that they really are her friends. It's odd. She is still seeking stability and security and has whipped herself into another new project. Although right now she is much happier than she has been for years.
So I suppose I'm rather rootless but not as rootless as Mum. I can see that roots are important, but that they happen by standing still.

Hmmm... This has become a bit epic for a Saturday afternoon well I'm off to have a cookie, anyone who wants one can pop round I've made loads!!

snowing on and off here. I like snow .

I also struggle with german ploom. I think I missed it but would you have to write in german or just read it? I have to write a tiny little bit in german (most of it is in english) and have found a german language student who I meet once a week, she checks my text and uses it as a starting point to give me exercises for my weak points (of which there are many). would something like that work for you?

interesting on roots. In one sense I have never had strong roots - being half british, half spanish. And then having moved around a bit. Spain feels like home but I know I could not live there and am very un-Spanish, yet when I go back there is strong sense of being fully familiar with many things. I did not have that feeling in the Uk. But strangely enough I feel totally settled here...

second day of the holidays and the dc are just squabbling...dd1 plays the recorder quite well while dd2 never practices and still screeches (sp?) lots. dd1 shouts at dd2 and tells her to stop cos she can't play at all. at dd1 and for dd2. I have tried to talk to dd1 about it, but she is just unreasonable about it. sigh. I think I will have to give a clear sanction for such comments, or will that make it worse? parenting...I'll never crack that one, but have accepted my fate

advent the 1000 euro were for dd. thanks for telling me about your experience. I shall dig out the original bill and question the kk about it. well done on posting the stuff...i finally posted mine on friday. at least it mig

sorry to read about such bad experiences at school - you all seem such lovely people.

I'd better go and see to my musikanten...they are practising for a christmas eve concert for dh and me. happy 4th advent. safe travels too...

Just wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and lots of fun over the holidays! We have lots of snow here, well 6 inches or so, so I hope it lasts till Tuesday. I have a couple of parcels I need to find in my closet that don't appear to be there anymore. Hoping all goes well with baby Nutellachen! X

Just swinging by to see whether there is any news re Nutellachen? Hope all goes well! Wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas. No snow for us it is very mild indeed and there are flood alerts along the river Rhine. We live far enough away to be affected though.

Since you asked Beinchen I thought I better pop in and say hello

Everything is fairly chilled chez Nutella. Nutellachen is still safely in place and I'm hoping to see out at least the next 48 hours so DP and I can enjoy a nice relaxed Christmas eating waay too much and then welcome the bean in time for new year... Although since it already doesn't listen to a thing I say it will likely turn up when most inconvenient :)

I hope everyone has a lovely Christmas, in whatever style you celebrate - we are having a mix today and tomorrow of German and English traditions.... Although no sprouts . If you could buy just 5 then I might have considered them... Maybe. Enjoy spending time together with loved ones and I hope you all get something lovely for Christmas that you really enjoy. X

Watching your Fb avidly for news, Nutella! Keep us posted!

We have no sprouts, which is a shame, but the shops had none. Oh well.

Just made Christmas tree pizza, and cakes for tomorrow (I don't make Christmas cake in advance as I don't like it, so just vanilla/chocolate cakes tomorrow instead).

Frohe Weihnachten.

⛄

We had sprouts - I fry them in a little bit of oil for about 5 mins with diced bacon - absolutely delicious and totally different to the disgusting old fashioned over-sprouts, and even the kids like them and eat them all. I think I may be the only meat eater on the thread though, if so that's not a lot of use :)

We had our Christmas roast turkey with the trimmings yesterday - bakery breakfast, brought tree in and decorated it, Christkind brought presents while kids upstairs, Glühwein and building of Playmobile structures and Carrara Bahn and general playing with presents, turkey in the evening, stockings hung, slightly late bed... Even though they'd had their main presents DD still got up at 3am over excited about her stocking! Today is in-law day with a big gathering there!

Hope Nutellachen stays put for a few more days to avoid a Christmas day birthday and upsetting Nutella's plans!

Happy Christmas everyone!

• over-boiled sprouts, no idea what over-sprouts would be, super sprouts?

Merry Christmas you lovely MNetters!!
Santa came here last night (cue very happy dc) so there wasnt such an early start this morning although they all wanted to play Wer War's at 8.30am this morning - too early for me!
As well as my lovely skis, Santa also brought me a heavy head cold - that wasnt on any wish list so I'm relying on Sudafed to get me through the day!

Hope you all have a great day & Nutellachen stays put at least till the festivities are over!

Merry Christmas everyone!
Santa came this morning, very late - had to wake my 2 at 10:30 to enjoy the lovely breakfast!
Hope everyone had a lovely day and enjoyed all the good food! We're so full after dinner we couldn't manage the dessert yet! Off to colapse on the sofa and hope that dd's 'Sissi' film is finished soon.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

We've had a lovely double celebration - presents from IL last night and a stocking-full from us for dd this morning. I think she'll enjoy almost everything she's got and the ??? marble run was a big hit.

I made all the trimmings of a British Xmas dinner today, including steamed sprouts, which everyone around here eats. MIL brought some pieces of goose for DH and PIL (and herself in the end, since she'd overestimated the amount they would eat). DD was sick a couple of times on Saturday night and hasn't eaten much at all since then, but doens't seem particularly ill, just lethargic, which is not surprising when running on empty.

Have to go and put dd to bed. Hope everyone has a lovely evening.

Ah Advent , say what you like about teenagers and all the associated problems of parenting, you have no idea what a beautiful, alien dream the revelation you woke your children at 10.30am is! DD (7) woke me and both the boys at 3am wanting to open her stocking, despite the fact we did main presents yesterday, and it took me an hour to get them all back to sleep, and they were all up again at 6am - that's on top of Ds1 having a nightmare about midnight and Ds2's usual several briefer wakings... I wouldn't wish away the many lovely things about small children, but I do think that teens are going to have the one significant compensation of lie ins to weigh against the predicted stresses that will undoubtedly come too!

I cannot yet imagine deliberately waking a sleeping child on a non school day, unless the house were on fire