2013 ist schon da! A new Kaffeeklatsch thread for the New Year - living in Germany and Austria

[LinzerTorte]

All welcome - whether you're living in Germany or Austria, have questions about life in those countries or just want to chat.

Previous thread here.

No objections to map as long as it is privateweissdorn. funny story about Karneval. Dh is from near Köln, but thankfully not into Karneval...every year he switches one of those dreadful carneval programmes on, we watch about 10 minutes, and then gives up....phew! But the dc are really into it, I wonder if they will grow out of it?

Krapfen are around all year here, so there is nothing special about them ifswim. I don't like the marille ones either Linzer but once a year can eat one with vanilla or nougat. But the dough does not make me want to rip my bodice off as jenny would say .

C4ro- I get the same message as Linzer...what's the secret? Good to hear you have got a house, and funny that you and Linzer are practically neighbours! Hope you find the patience to take you through the toddler years...and beyond .

Linzer it was indeed lovely to see you. I do wish the dc had been a bit more cooperative and allowed us to keep chatting. Yes, we have to think of strategies for next time... I'll get a babysitter with nerves of steel, pay her lots and we can go out for a coffee ? . Hope you get a well-deserved rest at ILs, and enjoy the cinema!

nutella good to hear you are coping on your own! i remember the "will i be okay?" feeling. and then being fine...

My dds say 'scheide' for the female parts, and that is what they learnt at school, but I can't really judge how apporiate it is. In any case, I call it 'scheibe', because that is how I first understood it and they find that hilarious. help, outnumbered

ds is nearly better thanks, though he has been fast asleep for the past 4 hours so clearly not fully normal.

off to make dinner....what is it going to be? does anyone else struggle with this problem?

Out of curiosity I just googled "schiede" and then google-translated the wikipedia.de page for it - it came up with this:

Vagina (container) , a container which is pulled over the blade of swords
Vagina , a female sex organ
Watershed , the border between the basins for storm water run-off from river systems
Leaf sheath , the leaf base of grasses and many umbelliferous
Volva , shell residues of various fungi

Ouch at the first one!

I like the idea of a map BTW because I have absolutely no idea about German geography either. I know we're about an hour or so from playmobil land :)

Bertie The distance from Playmobil land is always good to know! Actually, I have done with a map last summer, when we met up with Ploom and cheas after a trip there, as I was wrongly convinced that Ploom was on "our" side of Playmobil land.

platanos A babysitter would be an excellent idea; I'll chip in. I got out of the what's-for-dinner problemn this evening by handing it over to DH (as Fridays are the only day he's in time to do the DC's evening meal)... but they just had a Jause, as we'd had dinner (yesterday's leftovers) at midday.

Our trip to the ILs has been postponed, as DH's nephew has been ill - I would still have considered going as he's apparently on the mend now and it sounds like it was just a bad cold (def. wouldn't have gone if it had been D&V or similar), but DH more or less said no straight away. Am quite disappointed about our cinema trip, but I suppose it gives me a chance to catch up with all the washing.

I could have done

Hello just a brief one as my dad is here and dh just got in too.

Good news re dh' work: his boss told him how pleased he is with his work so far and has said that he wants to end his probationary period on Monday. It would have been end of July officially!

Anyway, vagina talk

I said Scheide as a child. And yes, Bertie, it is also the word for where you slip the sword into (what's the English word???). What do you children say for willy in German? My brothers always just said Penis, but I know my nephews have some other words for it. Ours say willy both in German and English.

One thing I really can't get used to is the word kigas use for doing a poo. At my nephews kiga they say 'Stinker machen' and at ds1s they say 'kaka machen'. Doesn't poo poos sounding less disgusting than Stinker or especially Kaka?

Anyway must go

outnumbered that is fantastic news about your DH's job! So happy for you, I'm sure it's nice to have the boss saying he is doing a good job to. That's really great well done mr outnumbered!
Have a lovely time with your Dad.
And yes poo poo sounds better than kaka or stinken. DP says ah ah to DS... I think I just tell him he has smelly pants - DS not DP :o

DP says "peepeehahn" (sp?) to DS when he puts clean nappy on "pee pee Hahn nach unten" :o I have put it together because Germans love to squish their words together and I find myself trying to do the same in English
I'll ask him about the female equivalent... I used to babysit a toddler who called it her "mini" which her mother said she must have picked up at nursery....

outnumbered The word you're looking for is sheath - sheath and Scheide may well come from the same Old High German word, if only I could be bothered to look it up. Congratulations to your DH btw, fab news!

Nutella Peepeehahn makes me think of Pipi-Hendl (or maybe that should be Pipi-Henderl), Austrian for hen.

I think "fanny" is equivalent to "dick" - not as rude as, say, cock, but still not the kindof thing little children say. Maybe older children would, but probably out of the hearing of adults.

at Pipi Hahn! Actually, come to think of it, one word for willy I have heard is Pillermann.

weissdorn well, 'geschäft machen' is sooo German, dont you think? always talking about being prodcutive

I am not sure which word I would use...but I dont think I'd consider fanny as rude as such, the one with c is rude and has a German euqivalent. not sure what the German equivalent for fanny would be though. just had a look on leo and it suggests 'Muschi'. and although I have heard it is use, I would never ever use that word myself!!

No, the connotation I have for Muschi isn't very rude (Fotze would be) but very common iykwim. I've never heard moomoo.

I love the random topics we discuss on here!

Ahh yes outnumbered only really high brow topics are discussed here Pillerman is another one I've heard.
DP has given me another (rude name) for willy but can't think of a Pipi Hahn equivalent for vagina.

Linzer DP says that they also use Hendl in Bayern for hen. Apparently in Munich you would find "halbes Hendl" on the menu.

Is muschi more like pussy? I don't think I'd be keen on a child using that either. So picky

I meant to say earlier but my phone didn't want to type, isn't the sheath/scheide thing funny considering that sheath is also a old fashioned english word for condom?

I always think Scheide and related words means split of some form or other, like Scheidung so it kind of makes sense that it would be a word for vagina. It's a lateral move to Scheide meaning sheath, but I guess a sword would split something and then take on the meaning of cover, thence to condom. I could be way off beam and would love to study etymology but that's how my brain has always sorted out the meanings!
Does 'ich muss mal' only relate to urine then? I've heard pullern in Sachsen too.
Hope everyone has had a lovely Friday evening with lots of wine . I need to tidy the living room for Anna's party this evening!

Congrats on dh's job outnumbered.
Have a lovely weekend! X

Kindley update= I've been getting German language books on .co.uk and .com. Not .de as I thought! Sorry to get all your hopes up so cruelly.

DH had to work today as project finishing in the next week and I was too knackered (daytrip to Frankfurt this week with my work) to make much of a day of it for DD. She got a trip to SPAR today and two Ice-Age DVD. Ah well. Considering another Sunday run to Bratislava tomorrow as really Sundays are a washout in Austria for getting things done.

Very interesting to follow your convo on what to call DD bits, we're not quite there yet- it's all po-po so far (2.5). At the moment it seems ka-ka and loo-loo for poo/wee but my Austrian MIL uses "haufi" for poo (which I think it horrid).

Evening,

Nightmare day today - we took the DC skiing this morning and it was absolutely freezing (I normally go and sit in the cafe with my book, but the inside bit was packed for ages and when I finally got a seat, I had to perch on a not particularly comfortable stool), plus DS got fed up after about 20 minutes and wanted to go home as did I. Called at the OÄMTC on the way back as the bulb in one of the car's headlights had gone, got home... and realised my mobile was missing. After phoning it, phoning the ÖAMTC and driving back there just in case (they said no one had handed it in), I remembered I could track it on my iPod - and discovered it a few km away from the ÖAMTC (and still moving).

To cut a long story short - and because I'd only be repeating what I've already said on FB - I now have to wait 5-6 weeks for my new phone and am already feeling lost without it (although can make calls and text on my UK mobile). Am really annoyed with myself - I don't think anyone could have taken it out of my bag, so I think it must have fallen out of my bag when I got out of the car and someone took it. I've taken out theft insurance on the new phone, although it's really bolting the stable door...

linzer I am so sorry!! apart from the obvious financial loss, I also would not know what to do without my phone. all my calendar entries are on my phone only, numbers only on my phone as well, as I never synchronise with my computer. maybe I should start doing that...

So you were able to track it down but you cant do anything about it? would it not be your something the police could do? I mean if you can show on your computer that it is your phone and show the location, would it not be in your right to get it back - through the police of necessary?

btw, judging by your fb conversations in German, it sounds like your German is at least as good as my English. It sounds impeccable

we had a lovely weekend with my dad. Especially ds2 was all over him, which is so sweet to see, as it means a lot to my dad too.

platanos it's hard seeing your parents like that isnt it. overall, my mum was really lucky I guess, if you can call it that. But here greatest fear was always 'losing her mind', not being able to think, speak, read, communicate properly anymore. and although all those abilities did suffer over the years, it was only the last week of her life that there was no quality of life left. I am ever so grateful for that. I am also very grateful that me, my brothers and my dad were all at home with her for that last week. do you still have your mum? and how is she doing, without your dad?

jenny you explanation makes a lot of sense!

I will have a last glass of wine tonight before going sober again through the week

oh, and platanos you are in Vienna arent you?! my dad said that there is a little street in Vienna named apart one of his ancestors, Apparently it's called 'Knöllgasse' - not that I am expecting you to have heard of it

outnumbered I asked DH if he'd heard of Knöllgasse just on the off-chance (he works in Vienna), but sadly not! Thank you for the compliment about my German, but there's a huge difference between writing a couple of sentences on FB - that, texts and work-related e-mails are about the extent of my written German nowadays - and your posts on here; I wouldn't be able to tell you weren't a native speaker. I'd be here all morning if I wrote my posts in German, rewording and revising... I'm a terrible perfectionist and hate making mistakes.

Re my phone - well, you could see whereabouts in the particular street it was, but it could have been in any number of houses/flats. I think even if we'd been able to narrow it down to a particular house, I'm not sure we could have asked the police to get a search warrant; DH didn't think there was much point, anyway. I'm wondering now whether we should have made more of an effort to track it down, but I wasn't thinking straight at the time and it's too late now.

linzer maybe send a text to your phone saying that you have a tracker via your computer and you know where the phone is. perhaps tell them the street so that they know you are not fibbing?

The problem is that my phone is locked, so whoever has taken it wouldn't be able to read any text I sent. I did mark it as "lost" via my iPod and that also displays a message saying something like "this phone is lost, if found please ring [DH's number]" - and that message will display on a locked screen - but didn't realise that I could do so until after I'd had a block put on the phone, so I'm not sure whether it will have worked. The other issue is that when I tracked it, it only had 2% of the battery left so it would have turned itself off soon afterwards anyway. Probably too late to do anything now (I can no longer see where my phone is as it's turned off/not connected to the Internet) other than kick myself for being so careless.

Linzer hope you haven't lost all your phone numbers and any photos. Good news that you were insured though. I wonder if the person that found it will hand it in to the police station or something?

platanos What did you cook in the end? I find batch cooking and freezing stuff helps with the dinner dilema. Veggie curries or veggie chilli is easy to make double quantity and then freeze for another day. I have a list of foods they'll all eat and I just rotate it!

If it's boring they're geting old enough to make their own meal anyway so that's one less job for me to worry about!

At the moment they all empty the kitchen cupboards and fridge over the weekend with their constant snacking though!

Did you all sort your health insurance problems out? Do they really want so much money?
I was thinking that a little part time job would be a good idea for me seeing as the dc are more or less independent now but not if I'm going to have to pay so much insurance. Even if I got more hours then I'd hardly earn much with the Steurklasse that I would have (dh as Steuerklasse III).
MrTumbles which tax group are you for your part time job? Do you pay extra pension and health insurance?