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.

Does "Mobbing" count as a German word ending in -ing as it's a false friend and all?

DD is fasching today - after telling her teacher she was going to wear the ladybird costume from last year (that doesn't fit any more) she finally decided on a M&S halloween costume that we sold to her as a "rainbow fairy" dress because she is scared of witches. Unfortunately she is likely to get a lot of "süße kleine Hexe" comments from the staff at the kiga but it serves her right for not going as a doctor like I wanted her to.

nutella most of the baby groups I went to were at 9 or 10am. I remember dd also being in the habit of napping for a couple of hours at around 8am and I was annoyed about Pekip being at 9am as that really didn't fit with that. Looking back, it wasn't the problem that I felt it to be at the time, but when you are sleep-deprived and hearing/reading well-meaning but conflicting advice from all sides it's difficult to see the wood for the trees.

You or your dp could also try googling "Familienzentrum" or "Mehrgenerationenhaus" - that's where all the groups are here in non-religious East Germany. The VHS might be worth checking out, too, as I remember there being a baby music group taking place at the same time as the English class I used to teach (another 9am start, though).

outnumbered mine always used to do that if it got wet or any dirt stuck to it. You can try wiping it with a very slightly damp cloth, but then leave it (open) for a while because it will still jump for a while until it dries out.

Funnily enough the text I'm translating atm is about Mobbing cheas - although the word itself isn't mentioned. And what about Training? Not a false friend, although "ein Training" just sounds wrong.

Off to pick up DD1 now. She's on the other side of town, a 15-minute drive away, which means an hour's driving time for two hours there. Getting them dressed for Fasching this morning was a nightmare. It's freezing cold and still snowing, so I'm rather glad that none of them want to go to the Faschingsumzug this afternoon.

Very good Linzer I spent ages thinking about it and only came up with mobbing ... And cheas beat me to it!

Thanks mrt for the tips. I will return to google and see what I can find. Have a lovely child free sleep time away! Of course I hope you'll enjoy some beautiful long uninterrupted sleep. Me... Noooo I'm not at all

And thanks as well for all the other search tips!

Just thought of Liebling, Hering and Saibling (no idea what kind of fish that is, but it came up in DD2's homework the other day) while I was mixing the pancake batter.

Aargh, DD1 and DS have changed their minds about the Faschingsumzug and are now insisting that we go. Looking on the bright side, it has at least stopped snowing.

Nutella FWIW morning playgroups were never at the right time for me either; they always coincided with the DC's naptime and I didn't start going to organised groups until DD2 and DS were over 1 and had dropped their morning nap (none of them napped well when we were out and about, and just ended up grumpy). I made more of an effort with DD1 so that I could get to know people; it often depends on how desperate you are to socialise!

I've just finished two rounds of pancake making too! One sweet round and one savoury round. Hope they're enough to fill the dc up when they get in later.

Hope it's not too cold at the Umzug Linzer, have you got really warm boots to wear? I remember my freezing feet being the worst part of it. Fasching has really passed me by this year except for noticing it on ZDF once as I was flicking channels in search of something worth watching.

Nutella as long as you're still getting out and about to meet friends in the afternoons you've got plenty of time to find a nice group or meet other mums with babies when it warms up. Your ds is still tiny, don't think we went far when ds was that small. I used to aim for getting out for a bit of fresh air after the morning nap at 11am and just back in time for my lunch then a long afternoon nap together and back out at 3pm for a longer walk. We stayed more or less in that routine even when dd was born when ds was 16 months old.

...Riesling, Ohrring ...

mrtumble slightly at you getting away with your dh. Me and dh had planned ain't weekend away at a spa hotel in bad ems. Mil had agreed to babysit, and we had babysitters organised to help her. It would have been our first night away since pre dc....and two days before it was meant to happen mil got ill. Don't think it's ever going to happen now until the boys are grown up as we have no-one who could look after them for us...
I hope you have a lovely time. And try not too party too hard but make up for your broken nights

Ain't?!? Supposed to say 'a long'!!

outnumbered that is a pity about your long weekend... It will happen though one day

admylin That sounds like a lot of pancakes! I mentioned pancake day to DP but he wasn't really bothered ah well... I might have pancake day a day late. Since he won't be here to complain about pancakes for dinner

Thought of an -ing word... Säugling! I'm very pleased to have thought of that all by myself.
Speaking of Säuglings mine is poor little PITA today. He is not a happy boy, but he is currently napping in his buggy... Hope he feels better for the nap. Keeping my FX that it is a growth spurt and he settles again in a day or two.

Kuemmerling, Feigling

Hope you have a lovely time away MrTumbles

I hope you find something to join soon Nutella. There is absolutely nothing here except groups that you have to pay a yearly membership to join or groups organised by churches e.g. the Mormon girls all stick together like they're supposed to and organise playdates etc. V jealous about morning naptimes! S used to go around 11 ish if I was lucky, now he goes to sleep in the car to pick the others up around 3 unless he's really tired.

Happy pancake day to everyone. The pictures all look delicious on FB.

Right, off to volunteer in school shortly. Have a good evening!

Quick maths question if anyone can help - DD1 got a maths test back today, and got the following question wrong:

Der "Nachtzug" fuhr um 21.03 ab, und kam am Zielbahnhof um 05.15 Uhr an. Wie lange dauerte die nächtliche Fahrt?

DD1 wrote 8 h 12 min and no matter how often I recalculate, I come up with the same answer! Could someone either a) tell me the correct answer, or b) tell me that the maths teacher has gone mad?

B is right

Unless the train crosses a time zone, travels on the day the clocks go back or forward...or stops for a hour somewhere for the driver to have his Schnitzel mit Pommes.

But I take it that was the full question? How confusing for dd.

Thanks, platanos - yes, that was the full question. Unless the teacher considered that the nächtliche Fahrt didn't start until 10 pm and that night ends at 5 am, say, I couldn't work out what DD1 had done wrong! Will have to write a suitable comment on the test paper - it's a little frustrating that she got a 3 when she only made one proper mistake otherwise (plus she calculated another question correctly but wrote two of the figures the wrong way round in her answer).

I think the correct answer is that as long as DD1 knows where to get on the train it doesn't matter how long it takes.

bizarre German maths

I'm with Nutella - but what a weird question. Surely it should be how many hours does the journey take?

I shall have to ask DH when he's back from Germany on Friday. I'm pretty sure that nächtlich was superfluous in the question - well, I suppose it was intended to make it clear to the children that it was an overnight train journey, but it shouldn't make any difference to the answer. I probably won't find out for sure until Monday, as DD1 doesn't have maths tomorrow and they're off on an all-day skiing trip on Friday.

Linzer my (German) DH just read the question and said 8h 12min too - which is also what I got. So the maths teacher is officially mad. DH also said what Plantanos said about time zones etc...

We have just got back from our 2 nights away to find the heating in our house has broken, and it feels as cold in the house as outside (-2 and snowy) and there is also no hot water - luckily the kids are at Oma and Opa til tomorrow. The heating engineer isn't answering his phone, and we have run out of firelighters - off out to buy some more so we can get the wood burner going!

Hello!

MrTumbles I hope you get your heating fixed quickly.

Linzer Let us know what the teacher said as I'm intrigued! I've worked it out a few times and have come up with the same answer as everyone else.

Nutella Hope Nutellachen is feeling a bit better soon.

It's really cold again here and I think I'm coming down with something (although it may just be a combination of stress and not eating properly) so I think I'm feeling the cold more than I would do normally, if that makes sense.
FIL was even worse than usual this weekend. He made DS cry on purpose - twice! - and was really rude to me and completely blanked me for most of the weekend. He directs all his questions at DH ('was willst DU essen, DH? Was möchtest DU schauen, DH?), feigns surprise when I talk about things like running a playgroup (every time we see him he is surprised that I am capable of doing something other than cleaning or popping out babies), makes stupid comments about people who actually translate things for a living, as if that were the stupidest thing he could imagine (he is well aware of what I studied) and this time he refused to come down to say goodbye when we were leaving and when he finally did appear he said goodbye to DH and DS and completely ignored me.
I make such an effort to stay friendly and polite the whole time and I think that's the problem - he knows I'm not likely to react so he pushes and pushes to see how far he can go. It was just about bearable until he started on DS too this weekend - I've told DH that he is welcome to visit his parents but DS and I will be staying away for now. It seems really unfair on poor MIL who is lovely, but I just cannot take it anymore.

Sorry, that turned into more of a rant than I meant it to.
Time for another biscuit, I think!

Sorry - I meant to namecheck more than I did - I got a bit carried away with my FIL anger.

Hello to everyone I missed!

Antique that is terrible! Why on earth did FIL make DS cry?

mrtumbles hope you manage to get the heating sorted ASAP. While still enjoying some child free time.

I'm waiting to hear the maths question result, please let us know the secret answer when you have it linzer

DS seems a little less grumpy today. I was actually surprised at how well he slept last night. Still itching longer than 4 hours but he woke fed and went off to sleep again so I can't complain about that!

antique that sounds dreadful. has he always been like this to you? or did you fall out over something and never quite got back to normal? Either way it is upsetting. what do you think would happen if you calmy told him that his behaviour was not on? Hope you manage to get some rest, good food and fight off the unwell feeling.

mrtumbles rubbish situation to come back to. hope you got the engineer? did you have a good time? or is that a silly question, as of course you did with no dc ?

those pancakes sound and looked lovely. ...we also skipped pancakes on tuesday. dc and dh want more than pancakes for dinner so we had them a few days early, on saturday, instead.

weiss I have a serious peanut m and m's addiction at the moment. no wonder my trousers are a bit tight.

nutella good to hear ds is less grumpy today, hope you can work out why that happened and keep doing it!

and I am glad fasching is over - the dds left the house in the morning (snow and minus temps) with no hats, no snowtrousers, no scarves, no gloves....I am amazed they wore a coat. I am not sure how they got that past me, but sometimes I am running round getting ready and they come for their goodbye kiss and then put their shoes and coat on by the door. Apparently I never said they should put those other silly winter articles on .

dinner duty calls.....hello to everyone else

platanos I'm another one not sorry to see the back of Fasching, although the Umzug this year was much better than last year's. Really could have done with my camera, though - friend was laughing at me clutching a glass of wine, small glass of spirits, glass of Baileys and a small bottle of red wine (all handed out by people on the floats).

Nutella Glad to hear DS slept well. I never minded the DC waking up in the night as long as they went back to sleep afterwards (DD1 often didn't, and it was an utter nightmare).

Antique That sounds awful; I was also wondering whether your FIL had always been like that. Poor DS too - I don't blame you for staying away. It puts my complaints about my ILs into perspective!

MrTumbles Oh no, not what you want to come home to. Hope you manage(d) to sort it out as quickly as possible.

DD1 has gone off skiing with her class today; she was quite pleased about missing seven hours of school (today is her longest day)! I e-mailed her maths question to DH in case I was overlooking some Austrian maths foible but he couldn't understand what was wrong with her answer either, so has said he'll write something on her test when he signs it.

bertie I will have to try that, thanks!

mrtumbles I hope you have managed to get the heating back in? What a nightmare!

antique sorry about your FIL awful behaviour! I have had one major row with my FIL, when he smacked ds2. I told him off in no uncertain terms, and he then spent the next few days sulking. Overall I wouldn't say I have a great relationship but in general it's at least a respectful one. Has your dh said anything to him? And what did he do to make your ds cry?

nutella I hope things are still on the up with your ds!!

platanos I am so glad Fasching is over!!

I am getting slightly nervous about going on kur now. Less than a week to go and I have so much to sort out.

Lots of snow here overnight; I really hope it's all gone by Wednesday as I have decided to make the journey by car instead of train (it would have been 8.5 hrs by train, with two toddlers, double pushchair, luggage for three weeks, and changing trains twice!)

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!!

Antique That sounds awful. Is your FIL always funny towards you? You're right about not going back with your ds though, poor little boy. What a shame for MIL, will she visit you?

Linzer that sounds like a nice Faschingumzug if they hand out bottles of wine! Never saw that over here or I might have gone more often.
Good that your dh will write something on dd's test. Wonder if it'll push her mark up?!

Went to a meeting last night about the next class trip for ds. They're going on an adventure/nature trip with alot of outdoor and sport stuff going on. Quite expensive and we'll probably have to buy some decent walking boots, rucksack and basics like sleeping bag, iso mat and waterproofs as they will be camping out one or two nights. Most parents were shocked that the dc won't have a toilet for the camping nights. They said they'll take a spade, and have to 'go' in the forest. Not too bad for the boys who can stand behind a tree for a wee but I feel abit sorry for the girls. The plan is to exhaust them to their limit as they will then learn to discover who they are and it will mature them .