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.

platanos Give up the swimming, then you can come to the theatre with us next weekend. Seriously though, we had the same problem with DS and gave up on lessons in the end as it just wasn't worth the hassle. I used to find weekly swimming lessons such a bind, plus the DC never seemed to make much progress - although that was probably just the course we were doing. (The DDs had a few lessons with a private swimming instructor and those were far more worthwhile.) It's difficult if they enjoy it once they're there, but if you find it stressful, they generally don't want to go and you're missing lots of lessons, I would be tempted to at least take a break for a while.

Re titles - no, never! Well, only in my e-mail signature in work-related e-mails. I've seen quite a few friends and other people sign their names Mag. xx, which just looks silly and self-important to me. DH also generally refuses to use Dr., but I don't think he's a typical Austrian!

Yet more snow here today; I've just come in from shovelling. Next-door neighbour asked me what I was doing as he said they could do the shovelling at lunchtime. Problem is, a) I won't feel like going out then, b) the DC plus two friends will all be here, three of whom I don't want to leave alone for very long, c) our elderly neighbours will no doubt again complain that they're doing all the work if we leave the snow all morning (luckily, they've already seen me snow shovelling several times this month). Will definitely leave it to the NDNs next time, however (as I think I may have said last time). Ah well, it's all good exercise.

Linzer Hopefully it will snow a lot between now and lunchtime and your NDN will have something to keep them busy.

Ploom Dh agreed with admylin that your health insurance through dh wouldn´t change if you take a mini-job. He sounded pretty convincing, but it probably worth asking around to double check.

Plantanos I´d definitely give up swimming for a while. I hate going swimming in the winter, so think you´ve done a good job putting up with it for so long. I´d wait until the summer and then give it another go.

The Gesamtschule keeps all the children in mixed classes in the 5. and 6. Klasse and then they get split into Gymnasium and Realschule groups. In fact the 2 classes that move over from the Grundschule stay as they are. I personally think all the children should be mixed up into new classes, but I´m in a minority of one, so it won´t be happening. Mind you dd´s class is pretty good, so maybe it´s a case of better the devil you know. We seem to live in a area with a preference for Gesamtschule - the next 3 closest secondary schools are also Gesamtschule.

Right, I'm finally making time to post.

Hupa the Gesamtschule sounds good. We will end up with a choice of state Gymnasium with a bad reputation or private Gymnasium run by the Evangelical Church, assuming dd gets the grades, of course. So basically no choice at all. I suppose it makes things easier .

platanos I would give up the swimming too if it's causing that much stress. MIL has also said that she thinks private swimming lessons are the way to go. You can still go to the pool every now and then and maybe start up lessons again in the summer

mrtumbles I haven't heard of Marburger Konzentrationstraining, but if the course is aimed at your dd's age group and it doesn't run for that many weeks, then it's probably worth trying, isn't it. Age/maturity probably does have a part to play - my sister was very easily distracted at primary school, but did really well once she got to secondary - not that that will be much comfort, since the early pressure isn't there in the UK system.

linzer hope you got that afternoon to yourself yesterday.

outnumbered hope things are settling down now at the Kur. Are both your dc going to be in a kiga-type place there to give you some time to yourself, or do you have lots of activities scheduled to do together? I have no real idea about what happens on these things.

ernest hi! Nice to "see" you again (I was silken before). I've always wanted to try cross-country skiing, but it's looking more likely that my first skiing experience will be in the Alps. It all depends on whether dd can cope with ski kindergarten or not...

Hello too to new posters - bingeddy and doradoo, wasn't it (can't see your posts on this page any more). Congratulations to whoever was pg!

I was felled by a nasty attack of cystitis yesterday morning and felt forced to spend the day sitting on the sofa with a hot water bottle on my lower back, a book in my hand, and of course a jug of water next to me. Fortunately I went from thinking I was about to die from a kidney infection to being certain I wouldn't need ABs within a couple of hours. My bilingual googling provided me with two lists of causes of cystitis - guess which list "cold feet" was on!!! I would have thought that Germans would have a much lower incidence of UTIs if so, since they never let their feet get cold, but there does seem to be some medical evidence behind it .

cheas I've just been to put on my warm slippers after reading your post. Hope you feel better soon and keep your feet warm!

hupa keeping the classes the same is abit like the Berlin system where the dc stay in primary school until the end of year 7 isn't it? I guess it gives them abit longer to figure out who really should be in the gymnasium class or not.
I didn't realise the importance of year 4 when we moved to Hannover as we'd been in Berlin where the dc stay together until year 7 and poor dd went into year 4, the dreaded decision year in Niedersachsen. Within the first half year she went from probably getting Gymnasium empfehlung in Berlin to getting a Hauptschule empfehlung from the new teacher! Luckily you can just ignore the empfehlung and send your dc where you want so dd is doing fine at Gymnasium now.

Linzer hope the snow doesn't hang around for too much longer. I've also had enough of the cold and snow and even though it isn't Spring yet I get the feeling that winter is going on for too long this year, mayb eit started earlier too - can't remember that far back!

platanos my 2dc didn't enjoy their swimming lessons in Berlin but the deal was, they had to learn to swim so we kept going, the Friday afternoon session was very hard as they were tired after the week of school and early mornings etc etc. I agree, winter is the worst time though. Maybe you could postpone it for a while and as soon as they can swim and are safe in water you can leave it up to them if they want to carry on.

Well, I didn't get the shoes for ds, he came home with a headache and blocked nose. Half the class is off ill with coughs and colds so he just got himself a cup of ginger tea and went to bed! He's at school today but is looking forward to the weekend to catch up on sleep and hopefully get rid of his cold.

How would you say - didn't you feel slightly offended in German? I want to ask the dyslexia therapist if she didn't feel it a bit of a cheek that the German teacher told her she didn't see any symptoms of the dyslexia as if dd didn't have it. I can only come up with Haben Sie sich nicht beleidigt gefühlt but that isn't the right word I don't think.

platanos did you remember your vegan questions for lentils? I've just managed to feed the family vegan meals for 4 days running (they didn't notice!) and dd is still interested in it but her sweet addiction is the main problem. We've tried the range in DM Markt but it's far away so she'd have to stock up to get through the week but then she'd eat it all in a couple of days!

admylin at the warm slippers. I've been walking around barefoot a lot since reading the katy says blog, but we've got underfloor heating. I had very cold feet in bed a couple of nights ago, though, and I wonder if that set it off. I feel fine again already, but I'm still drinking gallons of water today just to make sure I flush out everything.

Not sure what would be right to say to the dyslexia teacher. beleidigt seems ok, or you could use frech, which is what my boss said when I showed her the tax evasion letter.

platanos, I am still here, happy to try and answer anything I can! Feel free to PM me, if it's easier than waiting for me to catch up with this fast-moving thread!
admylin, fabulous that you have done a few days of vegan meals, and they haven't noticed! :) We bake as much as we need, to meet any sweet-tooth needs. Alnatura does some awesome vegan chocolate.
I am glad your DD is happy at her school, and it's just one rotten teacher.

Ploom, great re the job! Good luck. And yes, DS is 2.4.

Tumbles, that sounds awfully stressful for a seven yo. Poor DD. I have no amazing solutions, just a friendly hug. Hope things get resolved and she is happy.

out, hope you are managing to have a good time, and that your DS settles soon.

cheas, hope a lazy day on the sofa, warming up, has made you feel much better. Brr, cold feet. Warm slippers sound fab!

Linzer, I know you are sick of it, but oh how I'd love your snow. We've hardly had any. Boo.

lentil and platanos if you wouldn't mind at least posting the answers to whatever questions platanos has directly on the thread I would be very grateful. I don't feel able to go vegan myself (at least at present), but the practicalities greatly interest me and there may be tips I can pick up on how to improve my own diet.

Plenty of snow here too, although I'm quite enjoying it this week with no lessons to drag myself to. There are only four weeks of school until Easter, though .

I'd happily try and answer anything you want to ask me, cheas. Though I am not a qualified nutritionist.
There's a vegan-friendly thread on here if you want to bump it, and follow for inspiration! It's not very busy though.
Or join some Facebook groups so you get a few bits of info in your newsfeed every now and then.

Thanks admylin I have ordered that book and will do exactly what you suggest (although I don't think DS1 will have much chance of joining in, as he is not at school yet and can only add numbers under 10 so far - but that's a good thing, as if he beat DD her confidence really would be shattered!)

She got her zwischenzeugnis today and it was a lot better than recent events had led me to expect! There were no grades though - DD had told us there would be, but they are not til the end of year Zeugnis apparently. DH read the report and did an I'mAGermanSoIKnow guess on grades based on the written reports and guessed 1s for Heimat studies, Ethink, Sport, Music, art and WTG, 2 for Deutsche and 3 for maths so really not that bad... The non-core subject reports were glowing, German pretty good except for comments on careless mistakes and not having learnt all her spellings properly :o and maths was not bad considering - basically she has a sound u8nderstanding of concepts but works much too slowly... Oddly in the overall comments it said she can concentrate well, but in maths it said she doesn't always...

Antique hope the wrist is better

Admylin sorry the shopping didn't work out - I suppose there is no chance of sucess if you just buy him 3 pairs to try and take 2 back? I have to do that for DD because she likes shoe shopping too much and is instantly and magnetically drawn to the ?80 pairs instead of the ?20 pairs a few meters down the shelf...

Linzer :o but also at the maths teacher's dodgy maths, but yay for the 1 :)

Ploom yay for job :o I had a mini job for 18 months before DS2 was born and never had to change my insurance (which has always been under DH's public insurance) My kids tell me a lot in the car too, although they do both talk a lot so I do hear a lot of what goes on, though not always straight away, some things come out a week or more later...

Hupa I wish we had Gesamtschule - they sound a much better idea, without the stress of splitting the children so young by ability. Thanks for that site, have bookmarked it as am about to take kids to bed, but will certainly try it. DH also found a similar one in German which DD had a play on yesterday and enjoyed (novelty value I suspect).

Cheas hope you are fully recovered from the cystitis - nasty thing. I have always walked around barefoot all the time - I realised the horrible agonising foot problem that went on for 2 months a couple of months ago started after I bought a lovely, snuggly, warm pair of slippers and wore them all the time - then when my foot started hurting they were the only thing I could wear and barefoot hurt a lot - I was like a 90 year old woman, could barely walk, and it got worse rather than wearing off through the day. Insoles and 800mg paracetamol tablets got me through it and it passed, but also Henry vomited on the slippers and they had to be washed and took 2 days to dry, and I haven't warn them since, and have had no problem at all with my feet... barefoot it is, despite DH endlessly mocking me for it as he (and MIL) think it is a sign of barbarianism to go barefoot :o

Hello Lentils thanks for the hug, she is much happier today - she does like school, the upset is focussed around homework and maths tests mostly, still not good though!

Right, Friday or no Friday the kids have been up too long, bedtime! They are dancing to DH's music atm - he has stuff from his laptop playing through the TV, no pictures, and the boys have wooden toy guitars and all 3 are moshing, :o very amusing, this happens most Friday evenings and I am loathe to interrupt it as it is sweet children-daddy time and very funny, although the lyrics are not always totally appropriate!

Dh being away last week really cut down my MN time to post! I hope everyone is ok and outnumbered is getting over her bug at the Kur.

Nothing exciting going on here. Hope all the tax stuff has been sorted. Have a good Monday night!

Just wondering, have you all had your Nebenkostenabrechnung for 2012 yet? Ours came yesterday and we have to pay just over 100? on top of what we've already payed. Looks as if the heating costs have gone up abit.

admylin We've had Dec 2012 already for the new house then week later they finally sent us 2011 for the old place and we had to pay 300 euros more!! I dread to think what the 2012 bill will be like.

Antique how's your wrist?
We also have to pay more for electricity, they put the monthly bill up by 20?. Although, I have to keep reminding dh that if he stays up last and sits watching rubbish on TV half the night and then leaves the heating on full so that the living room is boiling hot when I get up in the morning, we can only expect to have to pay more!
Do you all switch the heating off at night? We used to be in a flat when dd was born where the timer would switch off the heating from 11pm to 6am. I had to get them to change it as I was freezing when she woke in the night to feed.

admylin I think our nebenkosten for 2012 came out that we owed about 36cents... Which they said we didn't have to pay ... Yay..
But that has reminded me that as far as I know they haven't raised the nebenkosten for T... Would it normally go up / be charged per person?

How is everyone? We have some
Good days, some bad days ... Mostly good days when daddy is home, why is that?? Not fair!

Finally have time to post - I've been working all morning - but only a couple of minutes, as DS and his friend have just got home and I need to go and see about lunch.

We don't have a Nebenkostenabrechnung but have just had our Betriebskostenabrechnung and have to pay an extra ?600 for last year. We've just switched gas supplier so hopefully that will make our heating bills a bit cheaper, but I've lost track of what we were paying last year. We have our heating on an automatic programme and it goes down to something like 18° at night(it goes up to 20° first thing in the morning, at lunchtime and in the evening), which generally means that it's off unless it's particularly cold outside. If I wake up feeling hot, it usually means that I switched over to the manual programme so that I could turn the heating up and forgot to switch back to automatic when I went to bed.

The wrist is much better now, thank you! Still a little twingey but otherwise fine.
I don't turn the heating off at night, I just turn it down a few degrees otherwise it gets far too cold. I always used to turn it off at night in the flat though and was always warm enough.
Nutella I think the NK are usually calculated per square metre for things like heating (so in our old place we paid a bit less than the neighbours as our flat was smaller, iyswim.) Water was metred so we were charged according to how much we had used.

Actually I appear to be talking nonsense. We had little meter things on the radiators so paid for how much we had used. The heating costs for the building were calculated per metre square. That makes more sense.

I don't want to speak too soon but I think DS has just lay down on the sofa for a nap - of his own accord! This is unheard of. Fingers crossed it's not a little rest before another bout of sofa acrobatics....

Sorry for all the spelling mistakes!

Nutella some of our Nebenkosten are per square metre and others like the rubbish collection/bins are per person . That's one of the expensive things on the list actually, we pay 477? a year ! Abwasser/wasser is also per person in our flat which I'm not sure is 100% fair really but that's how it's done.

Anyway, I am a little bit beruhigt at our 100? after hearing your Nachzahlung Linzer, hope the new gas supplier works out cheaper for you.

Antique did your ds sleep? I used to love the afternoon naps with my 2, it was my only time of day to myself and I used to save any letters and e-mails that arrived to read in peace with a cup of tea.

Our first heating bill for the house came a couple of weeks ago and it was massive. Enormous Nachzahlung (way more than Linzer's), plus there was a comparison bar chart showiing us just how much more our usage was than average . We're desperately hoping that this is all to do with drying out the build last winter (we only moved in in May), but probably won't really know until this time next year. It doesn't help that I don't really understand how our heating system works and that the underfloor heating is so slow to react - I had a thermometer in the living room in autumn and on some days it would be 28 deg with the sun coming in and the heating would still be on as far as I could tell. Ploom told us at the weekend that they had been told not to turn the heating on and off, just to leave it on all the time, but the automatic programme on our boiler turns it down to 13 deg overnight - I would assume the auto programme was designed to be efficient, but who knows?

Ouch cheas, that must have been painful when you opened that bill. Our place is heated with gas central heating and the owner has just changed suppliers saying that they offer a better deal for us. I just hope she hasn't been conned into some sort of great looking deal that changes after the first few months and then you can't get out of it for 2 years or something like that.

Something is intefering with our microwave and wifi and I can't find out what it is. Well, it must be one of the neighbours or near by houses I reckon but I've just had to unplug the microwave as it keeps beeping at me. The wifi keeps randomly going off too and only goes back on when I disconnect it for a few seconds. We're surrounded by invisible waves

It must be tin foil hat time, admylin.....

Do you think I should antique

Well, both my dc said they had last lessons cancelled and would be turning up at around 1pm but still no sign of either of them so I presume the school found someone to step in. That's one thing that has taken me ages to get used to here in the German school system, you can never be sure when your dc are going to turn up. It's OK now but it used to really bug me. Atleast in the UK you can be certain that your dc are in school from 9am to 3pm (give or take half and hour) 5 days a week.