Endlich Sommer - and time for a new Kaffeeklatsch thread...

[LinzerTorte]

... for those living in Germany or Austria or anyone who just wants to chat/ask a question about living in or visiting this part of the world - all welcome.

Previous thread here

Good morning all!
Lehrerin hello I think I've guessed who you are.

We had a lovely time in Nürnberg and DS napped really well in his Maclaren buggy I'm guessing because we were out a lot. It made putting him down on the floor for crawling escapades more difficult but it didn't seem to affect napping . Of course now that we are home again and it's just me and DS napping is not happening

I could live with it but he wants my attention all the time otherwise he shouts and screams and gets really worked up. Even while crawling through the living room towards me if I've just gone to get a glass of water or some other luxury. And he gets louder and more whiney as he gets more tired and I can't help but get really annoyed makes me feel like a very bad mummy.

Hi everyone - DS went to doctors with flu and landed up being referred to a dermatologist to have 4 moles removed. Fantastic service - all done in 3 days and stitches out & results back in a week - no cancer thank heavens. Praise the German health service! Felt a bit sorry for him coping with it all on his own.

He's still enjoying it - he hopes to go to Berlin at the weekend if all goes to plan - any must see recommendations?

He managed to get fruit squash after MN came to the rescue re shops in Hamburg where it could be bought. Funny thing to miss but he doesn't enjoy straight water or hot drinks much.

Nutella I remember that feeling so well, constant demands and no one to give me an hour off now and then. It's a really exhausting time. Have you found any groups here with same age babies as a regular thing yet?

fussy lol at your son needing his squash! My 2 only have squash when we visit the UK and I once heard my dd telling her German friend that over in England they have this stuff that's not really juice and it tastes OK but real apple juice is better!

Does your ds know where he's staying in Berlin yet? There's so much to see and visit that he'll have to go another weekend too! It has changed so much since we last went there, constant building sites every where. I know a 'civilized' cheap, clean hotel/guest house near the main station if he wants!

Poor dd is sitting over some horrid German homework. I need a German dh! Erörterung anyone?! Ds always got off lightly and sailed his way through every subject but dd always gets the tough teachers.

Hello all.

So, we are leaving in 2 weeks. DP has just finalised our actual apartment. He's paying the deposit in the morning. Landlady seems friendly - she and DP apparently bonded over her dog

Slightly terrified but very very very excited - it's been a long 15 months!

We are moving to Durlach in Karlsruhe. I have an almost 5 year old who would be starting school in September if we were staying in England.

The schools/kigas go back on 9th September in BW, so not much time to get DS into somewhere, too. But I'm not looking for work until we get there so we have time to find him a place.

Yoni good luck with the move! I hope it all goes as smoothly as possible for you! Don't forget to pack plenty of squash, crisps, marmite and other British essentials

Admylin I go to the international women's association Hannover - IWAH (have you heard of them? They are really interesting) they have a mummy and baby group on a Friday morning. Otherwise we do a sort of pekip type course but it hasn't been happening during the school holidays. I'm looking forward to taking him to more stuff but its a bit difficult to find something interesting (without too much German singing) that doesn't fill up really fast.

Ah well, we are getting there. I had my first night out last night. It was fantastic! One of the ladies from the IWAH group is going back to London and a group of us went out to dinner. It was soooo good!! To be out, to have fun and to have a lovely dinner

Yoni good luck with the move and I agree, if you've got a van coming over fill a box with all the British essentials that you will later have to pay an arm and a leg for!

Nutella the group sounds good especially as you get to chat in English! I don't think you'll be able to escape a certain amount of German singing at German playgroup! There was a penguin one I really used to hate where we (the mothers) had to also waddle around like a penguin as well as sing the song. The things you do eh?!
Do you know the area around Grundschule Meterstrasse? I think it's near you and dd is trying out for the cheerleading club next week but looking at the google map, parking spaces are rare and roads seem blocked off in funny places. Any idea which bit is best to park?

Wow this thread has slipped down the "Overseas" page :(

Wonder if we can bring it back to life a bit - there are lots of posts a day sometimes, then phases of only a couple a week!

Not got much to say myself though! We got back from a visit to the UK on Sunday, was OK, can't help feeling that its a very expensive way to have a more than averagely stressful holiday with worse weather than if we'd stayed at home now though! :o Finding I miss less and less - even cadbury's choc is losing its shine, all I really wanted to bring back was malt vinegar!! :o Caught up with an old friend which was nice, and had some days out to the beach - nice but weather was only warm enough once - and a couple of decent days in York. Family element mixed .

Still got 3 weeks of summer holiday left, which is nice :o Not looking forward to the new school year, DD going into 3er Klasse, probably increased stress and homework :( Glad DS1 is staying at KiGa another year at least. Also don't feel like going back to doing my VHS teaching, but I guess it'll be OK once its started... Would like a "normal" office job when DC3 is old enough, not teaching which I feel I do by default, but think I am stuck with :(

Nutella hope you've found as many groups as you want to go to with DS? I thought the Mama-Kind groups with German singing were worth it - mainly for the unstructured play time but also because the kids wouldn't really hear German nursery rhymes otherwise, and often nursery rhymes have a bigger part in the national psyche and as "cultural capital" later in life than is initially obvious - there are often echos in literature etc. I remember when teaching English Lit in the UK that I had to "teach" nursery rhymes from time to time as there would be children who hadn't been immersed in them in toddler-hood and so lacked context for a particular element of a text written for adults or teens... The English groups sounds good too though :)

What's everyone else up to? The kids will be back at school in a lot of parts of Germany (Austria??) by the look of it - maddness in August :o

Hi all.

mrtumbles glad you're enjoying the school holidays. Schools go back here next week, which means some of my teaching will start up again. I'm waiting until September to get the English classes gong again.

Do you think British chocolate has changed flavour? I used to love chocolate digestives, but I could barely eat the last two packets I brought back to Germany. We tend to bring back Wensleydale, mostly.

yonibotts welcome back to the thread. Exciting time for you. Your DP was already living in KA, wasn't he? How has he found learning the language? Hope the move goes smoothly.

fussy that dr's visit must have been pretty worrying for your ds. Glad to hear it turned out to be nothing serious.

Do the German-dwellers on here go for regular Haut-Checks? I think the AOK offer a free one per year (?) after age 30 or something and I keep thinkng I should make an appt.

nutella clingy phases are hard, aren't they! Glad to hear that you had a nice night out with friends. The women from my ante-natal class sometimes organise nights out, but they spend so much time gossiping about people I don't know (they all grew up here), that it often gets a bit boring for me.

Women's Hour is about to start, so I'm off to do some reed-making. Playing an instrument which you have to make the mouthpieces for yourself can be very frustratng, but the upside is being able to listen to the radio while working .

Hi everyone,

Have been lurking but not posting as we've been back in the UK for the last couple of weeks. Just wanted to say that the flavour of Cadbury's has definitely changed over the last year or so - there were threads on here complaining about it at the time. DH is pleased as it means our luggage is about 6 kg lighter. For about the first time ever, we'll be flying back with three suitcases rather than four tomorrow, saving ourselves ?30 (plus the money I'd have spent on the chocolate).

FrauEnglisch I'd definitely recommend going for annual skin checks if you can; my dermatologist picked up on two suspicious looking moles that I'd never have seen myself. I take the DC once a year but have to go back in six months with DD2 as one of her moles seems to be growing faster than it should.

Must dash - we're off to watch an open-air performance of Babe in the rain.

Lol! Don't ask me about DP's ridiculous non-attempt to learn the language. I think I have learned more on duolingo in the last 2-3 months than he has living there for a year! They all speak English in the office and he has no reason to use it, I suppose.

I wish we had rented a van to drive everything down but no, we're boxing it up and sending it instead while we haul as much as possible on the plane in suitcases. I am planning to pack marmite but nothing else British!

Having a total nightmare, however, trying to sort out health insurance. I was assuming that DS and I would be eligible for public health insurance, but for that I need "form S1" which I have phoned up about and apparently cannot get because I have not earned enough in the last 3 years.

So I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to fulfil the legal requirement to get insurance, if I'm not allowed to apply for it. I thought it would just be like applying for car insurance or something! :(

Yoni if you're not working here/ at first you and DS need to be added onto your DH's insurance as dependants.

Yoni, in the state health insurance we use (AOK) you can be Familienversichert, so insured as a family but you have to be married. We pay around 700? a month for all 4 of us.
Can you atleast use one of those E111 cards from UK (EHIC it's called I think) until you're registered and have found some insurance atleast?

Yes that is the problem, we aren't married and DS is my child from a previous relationship. DP will be supporting us until such time as I get a job (well, DP will still probably be bringing in more money, but at least then I will be employed)

From what I have read you can only use EHIC until you register as living in Germany, then it becomes invalid. Some people do apparently risk it and rely on that alone but then it becomes dodgy when you try to apply for insurance later because they ask about previous insurance etc.

Have been passed details of a private broker who fingers crossed should be able to sort it out for us, or we might just get married ASAP and have the party later!

Lol at getting married and having the party later! That's what we did, and I'm still waiting to have the party 10 years later!

Oh no!

I'm self-employed and have "freiwillige Krankenversicherung". If that's not possible for you to get as you have no income, then you may have to register as unemployed in order for them to make sense of you. I would strongly recommend avoiding private health insurance as I don't think it is worth it unless you earn a lot and you may not be able to change to state insurance later. I looked into it for myself and although I could have had a policy for around ?200/mth, the excess was ?1000 annually. Also the broker I contacted online became more and more aggressive in his sales tactics, calling me up repeatedly to the point where I started treating them like nuisance calls.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

yoni I think if you are unemployed you can get "Arbeitslosengeld" - like job seekers allowance for up to 12 months in Germany (after that it is your DP's job to support you). Your DP has to say that he is unwilling/ unable to support you. Then the state also cover your health insurance. I second what Frau says and would avoid private insurance if at all possible (a friend of mine's DH is privately insured- and therefore she is as well- and he complains about all of her medical expenses because when you're privately insured they can't do enough for you - and you have to pay for part of that privilege)
Or get married then your DP can also change his tax class and save you even more money its all so romantic .

Hello everyone else. Just a fleeting visit - DP and I got engaged a few weeks ago and so now wedding planning is in full swing - wedding date is 2nd November

admylin that school is very near us, sorry I didn't reply sooner! How was your DD's audition? And the parking??

Congratulations Nutella, what exciting news. Will you be getting married in Germany?

Nutella congratulations !

Yes, dd went to the training and loved it but she gets to try one more time before deciding. On Monday it's at a different school on the other side of Hannover. Parking was awful. I don't know that side of Hannover at all and we drove around in circles in the back streets for ages until I gave up and parked on the main street (Hildesheimerstr) and we walked back to the school. Next time I might try from the other side along Maschsee but it looks quite far to walk. Anyway, it's not worth me dropping her off and going home so I have to hang around.

That's true about the tax class too yoni as Nutella mentioned. Your dh will have a better tax class if you get married (but yours will be much worse if you get a job)!

Finally I´ve got time to post again. The dc went back to school last week and I´ve caught up on loads of jobs I was putting off until they went back.

Nutella Congratulations! Are you planning a big wedding or do you want to keep it small?

Yoni I agree with the others about avoiding private insurance if at all possible. I hope your move goes well.

admylin Is your dd still playing hockey? Ds has finally decided to give up football and now wants to give tennis a try.

Nutella and Planatos Thanks for your tips for south west France and Northern Spain. We had a great time and were really impressed by northern Spain.

hupa how was the drive down to Spain? Did you drive some of the way? Did you like San Sebastian? I tried really hard to get a job there so I could learn Spanish years ago but ended up in Germany! Oh well, one day in my old age maybe.

No, dd stopped hockey when they put her and her friend up into the A team with much older girls. dd is small for her age and she didn't have a chance to train much as they shoved them at the back while the semi-professional team played. She blames me for not putting her in hockey at an earlier age so she would have been able to keep up

Yesterday she had her 2nd cheerleading trial but she didn't enjoy it as much as the other day. She might try a different team if we can find one.

I have a feeling both dc will be dropping most activities in the next few months anyway. School has a few long days now and they're exhausting. Out of the house from 7:30 to 4pm then homework and they need some time to just eat and relax. Yesterday was a rush for both of them. An hour after school and a snack they were at sport until 8pm then showers (and fight for the bathroom), eating at 9pm then homework until 10pm. Hmm, not sure how to work it out but alot of Sportvereine are complaining that they don't have many dc joining up anymore. Our schools are doing G8 Abi, so a year quicker than usual and the workload is mounting up now.

admylin and Nutella were either of you affected by the WW2 bomb that had to be defused yesterday?

I did drive on the French motorways which was fine, although I did panic when I had to drive through the first toll booth, as the motorhome seemed to be wider than the gap I had to drive through. Once we got on to smaller roads and campsites, I left the driving to dh.

admylin That sounds like a really long day for your dc. I was reading something a while back that said that children doing the G8 often had to give up hobbies, simply due to lack of time.

Hupa no, we're right on the outskirts of town and the bomb was in the town centre. It happens 3 to 4 times every year in Hannover. Just makes you think how many bombs must have been dropped over the city for them still to be turning up over 70 years later.
Very brave of you to drive the motorhome and get it through the toll booth! Reminds me of the last time I attempted to go through a toll booth, driving into the wrong lane in Texas, getting stuck as couldn't go backwards and having to call for help as we were in the credit card lane and it wouldn't take our card but cash lane was right at the other end!

How's school going? Ds's class teacher is off sick already, only back 2 weeks and dd's teacher has gone on the year 6 school trip so she's on reduced hours this week too. I suppose they'd better make the most of it and relax as it's bound to get into the full swing of things soon.

This thread has gone really quiet.

Dd started her new school and is really enjoying it, although they haven´t really done much work yet, so it could all change. We´ve got the first Elternabend tomorrow - I´m really hoping that there aren´t too many parents who enjoy the sound of their own voices, or it could go on for hours.

Dh is away this week. He´s cycling over the Alps on his mountain bike with a friend. They seem to be having a great time, but it would be my idea of hell.

Hope everyone´s enjoying the last of the summer.