End of school year in Berlin.

[admylin]

Thank goodness, today we broke up in Berlin for the school holidays and only 2 days to go till we are back in England for 4 glorious weeks of civilization.
I got a list handed from both ds and dd's teachers with all the books we have to buy for the new term, 85 Euro for ds and 80 Euro for dd - then all note books, pens, even drawing paper. Most kids brought a bunch of flowers for the teacher, the school was filled with flowers on all the window sills. Can't wait to get out of here! MN has really helped keep me going when I felt homesick for England .

Thanks for the info, I am actually thinking of trying the Russland Haus art classes for children as dd wants to do that and it is very near us in Friedrichstr. , might try and get that sorted for after the half term. They have ballet too and I know 2 mums who took their dd's there and they said it was good. I might even be able to do russian lessons while the kid sare doing their thing (dream on) always thought it was a nice sounding language.
At school theer are quite a few russian speaking kids in both 2nd and 3rd year classes of my kids and I really feel sorry for the parents as they don't seem to speak or understand much german. I help as muchas I can butthey mostly rely on their own kids translating for them. I helped a dad today as he hadn't understood thelast elternbrief and today was a deadline for paying something so at least he got that done! Imagine if we couldn't manage in German, would we maybe be oblivious to it all or would we crack completely?

I think if you don't understand much that would be blissful oblivion. You need to know what's going on at school though. I've had 1-2 letters home every week so far. Couldn't imagine dealing with it without the language. Couldn't they do it in a couple of different languages though, say Russian and Turkish.

I know they have quite a few things on offer there for children at the Haus der russischen Kultur but it is just too far for us. Going there after school would be ok but coming back dd would be very tired. I think YOU should definitely learn Russian - if not ballet or ballet in Russian! I will cheer you on and be very impressed.

I was going to enrol dd there in the Russian school but it's Tuesday, Thursday afternoon and Saturday morning if I remember rightly and I found it too much.Russians are lovely with dc I've found and they can really teach. We go to a Russian art school on Saturday mornings but it's in Schöneberg so we can cycle there.

Think I'm cracked wide open as it TBH.
Oddly enough a French mum at the playground after school yesterday said "you're such a gentle person" (!?!) Don't feel the least bit gentle. Isn't it odd how people get a completely different picture of you from the way you feel or see yourself. I always feel I must come across like Rambo these days.

"just like one of the Turks" now that speaks volumes, doesn't it? The charm, the empathy...

This reminds me of a Palestinian guy I know who speaks very good German (he's been living here for 15 years and did his degree, phD here). One day he was parking his car and got into one of those pleasant encounters with another driver.

Where did you get your driving license?, the other shouts.
In der Türkei! (with a put on really thick Turkish accent)
Dachte ich mir, says the other driver, dachte ich mir!

He used to get round all the racism/anti-foreigner stuff he encountered with subversive humour. I remember when he acquired German citizenship, he told me first thing he did was drive to Kreuzberg (main Turkish stronghold) and complain loudly about the Turks.

Actually I think it's a good way of handling it, sort of with a laughing and a crying eye as they say here. An American woman I knew used to be very forthright and fight every battle that came her way but she never learnt to take it in her stride. She was always charged up like a bomb about to go off and I don't think it worked for her.