Der Lenz ist da (we hope) - the spring edition of the Germany/Austria thread

[LinzerTorte]

A thread for all 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.

Afternoon all! Just popped in to say hello as I haven't had chance to post for ages and DS is having a rare nap next to me.
Hope everyone is well!

Hi woolly, how are things? Have you got ds into Kindergarten yet? My memory is going!

HeinousPieTrap hope the Berlin Stress isn't too bad. I remember it so well! My Oxford stress has gone as dh didn't get the position. Quite happy about it as we're realyl at a bad time to move anyway due to ds starting his Abitur after summer and couldn't cope with living in a broom cupboard

He met one of the group at a conference this week by chance and asked why he'd been turned down and he said we didn't think you really wanted the job! So that was the part about asking them to match his salary probably!

Linzer how does your dd feel about getting a brace? Ds is about to get his taken out in 5 weeks and poor dd gets her top ones put in also in 5 weeks. She's ha dthe bottom ones in for a while and isn't too pleased about it!

Sue hope your dh gets his tooth pain sorted. Are you happy with the dental treatment in general? It's hard to find a good dentist here. I realyl miss the Berlin dentist that the dc had and my nice old fashioned experienced dentist too!

I'm glad your Oxford stress is over, Ambling! Like you said, it does seem like an awkward time to move, especially for your DC.

DS starts Kindergarten in August, so hopefully 2 months before DC2 is due. DS was early though so who knows, maybe my calm plan of him settling nicely and me having a few weeks of mornings to myself before DC2 arrives will be blown straight out of the window!

Hope everyone's tooth and brace issues are sorted soon!

Hello again, my children are just 2 and nearly 5. 5 yr old son is at German kindergarten, and my little girl has just started spielgruppe 3 mornings a week.
ds has just started on a proper bike with pedals, and brakes after years of charging around on a laufrad, and now I'm hoping dd will be able to get going on this so we can go on little rides together.

efes I am also a great Laufrad fan. Saved my back too. how is dd settling into the spielgruppe?

wooly fingers crossed that your perfect planning works out for you. how early was ds? DD1 was nearly 4 weeks early, dd2 was 10 days late (and ds on his due date!). Anecdotal, but you may have some time for yourself. Though the wait for dd2 seemed endless as I was sort of mentally prepared for another early arrival.

ambling glad to hear you are happy with the Oxford outcome. How is the Cardiff application going? How long does your dd have to have braces for? Dentist treatment here has been okay, but expensive as the krankenkassa does not cover, or only partially covers, lots of things. Braces are not covered - though they might be in the near future, if politicians get their act together. In fact, dh is at dentist again as I type - still in pain and really desperate he called for an emergency appointment. It's very worrying. I have been browsing china tea cups on amazon to keep my mind off things .

heinous have you heard from the school yet? fingers crossed it works out for you!

Linzer That letter from the dentis sounds rather unhelpful. Makes you wonder. Are you able to relax now that all the school work is coming to an end? What Spanish books will dd use? I have put dd1 down for a Spanish summer camp. It costs a small fortune, but we have nothing else planned for her for the summer and she was keen. Especially now the boy she is "zusammen" with may also go (his mother speaks Spanish).

Off to watch Germany play football , while I peel spuds! Let's hope they do better than Spain - the team I supported until they lost 5-1

suenan I don't know yet about the Spanish books, but will let you know. The Spanish camp sounds good - is it for beginners? I wish I could persuade DD1 to go to something like that, but I think the scout and then sport & games camps are going to be enough for her.
Our neighbours took eight girls swimming (including DD1) for their oldest DD's 12th birthday last week and said the group divided up into those who wanted to hang around with boys from school and those who were more interested in swimming. DD1 belonged to the latter group!

efes Balance bikes are great, aren't they? We didn't discover them until DD2 and it was so much easier for the younger two to move on to a proper bike.

Woolly Can't believe your DS is starting Kindergarten; it only seems like a few weeks since he turned 1! With any luck, you may still get some time to yourself in the mornings... DD1 started nursery a month after DD2 was born so I used to take her there, then go home and put DD2 down for her morning nap - it was bliss! (I won't mention the nap-refusing DS. )

Ambling How did your DH feel about Oxford? It sounds like it all worked out for the best really. Tbh I don't think DD2 needs a brace... the dentist that her class went to see seems a bit "brace-happy" (apparently most of the children in her class need one ) and our normal dentist has never suggested it for either her or DS (like this one did). I'll see what she says when we go for the check-up in September, anyway.

Heinous Fingers crossed for you with the school; any news?

DS has already started bringing home bags full of school books, so I'll have to find yet another box to add to our collection in the cellar. I'm sure I never had that many text books, exercise books and folders when I was at primary school! DD1 has gone to the outdoor pool with her class this morning and DD2 on a trip to the TV studios; it feels like lessons are more or less over already. With the bank holiday on Thursday, we're already halfway through the penultimate school week. And with the children coming home early on various days, I feel like I may as well give up hope of being able to do any work for the next 9 or 10 weeks and by August will be ready for them to go back to school. Having said that, I am actually looking forward to the holidays (I just think five or six weeks would be enough!).

Hello! Just popping by to check in, will come back later when there is more time - kids all playing out atm, left 3 year old out with the gang of neighbour kids (and DD and DS1) for the first time without being in my line of sight so a bit nervous... He's been "feral" on holiday on a small quiet campsite though and got a taste for it :o

All the kids on here are growing up startlingly fast, from a quick scroll through they seem to be older than I had in my head!

I don't "know" Cardiff Ambling but have spent some time there several times and rather like it - tbh it is somewhere I wouldn't mind living myself, I think I'd pick it over Oxford as a "full package" place to live, personally...

Hello thread! Just passing through. Back from 2 weeks in the UK, saw loads of family. Was a day down in Oxford/ Kidlington to see my gran as it happens! No need now for navigating Oxford details as the thread has moved on but I would agree it's an expensive place to live generally and not at all unfair to have asked for salary adjustment.

We were actually in the UK to drive old cars around as well as see family. Dad has 5 vintage cars and 4 of them needed to get down to Eastbourne for a nice weekend. One of them has been bodged to allow a stage 3 carseat so DD can come along (they are mostly all pre-seatbelts and in vintage cars you don't have to put them in but Dad isn't precious about them and managed to do it). It's a fairly long run from Midlands down Sarf on A roads (the oldest cars can't get up faster than about 50 mph) so we did the trip down over 2 days stopping in Hungerford. One of them broke on the way back which was sad but overall loads of fun. DD very keen to go swimming in the channel or any swimming pools we passed. She paddled lots and collected huge numbers of oyster shells off the beach. We also let her do a few of the short runs in the older car not in the carseat which probably made it all worth while for her!

Next week I'm off to Steyr hospital to hopefully get my hearing restored on one side. The Urlis have now moved fully into the care home (they were in assisted care next door but now at 94/92 feel they need full time help). Due to that, we got their flat contents arrive in a large van just yesterday. On the positive we kitted up the spare spare room fully without needing to throw more money IKEAs way but there are still about 5-6 boxes to unpack. Probably containing either Christmas decorations or dodgy old glassware judging from the first 10 boxes...

C4ro I went to school in Kidlington! (And hated it.) Coincidentally, an old school friend of mine from Wales has now moved there and I get very disorientated when I see him posting about Kidlington on FB.
I remember the first time I heard Urli-Oma, I thought someone's grandmother must be called Ulli - and then heard someone else use it and thought, hang on...

DD1's class had a Heurigenabend on Wednesday (have discovered a new favourite drink - Kaiserspritzer) and then we had a picnic with DS's class (and their parents) yesterday afternoon. It's a shame that the parent representative for DD2's class isn't organising anything, especially as they'll all be leaving primary school next week, but she's having her birthday party on the last day of school and inviting all the girls from her class so will at least have a mini get-together.

Despite the cold and rainy weather today (and storms at times), DH has taken the DC to a "public viewing" - I'm still warming up after the picnic yesterday (it was nice and sunny to start with, but gradually got colder and colder) so decided to give it a miss. My complete lack of interest in the football was also a factor. Am now going to finish clearing out the living room as we're having a new floor laid tomorrow. Friday evenings don't get much more exciting than this.

Hello! Longest day but it's dark here - really notice the difference between (northern) England and southern Germany today!

Thank you for all your thoughts - yes the school has worked out, both girls at the one we wanted. A huge relief! Now working out nitty gritty of job details so we can get going on a flat. Spending a lot of time (too much time!) on immobilienscout. Hours fly past on there…

Sounds like the best outcome Ambling, though it's never nice not to get a job of course.

The girls still have 5 and a half weeks of school! Though we're just coming to the end of a two week holiday. Weather's been great, we've spent most of the time at the Freibad. Definitely different from a holiday in NE England…. DD1 has a night away in a mountain hut this half term - I think she's looking forward to and scared by in equal measure! It's a long holiday with you Linzer, is it tricky for you to take the time off?

suenan were you watching the footie tonight? Germany v. Ghana was much more exciting than I was expecting. Much less stressful than watching England I find.

Great news on the school, Heinous. How's the flat-hunting going? Hope you're still enjoying nice weather there - it's cooled down a little here so is much more bearable, although I could really do with it being a few degrees warmer (I'm very difficult to please weather-wise!).

I work freelance, which makes life easier over the holidays; I don't like turning jobs down too often but sometimes it just can't be avoided. DH is off the first week of the holidays, only DD2 will be around all day in the second week (DD1 is at scout camp and DS at a sport & games camp) and all three of them will be at the sport & games camp in the third week, so I should be able to work for about a third of the holidays provided that I can arrange some playdates for DD2 in the second week.

DD2 got a confirmation letter from the school on Friday that she can go to Gymnasium, which I thought we'd just take along with her Zeugnis on Friday. However, I found out from another mother on Monday afternoon that the deadline for submitting it was on Monday, i.e. that day. Rushed to the school at 3pm only to find it deserted. I took it in yesterday morning; thankfully, me missing the deadline wasn't mentioned but without thinking I called it a Bestätigung für die Aufnahme in die 1. Klasse and was very firmly corrected and told that it's only to do with her Eignung. (But it says Bestätigung in large letters on it! And it's for her Aufnahme in die 1. Klasse!) Quite what the point is of having to take it in by Monday when she'll be taking her Zeugnis to the school on Friday is beyond me, anyway.

ha it's going Linzer, will be great when it's gone! Sounds like you've got a good balance for the summer hols.

Hi all. I'm not even going to try to namecheck and reply to anything, so sorry, but wanted to ask a question.

Would you contemplate giving a child a British name beginning with the letter A when it's going to live in Germany? Like calling it Andrew when you know it will be pronounced Ändrew the whole time. I really can't decide if I could live with the irritation or not .

Hiya, English I've been tossing up names with the same sort of thing in mind. Ds's name does get pronounced differently in German and it does irritate me immensely some times. Other times it isn't an issue.... It depends how much you're attached to a name I think....

And hello everyone else! I am fairly miserable. Only another 4 weeks to go... Hopefully less!

FrauEnglisch The name thing is difficult, isn't it! I really want to give DC2 an English name (due to having a very, very German surname) but am already getting stroppy about possible mispronunciations. I think it depends on the name really, Andrea, for example, I've never heard pronounced with Ä here, but then the last syllable is obviously different. I think if I really loved the name I would use it, but then I might be even more irritated by mispronunciations, with it being a name I really loved, if that makes any sense. Not helpful I realise, sorry

Nutella Only 4 weeks to go?! How exciting! I hope you've not been suffering too much in the heat, or at least have had a little bell to ring to have ice cold drinks brought to you whenever you need them :)

Hello to everyone else! (I'm on my phone so can't look back and see what everyone else has written without losing my post, grr!)

The other name I like has a th sound...

Four weeks, nutella! That's not long at all. Atm I'm in no hurry whatsoever for October to come around (apart from to harvest my King Edward potatoes, which I am properly excited about!) Is it normal to be so unbothered by being pregnant second time round? Last time I was the world's first pregnant woman ever, this time I wish everyone else would get over it already .

X-posted, woolly! Yes, I'm not sure I really love the name enough to put up with the mispronunciation. It's bad enough having to explain to people that I haven't mispronounced my own name when I introduce myself. I think maybe the "th" would be better, as then it would just be an inability to produce the sound at all, rather than a misguided belief that one's school English teacher is a better guide to pronouncing English than someone who was born in Britain and spent the first 21 years of their life there.

English people were regularly asking me how far along I was and when the baby was due..... Errrrr I actually forgot my due date. Because I'm expecting baby to be late anyway I just say early August. When people asked about the actual date I was a bit

But, this baby is mean. I think it is going to burst out alien style instead of trying for a natural birth. It really really hurts!

Woolly I did not know I could get a bell.... I have been missing out! Right. That's it. First thing in the morning I'm getting a bell from one of the bikes in the garage and might prescribe myself bed rest!

(rewe have Ben and jerrys on offer this week- so it's not all bad)

Ha ha FrauEnglisch, thinking about it, of the two names I really like at the moment, one has a 'th' sound and one is Welsh, so I'm doomed either way! I'm always gobsmacked when I read the baby name threads and hear of people being told they are mispronouncing their own name! That must be really irritating.

I'm quite excited again this time round, but I think that's mainly because DS sort of understands and keeps waving at my bump and saying 'hello baby' and trying to tickle the baby, which is quite cute. I dug a load of his baby clothes out of the cellar the other day and came back into the bedroom to find he had spent the past 10 minutes proudly squeezing himself into some 3-6 month jogging bottoms (which were more like cycling shorts on his toddler body).

Nutella Do it! A bell, some ice cream, you only have 4 weeks left.......

Woolly that mental image of your DS is hilarious!
DS will be 18/19 months when this bean arrives. He rubs and kisses my belly and says "baby".... We'll see what he thinks when it gets here... we have the book "there's a house inside my mummy" and read it most night, it is really lovely.
In the international group there have been a lot of new babies recently.... I'm hoping the helps him understand.

FrauEnglisch / Woolly DH vetoed all the English names on our list (due to mispronunciations annoying us, constantly having to spell the name, etc.) and I still regret not giving DD1 my favourite English name. As it is, DD1's name is constantly misspelled/mispronounced as if it had an a at the end rather than an e, we have to spell it out every single time, and it's actually not much more common than the English name I preferred (we weren't in Austria at the time so DH didn't realise). I also think it's all down to whether you love the name enough to put up with mispronunciations.

Woolly An English friend of mine here has given her DC a Welsh name (but one that's also quite common in England and is pronounced the English way) and has never complained about having any problems with it. It all depends on how "Welsh" the name is, I suppose; even native English speakers would struggle with the ll sound or would anglicise Rhys, say, so that it's pronounced like Rees, but a lot of Welsh names are very easy to pronounce once you (i.e. Germans!) know how. It all depends, of course, whether you have the patience to correct mispronunciations and spell the name whenever you meet someone new.

Nutella Can't believe you only have four weeks to go; where is the time going? Your DS sounds very sweet (unlike my DS, who also keeps rubbing my tummy convinced that a baby is in there - he's desperate not to be the youngest - and saying, "Why are you so thin there [pointing to my waist] and so thick there?" [pointing to my tummy]).

We're into the second week of the summer holidays here. DD1 is away at scout camp until Sunday and DS is at a sport & games camp this week, so the mornings are very quiet (for the summer holidays, at any rate) with just DD2 around. I'm even managing to get some work done, although am saving the bulk of it for next week when all three will be out in the mornings.

FrauEnglish DD's name starts with A and is very common here (sob - she was born in England when we had no concrete plans to move here, and didn't think to check the German baby names top 50, and it is a totally international name that is "normal" but not very frequently used in England - we moved here and there were 3 other little girls with DD's name in our tiny 50 house village, one only a month older than DD, one 5 months older and one 2 years older!! Luckily the one a month older stayed back a year before starting school and is in the year below DD, or there would have been 3 in her school class). Anyway she and the DSs all pronounce DD's name the English way when speaking English, and the German way when speaking German - the kids all started doing that automatically as small toddlers. I always pronounce it the English way, but then my German is and always will be very heavily (British) accented anyway. I never correct anyone, it would be weird and pretentious given it is a commonly used name here, but I have only had a couple of comments ever on how I pronounce it - and then people have just asked me if that's "English for" DD's name :o and it has never remotely bothered me... but if I was going to be bothered about correcting people and knew it in advance, I guess that would make me inclined to choose another name, if that makes sense.

Nutella 4 weeks, wow! Sympathies though for being 8 months pregnant in this heat, definitely get that bell and ice-cream service :o

Linzer is DD excited about Gymnasium, or nervous, or just unphased?

DD will be going into the dreaded 4th class next year, with all the testing and assessment, and DS1 will be starting 1st class... with all the presents and expensive stationary :o His teacher has a reputation for being a neatness and detail pedant who rips up work which is messy or with too many mistakes, and she's getting a class full of boys (and 2 sets of ID twins, not that that is relevant to the pedantry and ripping up work)... anticipate stress and tantrums on that front too! September can stay away as long as it likes! We haven't even broken up yet though - holidays start in 3 weeks time.

mrtumbles you've confused me somewhat now, since I know what your dd's name is! Do you mean the name gets pronounced by Germans as if it were a German name, or do they give it the "correct English pronunciation" like in Handy? I don't hear a difference between the way I pronounce the first letter of my name in my Northern English accent and the way Germans say it when they see it as a German name.

Anyway, the name under consideration is not international, it's a dour Scottish sort of name, but straightforward to pronounce (other than the first letter issue) and highly unlikely to be rejected by the Standesamt.

*FrauEnglish" here in Bavaria she is definitely Aah-nah (might as well stop trying to be elusive) whereas I pronounce short a sound as in apple, followed by na as in... gnat :o I have never been anywhere in Germany except Bavaria, so possibly some things I assume are German (because not actually dialect) are Bavarian accent The name is certainly pronounced distinctly differently by German/ Bavarian speakers than in my fairly RP English...

To be honest all my kids names sound different in German, and they themselves respond by pronouncing them subtly differently when speaking each language, (DS1's name begins with the short e sounds as in elephant the way I say it, but with "Air" in German, and DS2 has an English name but it also sounds different the way Germans speaking German - or at least Bavarians speaking German - say it, and they aren't making it into its German version, just saying it differently).