Is there still a German Thread?

[BeatrixBurgund]

We've moved back to Germany after 8 years in Switzerland and Scotland, and with the kids in school, I just know I'm going to have lots of questions about the Bavarian education system.

And I'd love to catch up with all the folk I used to chat with (even if I can't remember their usernames!). I'm on a namechange - it's MmeLindor here!

[doradoo]

Just got my Einbürgerung results though! Passed yay 😊, just need to knuckle down the the Deutsch Arbeit für meinen B1 Prüfung

[Welshcake77]

Oh I stopped getting notifications for this thread and there's been loads of new posts!

Well done on passing the test doradoo! I just signed up for mine this morning. It's not til Feb though. I have the B1 test in December.

[BertieBotts]

Well done Dora! Fantastic!

[BertieBotts]

I'm taking my driving test again on Monday. I have gone back to the original driving instructor and feel much calmer so I hope I'll be better this time

[doradoo]

Thanks all.

Fingers crossed Bertie for Monday.

My b1 is in three weeks and am getting a bit nervous about the writing bit..... worried that if I screw it up we'll runout of time re the dual nationality side of things if Brexit is invoked in March,,,

[goodiegoodieyumyum]

Congratulations Dora,
Good Luck with your driving test Bertie.
I met quite by accident in the Supermarket today a Canadian lady who lives five minutes walk from me first native English speaker I have met who lives here. The funny thing was I was speaking my very bad German to her a even when she started speaking English to me, I kept speaking German, looks like I have found someone to have a cup of tea with which is nice.

[BertieBotts]

Yay!

Some of the ladies in my English Speakers group have decided to set up a German language conversation group which I'll be going to for the first time next week.

Will be strange speaking German to people I know speak English but I need to practice, and it will probably be fun! :)

[BertieBotts]

And my other friend has set up an American contra dance group too. So many exciting things happening here at the moment.

The colours here are gorgeous too. Anyone else find that? Perhaps this area is just very picturesque (we are next to the Black Forest) but I'm always quite breathtaken by it all.

[goodiegoodieyumyum]

The colours are beautiful here too, we went for a lovely walk on Tuesday around a reservoir close to us, it was beautiful. Did everyone else have Tuesday as a public holiday? Also do you all celebrate St Martins we have three different Lantern parades we are going to was invited to a fourth, not one on St Martins day, we saw him at the medieval market in Wipperfürth last week while everyone sang a St Martin song, apparently it is a huge celebration in Bergisch land.

[Welshcake77]

How did your driving test go Bertie

Great you've found an English speaking local goodie always nice to have someone you can communicate with easily and also gets that being away from home feeling.
no public holiday here in Tuesday - am in Hessen so we miss out on a few! We do have St Martins though, will be out with DD and her kindergarten group in Thursday.

[BertieBotts]

Oh, it went awfully! The driving examiner was running forty minutes late and then decided to stop and have a coffee and a brezel and a chat with the two driving instructors for an hour!! He clearly didn't get the memo about punctual Germans. I missed one of the classes I was supposed to teach and it was the one that my school are really adamant to chop and change (because it's an AG at a school).

Also I failed this one because I was too overconfident and not cautious enough about a couple of hazards. So that was disheartening.

[Welshcake77]

Oh I'm sorry bertie how annoying. Can't believe how 'un-German' the instructor was either! Are you to sit again soon?

How is everyone's doing? DD2 is teething (first tooth!) so this week has been horrendous. Can actually feel it now though so fingers crossed that's the worst of it over with.
It's got very cold all of a sudden as well, no snow for us yet though!

[goodiegoodieyumyum]

We have had a lot of snow this week, lucky I had my winter tyres put on on Thursday, it did stop me shopping for new winter boots on Wednesday as it was snowing heavily and I didn't want to drive in it without my winter tyres.

Sorry to hear about your driving test Bertie.

My children got a ridiculous amount of sweets in the St Mains parade they did in our street, they will last until next year I think. Some neighbours gave full shopping bags full of sweets to be shared by the children. I really enjoyed the St Martin celebration at my DS Kindergarten though it was very cold at least the snow had melted.

I hope your DD is happier Welsh, teething is not fun.

[trotzdem]

Sorry about your driving test Bertie - that sounds totally pants in every way :( Wonder if you could even put in a complaint about the lack of punctuality, although probably not worth it in case you get the same examiner next time and the complaint is handled equally unprofessionally!

I'm very glad to have done our last ever St. Martin's celebration (the parade was cut short and the bonfire cancelled due to heavy rain but the church, then mini parade with lanterns at a snail's pace in the rain the coyple of hundred meters to the Pfarrheim - which was very overcrowded - and music and St Martin's bread selling there still went ahead). I thought it was a delight the first year we went, but having struggled around the route with various collections of babies/ toddlers/ children every year for the last 9 years I have had enough bad singing and torturous slow walking in a crowd in the cold to last a life time :o

Anyone else notice that this year all the kids have battery operated lanterns? Up til a couple of years ago it was all over excited toddlers alarmingly close to one another waving paper lanterns lit by real flame candles...

[BertieBotts]

It was about half and half candles and LED tealights at DS's first one three years ago. We missed the one after that because we got lost and his school doesn't seem to do one.

I don't know if it would help to complain about the silly examiner TBH but I have insisted that my next one needs to be earlier, 9am if possible. In fact the driving school is literally just down the road so even 8am might be OK, I'd probably get stuck in work traffic and have a really easy time of it!

Our car (well DH's car) had its heated seats recalled and we had to take it back to the garage to have them replaced. The new ones are rubbish and barely even warm! :( The fault was that they set fire to the car if you leave them on for 48 hours apparently He did the appointment for that right at the end of October so I said why not do the tyres at the same time. We're all set! We don't have snow yet, though, but you can see it on top of the hills and the Black Forest is very snowy apparently.

Two of my classes were just barely contained chaos today and the other was fantastic, I have a new 4yo in it who is very very cuddly She's adorable! Why wasn't my own 4yo as adorable?! (Probably something about small doses...) I got all six of the kids to play hide and seek with some plastic fruit to learn the names of them and they were all giggling away, it was hilarious.

I both love and dread teaching the kids in basically equal measures.

[PsammeadPaintedTheLion]

Hi everyone! Can I join in? I am a bit late, I know.

I have been in Germany for almost 11 years now, another one around the Stuttgart area.

My eldest started school this September - it's very different to the U.K. And although I have been here so long, and have only ever had kids in Germany and now back home, it still takes some getting used to her walking home alone aged 6! I should have more faith though, she does it well.

Bertie, I am also taking driving lessons - it's horrible. I hate it.

[PsammeadPaintedTheLion]

Not instead of now.

[BertieBotts]

I quite like the driving part or at least I did in the middle! At first it was scary and now I'm just frustrated that I can't seem to get there, and also a bit scared that soon I'll be all on my own!

It's exciting though :) But I do get this annoying sense that the driving instructors have the cushiest job ever and as a consequence don't really care. And they all seem to be absolutely ancient men - is yours?

[PsammeadPaintedTheLion]

Mine is about 60 and very quick to anger and is very sweary. He quite regularly shouts at me and tells me I am shit at steering. He is actually quite nice despite that, I'm quite fond of the old sod. He loves nothing more than to drive around, winding his window down and shouting at the other driving instructors of the area until they tell him to piss off. We regularly drive to the shop so he can buy lottery cards.

He's a bit like Father Jack.

[BertieBotts]

Haha! Mine smokes out of the window and used to tell me I give him heart attack but not recently. I assume that means I have improved but he doesn't really give much feedback.

[CardiCorgi]

Can I join in? I'm in Bavaria. Just waiting for snow, I love a proper winter.

[doradoo]

Checking in to let you know I passed my B1 - yay!!!! 😁😁

Was a bit close on the writing, but I have my zerifikat! So one less thing to worry about on the road or citizenship.

Have been enjoying the Christmas markets op here, been super cold but no snow yet! We've not had a proper winter for a few years so could so with a good one now I don't need to drive regularly any more

[BertieBotts]

Woohoo! Well done dora :)

Hi CardiCorgi :)

[goodiegoodieyumyum]

Congratulations Dora great news for you

Welcome Cardi

We went to an awful Christmas market where I live today, off to Siegburg tomorrow to their wonderful medieval Christmas market and next week we are meeting my cousin and her husband in Wiesbaden it was a lovely surprise to find out last night she will be ino Germany next weekend.

[VioletWillow]

Hey all, and wintry greetings! I'm just checking in. We are in the middle of signing contracts for our new place near Tübingen (new tenancies seem to be a whole different palaver to UK ones) and move in from the 15th of February, so our house is a chaotic mix of decorations and wrapped presents on one side and part-packed up boxes on the other! Everyone is in a frenzy now, DP is planning where his TV is going to go and I am trying to count boxes and work out how I shall ship my bicycle 😂
I'm following the driving test tales with interest, I really need to sort mine before I go, I think driving on the other side and being instructed in German would finish me off! But I am ridiculously reluctant (and am being mulish due to pregnancy) so haven't pulled my finger out to sort it yet. Time is ticking!
I hope everyone is prepared for Christmas, we have an early Christmas with my brother the week before and then on the 23rd we fly to Stuttgart to see the out-laws. It'll be nice not to travel on Christmas Eve for a change!