Fruehlingszeit in the German Corner - chat continues here

[SSSandy2]

"Deutsch or English
Native speakers, expats, anyone
From Brezeln to Bier

Please don't ask if you join in, everyone is welcome "

Hi Admylin,

Sorry to hear you're feeling down about the move today. I know how you feel - DH moved to Munich 3 months before me and DS1. I had to organise the entire relocation back in the UK. As DH wasn't there, he didn't realise how sad I was to leave my friends I made when I had DS1, and the stress of doing all this while freshly pregnant and feeling vile. It's hard to have that optimistic "new beginnings" feelings 24/7, isn't it?
I hope you feel better tomorrow.
x

No but thanks. I just think we are probably quite over due a blazing row which might make me feel better at least. You can't imagine how he's been the last few weeks. I might email you all the details but you've got your own troubles to sort out.

I'm glad it's working out thequietone, know we frightened the hell out of you before you came! Have you looked at those Assimil courses? I quite like those. Not too great on the grammar but funnier than standard courses and everyday situations, nice to have on in the background when you're cooking etc.

Admylin, I'm totally stressed out trying to clean and cook atm. You know I'm a dead useless hausfrau and falling a bit behind, I have people coming round. Send me a mail if you like and I'll look in here later this evening. If there's something you'd like me to do, tell me and I'll try and organise it, ok? We'll get it all sorted, don't you worry.

oh ok crossed posts. Go ahead and mail me the gruesome details and get it off your chest. Don't worry about my troubles, I always have those!

Thanks quietone, I've also done it before. The last move I nearly had a nervous breakdown and at one point I was sobbing on the phone to my dad in the UK which is really bad of me as I can imagine how helpless he must have felt. He was all for me coming back home there and then, but I did manage to get through it and we survived but it's just so much easier if you have support even if it's just someone to say yes, lets throw that old table out or lets keep those cupboards. You know it's not even the physical side of packing and unscrewing things it's making all the decisions too that tires me out.

Ok, I'll pour it all out to you later - I also have to try and get some stuff done in the blasted kitchen - and try and get my red eyes to magically dissapear before I have to go and meet the dc from school.

Oh, admylin, I'm sorry to hear you're feeling crap about the move. I know exactly what you mean about making all the decisions that go with moving being so tiring. I don't know what encouraging words to say because it is so hard and it doesn't really get better until well after the move, does it? Just sending lots of sympathetic vibes really.

I'm not surprised you're feeling so down admylin. Moving is extremely stressful at the best of times and your dh is really being unfair to think you should cope with all the hassle whilst he retires into his ivory tower. That may be ok for everyday life, if that's the balance you have both chosen but not at exceptional times like these. He should be pulling his weight and helping you with decision making and all the rest of it.

Listen admylin, I have to raceand have a quick shower before I go out but do you have time Friday morning maybe, fancy meeting for a coffee/breakfast or something? I'm busy Wednesday and Thursday unfortunately but Friday should be ok, if it suits you.

admylin I read your mail yesterday and wrote you a long (much too long!) reply but the stupid mail tool crashed when I tried to send it. I'll have another go now.

Thanks sssandy, just read the mail. Have walked miles today with a friend in a big circle round Berlin Mitte and ended up on Friedrichstrasse and got dd some linen trousers and ds a white shirt in preparation for the wedding. Have to sort them out with decent footwear or they'll be going in trainers! Think I will leave it and let SIL rush us to the mall at the last minute so we don't spoil the wedding photos and get them some shoes in Texas!

I am so fed up with this football, I don't mind watching it but it's the fire crackers and men racing up and down shouting to the world that their country has won at the end of the game.

oh don't give me the F word. Doesn't it drive you mad this football?! We have the Croatian football addicts one end of the street and the Italians the other so you can imagine what it's been like, then when Germany is playing like last night, all hell breaks loose up and down Ku'damm all night and the fireworks, sirens etc. (whispers and mutters: It's just the European cup after all, I just don't find it all THAT important that I want to lose sleep with it). You should have seen the mess Ku'damm was in this morning, broken glass and rubbish everywhere.

Oh I don't mind the football. Our neighbours invited everyone round last night to watch the game and everyone seems in a good mood today. But then I might think differently if I lived in Berlin

well part of being a Berliner is being allowed to complain all of the time.
It's expected of you really and I find you get the hang of it quite fast!

Well this morning on the way to school, dd and I were discussing the football. I don't know how she sleeps through all the racket. She thought maybe Germany would win the cup and I said, I don't know (haven't seen any of the games yet so no idea) but if they win the next game, they go into the final. "NO Mummy," she cries, "not they, WE. If WE win the next game."

So she is a little German at heart somehow. She has a new backpack with Deutschland on it and a German flag emblazoned on the back and she was wearing her Michael Ballack t-shirt today although apparently everyone at school is more into Lukas Podolski these days. Seems to be the local hero, despite being Polish.

I had to turn the other way when the dc had the German colours sprayed into their hair last night. I suppose I'll just have to grin and bear it for the next week or so.

Go Holland!

ha ha yes keep grinning! So are "we" playing Holland next then? Think I'll have to watch the games now it's getting closer to the final

Come to think of it, our car is flying the German flag but just one. The neighbour has 4 German flags attached to his car, one over each door. Find that a bit much.

No, but the Dutch have played well so far so deserve win imo.

"We" are either playing Croatia or Turkey next. Should be interesting...

Germany vs. Turkey should be noisy.

Those car flags are everywhere aren't they! Most of the taxi drivers are Turkish here in Berlin so you see plenty of those flying but then you see a car with one German flag and one Italian flag and ds says they can't make their minds up!

My 2 would never say 'we' when talking about the Germans. They say they're English first and ab und zu they'll say they're a little bit Indian but they don't get alot from that side of things. I think ds is so extreme because of his class at school - out of 16 dc there are 2 sisters who are German and the rest are from Chechnya, Croatia, Albania, Lebanon, Turkey and Algeria. Dd must have about 4 German dc in her class - they might find it very different in Hannover with a few more German dc. I've been told we'll be living in an area where the German bankers, lawyers and med.school lecturers live. Just a few streets further over a big 4 lane road is the side of town that is like little Russia - alot of council high rise flats and such like.

thequiteone,my son got the same problem with swelling up (eyes)He´s allergic to moscito/ Mücken bites,and other insects.
He uses antiallergic sirup or tablets.
called Cetrizin.

Hi Chrissi

Think it is like that almost everywhere here admylin. Very mixed zoning. Have the impression it is a deliberate housing policy they have. If there is a street full of huge old villas, there'll be a drug rehabilitation clinic in their midst or something like that.

Dd wanted the German flag up on the car, so we obliged.

Actually I like it if foreigners put a German flag up next to their national one admylin. I find it a bit friendlier. When England was playign in the world cup, dd had her little Union Jack but she always carried the German flag too.

Hi everyone, I survived Würzburg (just and no more) and have settled back into normal chaos at home.

Thequietone
I would get the inoculation against Lyme disease, if I were you, and be careful about Ticks. Our two always have Autan (Zeckenschutz Mosquito stuff) on when they go near wooded areas and this area is not as infested as south Germany.

Admylin
Poor you, I know what it is like moving to a new area.

We are talking about moving shortly too. DH should hear in the next couple of weeks if it is going to happen at last. We have been in limbo all year waiting for the right opportunity to open up.

Kindersurprise, know the feeling of being in limbo too! We've been through three situations where we had high hopes of h being offered a job in the UK and in the US but none of them worked out in the end. Would you be moving far? I've never bothered really setting up home as such because I always knew h would be on 1 to 3 year contracts with no sure extensions. This new job is initially for 3 years. Well if you do end up moving we can give each other support because believe me it's hell!

Lol at the drug rehab clinic think sssandy! We're used to that too - we live right close to h's work place and his office is on the geschlossenen abteilung of the psychiatric clinic! I often ask him if he's sure he locked up when he gets back from work.

Actually there's a studentenwohnheim at the other side of the Siedlung so we'll wait and se if it's going to be loud or if it's a nice quiet, study-the whole-night-through type of Heim! Live in hope eh.

Admylin
There are two options at the moment, Geneva or Munich. Personally, I would prefer Geneva as it would be a good opportunity for us all to learn French and I have read that the Swiss schools are very good. (Contrary to all I have read about the Munich schools!). We will wait and see. Thankfully the company offer a relocation package if moving outwith Germany so would help with looking for schools and the paperwork etc. And of course they pay for the removal company whether we move to Munich or Geneva.

We have had some heavy stormy showers today, but it has calmed down again now. There was a lovely double rainbow in the sky earlier, the DCs were very excited. How lovely that they are still of an age to get excited about a rainbow.

glad you survived the MIL KS! Like the sound of Geneva , not that I know much about it. Dh is always saying how nice Switzerland is, he's been there on business quite a lot lately.

Always find that Swiss German totally incomprehensible though, wonder if their French is also that difficult for French speakers to understand. Was watching an interview with Roger Federer on German tv (with the German subtitles) and dd was asking what language he speaks. What language indeed?! She was staring open mouthed in disbelief when I told her it was German. She wasn't having any of it.