Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen : German Corner 3 - life goes on

[SSSandy2]

Other thread was getting a bit full. Alles wie gehabt :
"Deutsch or English
Native speakers, expats, anyone
From Brezeln to Bier

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

I'd say I'm stuck in phase 4 then! I'd advanced to stage 5 in Berlin - and I remember the isolation period when we moved was not too bad as I was busy enough to not notice it too much and then it only took me about 4 months to get to know a few people and then 2 of them became friends. I knew all the dc's faces in my dc's classes and could put a name to them within quite a short time too. No idea how I'll get back to that stage again but suppose I've only been here a few weeks, I'm being impatient aren't I?

I was in a realyl bad mood yesterday after the school presentation thing at Gymnasium. It was for all the 5th year classes and to start off they all sand a song in the entrance hall and I was shocked at how aggressively the parents pushed forward to see their little dartlings singing and blocking the view for everyone further back than the 3rd row - none of the small brothers and sisters could see and no one thought to let them through to the front.I didn't get a chance to see anything as my old training is still there - I don't push in, it's installed in my brain since childhood! Then we all went to the classroom where we all got a seat so that was OK.

It just put me in a bad mood knowing that I'm going to have to reverse what I've taught my dc about not pushing in and being polite. They'll go under in this society if I don't start teaching them to have a certain amount of aggressiveness that they wouldn't have if they lived in UK. I'm sure of that because I've seen my nieces in England and I find they are confident and quite outspoken but they would definately go under in Germany. Can you tell I'm in the homesickness phase eh!

Blimey - you lot have been busy! I'm still in Rheinland-Pfalz and our usual "golden September/October" is v soggy. Grapes rotting on vines as we speak. Vintners full of gloom & I'm not ready to give up my bikini & shorts
Had a great summer, and must start a new ueber positive school thread as have now 3 children at school here & (touch wood) all 3 thriving. It will last

Glad your moves went well, don't envy you, I must say. I found back to/starting school stressful enough.

Have switched from Telekom to a Freenet packet which h (he is atm very much dear h after surprisingly wonderful 15th anniversary presents but am still against twee 'd' designation ) assures me gives us unlimited overseas calls to UK. Any one else switched? Am a bit suspicious as sounds too good to be true. Have checked website but am not convinced...

Phew, we've just got back from Ikea Hannover, we went on the tram and walked across the Expo area so it was OK but it was busy and we made the mistake of asking h if he wanted to come too, which he did. Ironically it was funny when we started shouting at each other and I thought OMG we're having a row in Ikea like about 20 other couples. It made me laugh even if I shouldn't have been in the mood to laugh as h is a big spoil sport and rotter and misery guts and should have stayed in his lab, there that feels better! Honestly I heard fights going on infront of the kitchens and the rugs and in the Markthalle bit and at the tills! Only place where everyone seemed calm was the sofa section coz that was at the beginning of the Rundgang! Our's took place at the childrens bed section.

Nice to see you back finknottle - was getting worried that I'd be talking to myself after mmelindt leaves.

Welcome back finknottle! We've had a very soggy day here too. It finally stopped raining about 5pm and I almost threw the dc out the door to go and get some fresh air as they were driving us up the wall.

That list is interesting MmeLindt. I would say I am at stage 3 on a good day and stage 2 on a not so good one. If I experienced a honeymoon period then it was very short because we had dd's settling in at school to contend with

Admylin, I had an almost indentical experience to you at ds's 'Einschulung' on Thursday. It was afterwards when they offered Kaffee and Kuchen to the parents in the big hall. It was all a bit chaotic but I patiently waited in the queue for about 30 mins (also having been taught never to push in) and then when I finally reached the head of the queue there were people pushing in either side of me . When I told dh he said, 'well, why didn't you say anything?' I should have done of couse but I was just a bit too gobsmacked to open my mouth.

Lol at Ikea rows. Sounds horribly familiar

LOL at the Ikea rows, you did well getting as far as the childrens rooms then, that is normally quite near the end.

We were at Ikea yesterday as well, why I do this is a mystery. Ikea on Saturday with 2 children, it really cannot but end in tears.

Especially as we spent the morning in the town, looking for shoes. That is them fitted for shoes for the now, only got boots to get, but I will wait until we get to Geneva.

DD is upstairs tidying her room, I have to go and inspect it

Taipo, it's hard isn't it? You have to decide to stay civilized or get pushy! I always think what will people think of me if I push in but infact they are all doing it so I maybe should but I just can't bring myself to. That's why I so look forward to going home to visit - to recover from the stress of facing things like that. Anyway, Monday night it's Elternabend so I'll see how they all behave and report back for either support or a moan on here!

Well done with getting the shoe ordeal over with mmelindt - I have to do that next week. Which shops were best? I always try Deichmann but we rarely find a bargain there that either fits or that they like and shops like Galeria have shoes around the 90 Euro level for ds which I find abit much. One of the biggest hurdles is getting ds to agree to come into town, and as we progress from shop to shop without success getting him to stay calm! He hates shopping but shoe shopping is the worst of all types of shopping. I'm thinking of ordering a load from catalogues in different sizes and getting him to pick a pair at home but then I get the hassle of sending the ones he doesn't need back.

We went to Humanic, a huge shoe store in Cologne. They have a screen showing films (Happy feet, funnily enought) and a wee basketball court and playstations for the older DCs. The staff are a bit hit and miss, but we did get something eventually. I am trying to think where we went in Hannover. I think at that time we were in Scotland a lot and I bought the shoes in my cousin's shop.

I had a look but the closest to Hannover is Bremen, so a bit out of your way.

Admylin, I just can't quite get used to seeing people who are actually very respectable pushing and shoving their way to the front of a queue. Of course not everyone does it here but enough do. I was even shocked by MIL's behaviour on the tram the other day. She got on and then practically elbowed everyone else out of the way so that she could get a forward facing seat (for a 10 minute journey). I almost felt like apologising for her behaviour!

So it's winter shoe time again. It's already feeling quite chilly here so I suppose I can't put it off much longer. There is a Humanic near us so maybe I'll give that a go, although I did notice that our local Realmarkt had reasonably decent looking shoes for 20 Euros. I suppose they wouldn't last as long as the 90 Euro ones but they don't need to last long at that age, do they? Trouble is that I have been brought up to think that anything that isn't Clarks (and properly fitted and expensive) must be bad.

Good old Clarks eh, how we hated them too! We were always jealous of the 'bad' girls who dared to turn up in trendy non Clarkified cheap shoes at school!

I'm still trying to decide - should I order a load of shoes tomorrow or risk going into town and not finding any. Trouble is, ds has to go on a school trip a week on Monday which I get the details of on this Monday night and I bet he'll need some good shoes atleast waterproof. He hasn't even got a pair of wellies at the moment. I suppose a decent pair of wellie sand his trainers should do but I bet they'll all turn up with walking style boots and Geox style shoes. I'm obsessed with shoes at the moment - atthe presentation afternoon at school when they were standing at the front of the classroom all 33 of them I was looking at all their shoes thinking where on earth did they buy them and wow if you add the cost of all those shoes up together it must be a fortune! Can you tell I was slightly bored!

Lol. Don't know what to suggest though as I also hate shoe shopping more than any other kind of clothes shopping. Am having real problems with dd's clothes situation atm. She basically refuses to wear most of what she has in her wardrobe because she says it's not comfortable. I splashed out this week and bought her a Wilde Kerle sweatshirt as a sort of compensation present for when ds got his Schultüte (she didn't get a Schultüte because we were in the UK when she started school). Fortunately she loves it and will probably wear nothing else now until next summer. It doesn't solve the trouser/jeans problem though.

Oh, dd does that to me on a regular basis. She used to like pink and girly stuff when she was 4 going on 5 but then she went off it but her entire wardrobe was made up of pink and fluffy clothes. Nowadays, she won't wear things that she says are uncomfortable so I don't know how many perfectly decent trousers, jeans or tops have just sat in the drawer waiting to be too small anyway. My mum often sends the dc clothes but most of what she sends goes unworn into the back of the wardrobe and it took me ages to get my mum to understand NO PINK!

Yep, same here. Dd went off pink almost overnight when she was 6. Since then she refuses to wear anything pink or frilly although she will sometimes wear dresses as long as they are comfortable.

The other problem is the sizing. She is in size 128 atm but these won't fit her much longer I think. She is swamped by 140 and not many shops seem to do the inbetween size of 134 although I think H&M do so I'll probably have to go there soon. Any other suggestions?

Yes, that's a pain isn't it. My dd is about a 140. I recently saw some trousers sized at 134/140 which wouldn't last her through the winter but 146/152 would have looked silly. I've often seen those Tchibo offers and not bought because they do that with their sizes.

Here califrau, my 2 liked that one too!

"Heut geh'n wir auf Bärenjagd" (slap thighs)
"Und wir haben gar keine Angst" (sit up and shake head)
"Denn wir hamm' ein Messer" (use index finger as knife)
"Und auch ein Gewehr" (show pretend gun)
"Huch, was ist denn das?" (look around)
"Tiefes Gras!"*
"Da können wir nicht oben drüber"(pretend to climb over)
"Da können wir nicht unten durch" (pretend to climb under)
"Da müssen wir mitten durch!" (push through long grass with hands)

Variations:

*Matsch: make squelching noise with hands on cheeks
*Ein See: pretend to swim over
*Ein Riesen-Wackelpudding: eat the pudding

the end part:
"So weich!" - "Ein Bommelschwanz" - "Der BÄÄÄR!"
"Schnell zurück durch die Höhle, den Wackelpudding, den See, den Matsch, das tiefe Gras. Da, das Auto: Tür auf, Einsteigen, Tür zu. Puuh. Geschafft!" (with all movements)

My DD turned 6yo in April and still likes pink stuff. She is a real clothes horse though, and loves deciding what to wear. I wonder if that will change in the coming months then.

I don't know about the shoes, Admylin. It is a bit hit and miss to be honest. We had Geox shoes this summer and I was not at all happy with them. They are not waterproof so if it rained then the DCs had wet feet. The quality of the shoes was not good either, the stitching was fraying after just a month or two.

The woman on the shop on Saturday said that some of the Geox are waterproof, but not all so you have to be careful when buying them.

We have Timberland now so I will see how we do with them.

Can i join your thread? We're moving to germany at the beginning of 2009 - dh is german (i'm scottish) and he's got a job not far from wurzburg in bayern. We've got 3 dc (7, 4, 2) so will be so grateful for any advice about schools, kindergartens etc!! not too stressed at the minute about the whole moving thing but i'm sure by december i'll be on the ceiling with stress! more stressed about my language skills - i understand loads but my vocab is not the best! please reassure me i'll pick it up quickly!!

Hippies here too, Cali.
Ours was "Wir wollen einen Baeren fangen..."
lots of Wiese, a Fluss, a hippy cave...

God I hated the Krabbelgruppe. I left s2's when one mum suggested we bring files so we could file away all the songs & rhymes and ooh, decorate the front with pictures of/by the children. Scarpered and when d came along, did a DIY group with a couple of friends.
Must admit am still friendly today with most of the mums I met at s1's group and was armed about the ones to avoid when the boys started school Joys of village life.

Welcome Canella, ask away Your German will pick up & I've always found people more than willing to speak English or help me out. Then there's Mumsnet... I haven't been on for ages and have spent blimmin' ages on here today. You have been warned

Califrau
They are different word to the ones I know, although I like the wackelpudding

Canella
Welcome. Let me know if you need any advice about Würzburg, I lived there for 9 years and DH is from Würzburg. Are you going to be living in the town? Wü is a lovely wee town, I would move back there tomorrow if DH could get a job there. Where is your DH from

Our Bärenjagd definately had the gun and even a knife in one verse I think! Must have been the brutal Swabian version!

I hated the Pitsch patsch Pinguin song when we had to join in and waddle around like penguins pretending to have fun. Thank goodness those days are over. The English playgroup was mild compared to the German one eh, we just had the wheels on the bus!

I never went to a playgroup here so I missed out on most of these!

Hi Canella. Hope your move goes well in the new year. If you understand lots of German already I'm sure you'll pick it up quite quickly once you're here.

Why is it so cold? I can't get used to the sudden temp changes. Last week it was 28 degrees and we were in shorts and t-shirts. This morning was 5 degrees and to top it all I had to send ds to school in a really old pair of flimsy, falling-apart trainers because he'd left his other shoes outside last night and they were soaking. Talk about making a good impression in his first week!

I know, I've been thinking about putting the heating on just a tiny bit! Ds was shivering on the way to school this morning too. Still have to get his winter foot wear sorted.