Der Herbst ist da - wir wollen aber kein Regenwetter: Life in Germany cont/d

[finknottle]

Too lazy to scroll through the other long one.

Here for Obst und Blaetter - guess what d came home from school singing yesterday?

All welcome, Austria & Switzerland & any German-speaking Leute too

No idea what it would be doing but it's a pharmaceutical company where she is just starting to work - she got the job through contacts in the company so she said that's the way to get in and she'll let me know!

I know I could get a job if I moved back home. I'm constantly thinking of moving and h is already talking about appplying for jobs AGAIN in Oxford or Bristol or London - all places we couldn't afford to live well on what he would be payed. One job in London was offering 24k and I read somewhere that a full time nanny can get that much. I just don't get why they pay so badly, I mean he's a highly skilled and specialized scientist, it's a joke.

24k does not seem much. I was earning more than that as a secretary a few years before we left England (10 yrs ago)!!!

I know what you mean though. I could have a proper career again if we moved back. I have been studying part-time and have nearly finished my degree so I could really go places if we move back. Will never get anywhere here until my German is "perfect". Even then it's really hard to change careers in Germany. Once you start in a profession, you are pigeon holed for eternity.

DH has been looking in Cambridge as there is such a huge demand for his area there (Engineer) and lots of firms where I could maybe get a look in.

Would love to go back into London - worked there most of my working life (in UK) - but not sure about the travelling anymore.

Feel I am going to miss the wonderful German transport system if we move back!

That is not a lot of money, if fact I am shocked at the cheek of a company offering as little as that. My brother earns almost as much and he is a chef in a hotel in Scotland. Darn good chef, right enough but Scotland is not London.

Taipo
I wonder about the moving around a bit too. It is difficult for the kids. Saying that, they are now learning their third language.

I think I forgot to tell you of my success yesterday. I had to phone the paediatrician to get an appointment for DD's allergy tests. The receptionist only speaks French so I managed to tell her that I would get a friend to phone her. The colleague of DH could not get through, so I plucked up the courage to phone again. Somehow we understood each other and I managed to make an appointment.

well done Mme L! Speaking over the phone is much harder than speaking to someone face-to-face, isn't it?

Gabster, what subject have you been studying?

Admylin, that's ridiculous, isn't it after all the years your dh would have spent studying? I wonder if he couldn't move out of academia into the world of business. I expect it isn't what he wants to do though.

I know he could go into pharmaceutical research but he wouldn't have any 'freedom' as he says. That was a famous university in London by the way offering 24k! In Bristol university I think it was about the same. Last night he came home saying he's seen a job in Portland, USA and he's going to apply. I just put my head under the blanket and curled further into the corner of the sofa - we've only been in Hannover a couple of months

Trouble is with him staying in academia is he's only going to get decent money if he can get a lecturer position or his goal of becoming professor comes true. I'm getting fed up of waiting to be honest and just feelo as if I should be on my way back to UK with the dc to give them some sort of home town and steady schooling.

Bleary good morning

admylin, is his Hannover job not working out as he hoped? You do sound fed-up

I only got home at midnight after a PTA meeting, slept reluctantly from 1.30 till 5am then got up see if Obama had won and then at 8 had my first 1-to-1 meeting with my old arch-nemesis, the primary head. Was concerned I'd botch it after so little sleep but it went really well - I cannot believe I just typed that Noticed my German was a bit ropey when I went off script but too tired to care much. Wish it were paid though. Typical that I find something so time-consuming and interesting (yerse!) which has also given me a lot more contacts here in the village - and it's all voluntary. H was muttering something similar but had the sense to keep it under his breath...

ZZZZen, do you still use the email address i have for you? I mailed you recently - am still agog as to how things are.

MmeL, thanks - hadn't even thought of MyHammer. We used them to move house & renovate the rented house, I think I posted about choosing the Laurel & Hardy of the removal and painting world Will def have a look for the garden, it is only hacking work, after all.

No sun here today. Still mild for November but trüb. Think I'll make yet another pot of coffee and lie on the sofa and watch the rolling news. I could watch Obama's speech on a loop... And s1 is off school sick but much better today, maybe I could bribe him to make his brother and sister lunch.

I've had the news on all morning too - thank goodness he won. I haven't managed to get his speech in full - thought CNN would be showing more but will have to youtube it later - daren't do that now as my computer keeps sticking and crashing and I think it's on it's last legs - anyway youtube usually überforders it!

H is turning into the mega mad scientist of the year - one minute everything is OK then he's applying for jobs again or atleast talking abot it and just now he's been in and went out all happy becaus ehis boss said he could do whatever he liked in the lab - so total freedom to be creative on the experimental front. Sigh, I'm just fed up of not knowing if he's going to want to settle or be able to settle here and the dc are fed up and asking to go to UK every day.

By the way it's bonfire nigt in UK. That's another tradition my dc have never taken part in - wish I could go and make a fire some where! Are you having one in your garden finknottle? I will try to remember to tell my dc all about it and explain it all so atleast they'll know what it is - although knowing the mood they're both in it'll just make them maon to me to go back home.

I thought about it, had an idea about asking some of the other expats around for a fire and a baked spud but never got round to it. Maybe next year.
Your homesickness sounds chronic, you poor love. It's so hard isn't it? Trying to decide how much is general November gloom, settling into a new place or that constant niggle of unease at not feeling at home. Maybe a job would help? You could put some money into a UK travel fund - for hols at least. Or get bolshy with your h and give him a timeframe to go back to the UK. No point in staying here if you and the children are so miserable.

Hi finks thanks I got your mail but I am hardly ever online these days so I never get round to much. Will mail you back PROMISE but probably not today. Will be a late night and I am like a bear with a sore head, didn't get to bed till 2am. Stupid me, just reading a book, no excuse for it really.

Strange they don't do bonfire night at all in Germany. They are usually so open about adopting foreign traditions, suppose the whole background - Gunpowder plot and so on is too weird for them. Wonder if you don't have some expat set-up there admylin who is throwing a bash? I know at our last school a couple of the dads suggested doing a bonfire night thing but the German parents didn't like it. They wanted to do Halloween though.

Totally forgot about the American election in fact. Good looking man Obama, let's hope he's good for them and the rest of the world. Saw him speaking in Berlin at the Victory Säule. Spoke for ages without looking at notes and spoke very well but dunno really how much is behind the slickness.

You saw him? Swoon - I've gone daft I think, look what I just posted on another thread:

"I never got the 'Wow' Obama thing before but having seen and heard him today - wow! I knew he was skilled as an orator but soundbites don't do him justice on that front or on the charisma front. And then there are his hands...

And me a hard-boiled political cynic...I've wasted so much time on his policies too

The world's first shaggable politician black US president

Glad you go the mail, no rush, was deliberately cryptic & short as didn't know if the acct was still active oder was.

I suppose when you think about it - bonfire night is abit morbid. I always thought (as a child) what a shame to burn the scarecrow man!

I can'r give h any ultimatums finknottle because he has to go whene the work is. I just don't se ethe point at the moment that's all, I should ask a few of the others on here about how they feel about always tagging along after h depending on his job and try to get some tips, as you say it could just be a combination of a few things that have got me down, making it all seem worse.

The dc are out with the neighbour walking the dog. She's learning to be a heilpraktikerin and she keeps coming with leaves and mashed up green gunge to treat various ailments on the dc! Dd had a sore foot so the neighbour has been down every evening with some sort of leaf-gunge to put on the tender part of her foot! I guess she's using us to practise on (her exams are in March) but she's very sweet! She told me next time I have one of my 3 day headaches I have to tell her and she'll do something with needles on me . The other day when I had to admit to her that I couldn't join them for a meal out on Sunday because money is so tight - after I told her why (h's botch up before he started this job), she gave me a hug!

better not get on her bad side admylin! She sounds a bit like the witches at the mill back home. Everyone is always VERY polite to them, just in case...

Bunch of heathens we are underneath it all I think.

Thought that mail was a little on the curt side for you, finks. Osama is the only attractive world leader though, isn't he finks? I know when I was watching him I was thinking, I like him as a man (ah-hem) and also he just comes across so real and nice. Very fanciable. Actually I find his wife ok too, she has a few much rough edges but I quite like that. You know she has a gawky way of standing sometimes, one hip thrust forward or she'll jut her head forward or soemthing. Some small thing other slicker politician's wives wouldn't do. She seems less fake IYKWIM.

Agree, Obama is one good looking dude (using my Texan accent and slang seeing as how I've been there!) I watched a good documentary on Arte last night about both candidates and I was surprised how quickly Obama has climbed his political career ladder - and at the tricks he used to climb it too.
H was complaining of being tired yesterday and I just said you know Mccain is over 70 and he's been doing 20 hour days for this. I'm mean aren't I?

Admylin, I think then that it has to be a case of pros & cons & making the most of it in your case. Tbh I still do that even though having the house & being more settled here did help enormously.
But.... visiting my brother & his family in the summer I found myself thinking almost involuntarily, "If we lived here, the children would go to that school, I'd go shopping there (wonderful large bookshop) and we'd meet friends by the waterfront for a drink in that pub then go the cinema there..." Hard not to wonder "what if?"
I remind myself of all the things we have here we wouldn't back home (see what I wrote?) and aspects which are better.

I'm finding especially since d started school and the boys are so much more independent that I increasingly need more mental stimulation myself and more contact with others. I can be a terrible grouch and slump into depressive introspection if I don't have enough to occupy me.

Have you explored the expat stuff in Hannover? I was wondering about putting an ad in our local parish paper for a native speaker Stammtisch, once a month in the local pub. And write, "Even if you think your English is bloody good or you just want to practice with sem reel netif spikerz, this is not for Germans!" I think there are more around than I know here.

Lol at the this is not for Germans! I dare you!

Atleast I know I'm not the only one to think like that then - I always think that when I go home too. Maybe it's normal and I had a great childhood in that place so it's normal that I bring it over to my dc as being a great place and maybe that influences them. I try hard not to show my dislike, disgust and horror at some of the aspects of life here but it probably gets through to them. I would be different if h was a real German, we would make more of an effort maybe. I've got ouzo and sambuca in the house so I'll have one or two later and see if I feel better, alcohol usually helps doesn't it?

Not if you drink them together! And alcohol is more of a depressive... though I find a glass or 3 of Sekt does wonders for my morale. Get the children out, go to the shops and get a bottle for yourself and let the children choose a treat to celebrate Obama's win.

I find doing something unexpected when in the glums can lift everyone's spirits.
I always have a bottle of gin in the fridge! Isn't that Mother's Little Helper?

Sorry you're feeling down, admylin. Can you talk to your dh about how you're feeling or is he too absorbed by his work? I've never been able to get across to dh what it feels like being homesick or even just a bit down about things, but I wonder if he felt something similar when we were in the UK which then prompted him to apply for the job here. He'd never admit to feeling homesick though.

Just had a group of neighbourhood kids round saying 'suesses oder saueres'. I was a bit grumpy with them and sent them on their way because this has happened before and then they never leave you alone. I mean it's OK at Halloween or Fasching but it's not OK to drag me away from Mnet on a random afternoon.

Or AIBU?

been so bosy recently. Lack of human contact gets me dow,

Sorry you're feeling so down Admylin.

My dh is going to UK with ds3 this w/e. Am a bit jealous.

Now really ladies, Obama, I know he has charisma but have you all be married that long that you are fantisising (SP?) about some American politician .....?

Hey Admylin - sorry you're feeling down. It might be the whole moving/unsettled thing more than anything you know. But really, Portland? Your neighbour sounds like a sweetie though. It will make all the difference once you meet a few local people you get on with.

Hi Ernest - Did you have fun over the school hols?

Zzen - Witches? Really? And in case you hadn't guessed already, my degree will (hopefully) be in Psychology. I hate telling people that! They always look at you funny and you know they are wondering if you are "analysing" them.

So are you analysing all of us then, theGabster? Seriously, I think it's great. I sometimes think I'd like to do some sort of study which required me to really use my brain again. And then my head hurts just thinking about it.

Obama is a very shaggable charasmatic politician, isn't he? I was so relieved this morning when I heard the result.

Bloody kids from earlier have taken the doormat from our doorstep. Serves me right I suppose for not giving them any sweets. Am obviously turning into a grumnpy old women as I probably normally would have tried to find something to give them but they really caught me in the middle of --mnetting- something really important.

I suppose you could practise on us TheGabster! Probably could do with a sort out in my head.

I know what you mean Taipo - wish I could do some sort of study but not here in German. I looked into OU but it cost too much to do it from abroad.

When I got up yesterday I saw black mould growing down the side of the kitchen window on the wall. I went and bought some sort of spray which got rid of it within seconds but I'm sure it'll come back because the extractor that is in this kitchen that we were left is rubbish and the whole kitchen steams up when I cook. Openeing the window doesn't help much as it's so damp and drizzly outside that I think even more cold dampness comes in.

Admylin
You are sounding down at the moment. I wonder if it is Hannover, I was pretty depressed when I lived there. I did have PND though (should I be admitting that with TheGabster around)

Do you get out a bit? I went out with a colleage of DH's yesterday, she is Irish and good fun. It was good to get out of the house. Perhaps you should do the "no Germans need apply" search for some expats. There are bound to be some.

Have you been into the English shop in List? Perhaps they have some idea of expat groups, they often had signs up in the window afaikr.

Another Obama admirer here . My neighbour sent me a txt yesterday, she was so excited. She said that she finally does not feel embarrassed to be an American abroad.