** German Chat ** Alle sind willkommen. ** Frühling läßt sein blaues Band ...

[MmeLindt]

...
Wieder flattern durch die Lüfte
Süße, wohlbekannte Düfte
Streifen ahnungsvoll das Land
Veilchen träumen schon,
Wollen balde kommen
Horch, von fern ein leiser Harfenton!
Frühling, ja du bist's!
Dich hab ich vernommen!

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Für Deutsche und nicht-Deutsche, Goethe-fans und Gottschalk-fans, für Herzschmerz, Heimweh und Heimatgefühle.

Alle sind willkommen.

Hello, can I join in? You all seem very friendly. I'm living up in Leverkusen, have been for four years, have a 4.7 DS and a DD on the way. I am missing 24-hour Tesco's and M&S and Mothercare (can't find a single muslin square in Germany!) and Jacob's Cream Crackers. At the moment, I can't get over how thorough the neo-natal and frauenartz is with regards pregnancy. I was just checking my British mutterpass and I realise that I was only seen three times in 32 weeks. I do love German efficiency!

Canella - can you get your DH to phone ahead and explain the situation? Tha's what mine does when I have to do something technical/complicated, then I just turn up and they know to expect the crazy English woman...

Hi Frosch, welcome! That's a good idea with getting dh to phone ahead. It can be so frustrating when you don't understand or can't explain things. My dc are 10 and 9 and usually I manage with German and so I should, I've bene here for yonky! The dc tell me off if I get a der,die or das wrong though if they'r ewith me in shops and the other day ds wanted to sink into the ground because I was asking for a Lesepult but had forgotten the word so I started on with 'so ein Ding wo mann ein Buch aufstellt..' to the shop keeper!

Where are you from in UK? Do you get to go back often? When my 2 were small, before school age it wa sgreat to just go anytime but now we're stuck with school holidays.

Oh westvan, I know and I hope ds won't get into trouble but I need to go and left it so late we couldn't even get tickets on the day before term starts. I'm inclined to go for the sick note afterwards rather than ask up front, is that evil?

Hi Admylin! I'm from Wales and don't get to go back that often (I'm loathe to put my dog in kennels) but had a weekend in London two years ago that felt like taking a long drink of water on a hot day!

I hate der, die and das. Was doing nomativ, accusativ and dativ personalpronomen in my german lesson yesterday and genuinely felt like crying! My DS greets strangers with the line 'Das ist meine mutter, sie is englisch' with withering undertones. It's my fault for watching too much British telly; I s'pose I should be watching more German stuff...

I remember sitting through those German lessons too - I did Volkshochschule, evening courses up to Kleine Sprachdiplom level - don't know how I managed to get through that far because I only ever guessed the endings and declinations

LOL at the withering undertones Welcome to the thread Frosch. How nice to have some new people on here. Prenatal care is great in Germany, isn't it? (Mind you I haven't anything to compare it with since I haven't had dc elsewhere).

Ml when dd had an infection like that, the doctor prescribed a camomile Sitzbad. I think you could even just make one with camomile tea and leave it to cool till it's tepid. The Sitzbad is probably more concentrated. She just had to sit in it (in a little baby bath or something like that) for a certain amount of time twice a day and it brought instant relief.

I would go with the sick note admylin (although they will know anyway) because if you ask for permission and they refuse, what do you do?

Mmelindt, has she had anything like that before? Dd had a bladder infection last time we were in UK (which was ages ago so she was maybe 7, nearly 8) and she wasn't even in so much pain but had to have antibiotics. The doctor even said it should be checked over with a proper scan too so if it doesn't clear up maybe you should get her checked?

ZZzen either the sick note or we missed the plane? I hate doing it like this and hope ds won't get trouble. dd goes back on the 20th so she's OK, wonder why they have different starting days between primary and gymnasium? I mailed you a short note too by the way ZZZen.

yes admylin see what you mean about the infection. My dd was only in pain when she had to wee but not otherwise ML. Maybe you'd best see a doctor, be on the safe side.

Admylin, I've just read your mail. For the moment I think do/say nothing, I'll have a think today and write back tonight.

OK thanks ZZZen.

Isn't the exchange rate crazy at the moment? Well, actually it's good for us with Euro. Ds was counting his cents last night and then we put up the exchange rate on a currency website and he is in luck! They both still have dollars left from their aunty in Texas so that will go as pocket money for Easter too.

Welcome Frosch. How long have you got to go before your dd puts in an appearance?

admylin - I´d go with the sick note. Alternatively could you tell ds´s school you´d looked at dd´s return date when you booked the flight and assumed they were the same. You´ve now realised your mistake and have tried to change the booking, but there are no flights left. Depending on the school they might give you the benefit of the doubt. However, I think I´d still stick with a sick note if you can get one.

MmeLindt - if it´s so painful it might be worth getting antibiotics. I´ve only had an urinary infection once and was in agony, but the antibiotics kicked in really quickly once I started taking them. She could try drinking cranberry juice if you get get hold of some -that really helps as well.

Hmm, a sick note sounds good. They probably won't even make a fuss.

Mme Lindt,

my grandmother's brother was a priest in Fladungen, in the 30ties I think. My mother spent an entire summer there one year because she wasn't very well and "Luftveraenderung" was meant to get her better. If your husband's family were practising catholics they probably attended my great uncles services.

I was going to suggest cranberry juice as well. Some compound in cranberries prevents bacteria sticking to the urinary tract surface. Has to be sugar free, though.

Look for JUS DE CANNEBERGES mmelindt but she might not like the taste of it! Dd wouldn't drink it when she had her infection so I just made sure she always had a bottle of something to drink and kept reminding her every time she ran past me!

Hi Hupa - nine weeks to go and I can't wait. I've got this Anti E thing which means bi-monthly blood tests and I've just come back from the klinikum covered in plasters in random areas because my veins decided to disappear. DS will be happy 'cos he loves to rip the plasters off and he'll have more to go at today...

Never heard about using cranberry juice before for that. Good to know.

Only 9 weeks, goodness really not long left Frosch. The weather should be nice and springlike by then, will be a nice time of the year to wheel your baby around.

The weather is just fab; I've seen a kingfisher and two jays this morning, so nice after 10 days of pouring rain....

How do you like living in Leverkusen? Is that where your dh is from originally Frosch?

In 9 weeks it'll be the perfect time weather wise. Ds is a May child and it was lovely mild warm weather when he was born but then summer came along and it was so hot I fled to UK to get cooler weather! Came back in September when it had cooled down abit.

how are you feeling today admylin?

Dd was an autumn baby.

well like your dd I suppose admylin, they were born around the same time of the year. It is nice for them to be a bit older by the time the harsh German winter sets in. What with the contrast between the warm heated indoors and very cold outdoors, they get sick so often.

True, dd and I were really ill just after she was born - the hospital where I had dd was freezing cold but during giving birth I was really hot so the nurse threw open the big high up windows and then went and left me, just coming back in as dd was born - then they left me laying on the bed half naked, windows open early on a cold October morning for what seemed like ages. I went home with one of the worst Lungenentzundung I ever had. Dd thought coughing was a form of communication as a new born!

The town centre is a bit souless but there are lots of lovely gardens and parks; the locals are friendly and curious and like to practice their English (and frequently remark on my lack of warm clothing during mid-winter).

Yes, DH is a Leverkusener; what about you everyone else? Are you married to locals or in Germany temporarily because of work or whatever?

OMG that sounds very drastic. Whatever were they leaving the windows wide open for?

My midwife was forever going on at me (during those postnatal home visits) that I had dd indoors with NO HAT ON!!

I met my h here in Germany but he isn't German and he's been trying to get a research job in UK for years now. I'm on the verge of going back with the dc as I'm homesick and he can catch up with us later.

I think if I had some sort of future as in job prospects here I would try harder but I keep coming up against so many hurdles and think it would be so much easier back home. I do worry about all the credit crunch like news I read though. Might be better to hang on in Germany. We had a guest to dinner last night and he was 100% sure Germany wouldn't be as bad as UK in this finacial crisis.

Dd is the only German in our family Frosch since she has a German passport in her collection. We're plain Ausländer