**German Chat**everyone welcome* - macht es euch gemütlich

[ZZZen]

reden wir weiter...

busy busy bee so not mich time for MN - wasnt "on" any convos so it must be a few days since i've been here!

just wanted to say you were all right - playmobil land rocks!!! it was a great day out for kids!! they didnt even notice there were no rides! ds's are just asking for playmobil stuff for there birthday - that makes life easy!!

dd's birthday today so off now to ice her chocolate cake! she's only having 3 friends round - think i can cope with that!

Got the house back, my parents left this morning. It does get wearying having folk around all the time, even ones as easy going and helpful as my parents. I will miss my Mum doing the ironing for me.

Still, can't get too used to being without guests, we have the next lot coming on Sunday for a few days, then a week until DH's colleague (might) come for 2 nights (Tues to Thurs) then finally friends arrive on that Friday for 4 days.

By which time the school hols will at least be over.

Zzzen
I am not really overweight, just not at the weight I would like ot be. I am on the top end of a size 14, and would like to be a comfortabel size 12. The relief of not having to watch my weight for getting into the bridesmaids dress took its toll, I have put on 3kg since the wedding. What a daft bint.

I am now at the point that I will give it one last proper go, this time for me, not for DH or the bridesmaids dress. Because I want to fit into my old clothes again and look good in a bikini.

How is the Swine Flu panic in Germany? I have hardly heard anyone mention it here.

You are having a lot of guests mmelindt, but that's what you get when you live in a place like Geneva! Who doesn't want to stop over for a few days, I'd like to! In Berlin we got more visitors than when we lived in the south as so many people want to visit Berlin, we had loads signed up to visit then we moved to sleepy old Hannover!

Trying to decide, should we go to the opening of the Maschseefest tonight or will it be too crowded? I have a fear of big crowds since the incident at the Hauptbahnhof opening in Berlin with the knife attack.

Hi Admylin,

got your mail, will reply in a mo.

I would go to the Maschseefest on an afternoon, it is really busy in the evening. Or go around the See away from the main crazy bit, down towards Laatzen. Should be quieter down there.

Hello all, just dropping by for the first time in ages, as work and school have been very busy recently.
thank god the holidays have finally started! ! !
6 weeks break for the parents :-)

We got 1 reasonable Zeugnis (she is transferring from teh HS to the M-Zug, which is a sort of HS for people who want a future, you can do the Mittlerreife), 1 fair Zeugnis, and 1 totally awful one.

Had to change dd2's KiGa, as we learned on the last but one day of the year, that they are moving outside the town during the summer hols. Yes, they hadn't even bothered to send out a Zettel, cos everyone knew....
f*g cliquey private KiGas, f**g identikit blondino pushy mums of PFBs

We have an awful Shall-I-stay-or-shall-I-go dilemma here. 2 of my children want stability and continuity, the other 2 want to go back to the UK "where other people talk like us."
I have got a sniff of a fab job in SE England. My max mortgage on the salary offered, would be 180000. I just googled 3 bed houses in the same town, and found very little under 200000, and nothing that I actually wanted to live in. Same old story really, sigh.

Admylin, did your children miss Germany, even though they had had such a bad time in teh school? how are they looking forward to the next school year?

Maninadirndl, do drop me a line on t a u p e m a y a t y a h o o do t c o m.

Nighbynight, my dc didn't miss Germany at first but they slowly started to realise that living in the UK isn't the dream they thought it would be. Apart from trying to get atleast one packet of crisps a day and some of the sweets are better tasting there was nothing about our life that was better and they admitted to missing dad!

There are grumpy, non-child friendly old bats in UK too (ie. a few of the neighbours!). What shocked me was the cost of living, I didn't see the hidden extras when I was there on holiday. I would have been working 2 jobs just to pay bills. Council tax on top of rent would have meant I couldn't afford anything but a tiny flat. The national park idea is great but if you live in one it costs you extra and then they allow wealthy city dwellers to buy holiday homes, pushing prices up and leaving nothing for young locals to buy or rent affordably. I could go on but the UK has been messed up lots as far as I can see and it'll take a long time to put right.

A lot of our 'problems' in Germany were my fault and my negative vibes passed on to the dc. I realise that now. One example is how much the dc love France and can't wait to learn French only because I used to live there and always talked about it in a positive way. If I had talked about Germany and German language in such a positive way they would have been happier. It is hard not to critisise in front of them but I have to try and make it all seem positive and encourage them more, then I'm fairly sure they will be OK with the whole school and living in Germany thing!

Nighby
at the kindergarten. How ridiculous.

Aren't the house prices coming down in UK yet? Friends here bought a house and got it for eu 100,000 under asking price (500 grand instead of 600).

Admylin
Good to hear that you are keeping up the positive thinking. Any news on the housing front?

No news on teh flat/hous ehunting but we are going to register the dc at a school tomorrow and then start looking near there.

Last night dh said should we just send in the Kündigung for the flat we're in and I thought about it too as it's such a pain having to pay double rent for 2 months and we do need to find somewhere quickly but then we left it as it's too much of a risk so now we missed the date which means whatever happens we have to keep this place until the end of November! Hope we find a Nachmieter I suppose.

I posted on your tv thread, Admylin.

You should be able to get a nachmieter for your flat ok. There will be students coming into the town soon and looking for flats.

Have you tried any of the Wohnungsgenossenschaften? No idea if they have them in Hannover or how long their waiting lists would be but you could put your name down.

That's true, September and October are perfect times for student Nachmieter! Thanks.

I looked at a few Wohngenossenschaft websites but some were asking for Wohnberechtigungschein and others just looked abit 'Plattenbau-ish'. I hope putting an advert in the paper and message boards in the area we want to move to will help. Westvan advise dme to write something like Akademiker Familie sucht...

Nothing new on Immobilienscout today anyway. Oh yes, there was one at the weekend, a Maisonette so we went to drive around the area before we took an appointment and it was over a Bestattung place so that was a no!

Lol at the Bestatterwohnung. At least you would know all the gossip of the area.

We found our house in Hannover on one of the boards in a supermarket, it was a but weird cause we phoned and the landlord did not know that the tenants were looking for a nachmieter. The landlord was absolutely darling, shame he only has one house. That was in Hemmingen

Hi,
the kiga thing is funny, really. I suspect that it's gone all round the town now, that that weird English mum, you know, the one whose dd is always brought and collected by an Au Pair, actually didn't know that the Kiga was moving.....it is Lass die Leute red'n round here (I am convinced that they wrote that song after they met my next door neighbour).

Admylin, how much I also identify with what you posted. I also feel that a lot of my children's worries are due to my own anxiety. But it did help when I got the ds's true level of German assessed, it was lower than I thought. If you drop me a line on the email address below, I will tell you about the tuition, not sure if it's helpful or not.
I don't know about England, I am appalled that house prices only seem to have come down about 10% where we used to live (SE England), and now they're talking about them going up again in a couple of years! The govt just doesn't care about ordinary people.
For the first time, I am considering staying in Germany and never going back. I will have to invest a LOT more effort in learning German though.

Morning, I'm up early today as we're going to register the dc at the Gymnasium, I still have a thing about rude secretaries so I hope this one will be in a good mood. The headmaster was jolly enough when I spoke to him on the phone.

It somehow seems abit unfair that in some parts of Germany you can't just do that, walk into a gymnasium and register your dc but in Niedersachsen the parents decide even if the dc don't have the grades.We'll give it a go, I reckon it's harder to get up into Gymnasium if I start them at Realschule so I might as well start at the top.

I'll email you later NighbyNight. It is really sad about UK, I remember the UK of the 80's and early 90's but things have just got out of hand. I wanted to help out at primary school back in UK but you need a police check thing which takes weeks and costs you money. Everything runs around health and safety and everything seems to cost a fortune. Used to say to dh if he gets a job in UK we could try it but he'd have to be on a much higher wage than your average postdoc so only senior scientist jobs or lecturer positions to be considered now.

Morning, I'm supposed to be cleaning the house this morning for the next lot of guests who are arriving on Thursday.

Last week I had my sister and family staying here which was nice. They are always very impressed with our way of life here and think that it is on the whole a much child-friendlier place to grow up. Of course, they only see the best bits and don't have the school system to contend with but it does help me to appreciate the good stuff!

Admylin, are you enrolling them at a different Gymnasium this time?

not getting MN time - Kiga is closed for their 2 week summer holiday but dh couldnt get these 2 weeks off so i'm home alone in the day being a proper mummy!! but not much "me" time which is making me grumpy by the eve! not got dd though - she's on hols with oma and opa for a week!!

she got a great Zeugnis for the fact she's only been at school here since end of March! "sehr gut" for all the important stuff but a "3" (i cant remember the word - begins with a b" for art and sport!! not bothered with that!

then we drove straight after school finished to my dh's brothers wedding in Burghausen on the austrian border - was a lovely weekend but felt strange that we'd driven so far but we were still in Bayern - just felt like a completely different Bayern to our little bit! went to austria for 10 mins to get petrol - this seems weird to me - when we lived in the UK austria would have been very far away!

but we're going back there in 10 days time for our summer holiday - staying somewhere called Ramsau am Dachstein (i think!). does anyone know it?

admylin - you sound so much more postive about living in germany now! the grass really wasnt greener in the UK! hope the kids settle back in quickly!

nighbynight - glad its not just my Kiga that has the pushy mothers -not all blonde here though! i say "guten morgan" to them and you'd think i had 3 heads! think i've only seen 1 or 2 who are friendly! hope you get a new kiga sorted out soon!

Hiya, after a long self created depression I am starting to resurface here!

I re-emerge with an interest in Asian food thanks to Rick Stein's programmes and a huge amount of running and fitness. I'm passionate about Thai cookery at the moment.

I am full of hints on how to pull oneself out of the blues so I am yer man here ladies!

Admylin hope life is more stable now!

Hi maninadirndl, how about we all try to keep up the positive thinking and when you notice me complaining too much - tell me off! So how did you pull yourself out of it this time?

I'm setting off in half an hour to dd's Einschulung in 5. Klasse, her brother is already there since yesterday and although it is a Gymnasium, I was so pleased to see alot of foreign looking dc, so unlike his last school. Still no luck on the house/flat front and I'm wondering if many people will be moving at the moment? I mean what with the current job situation and such like maybe everyone will be staying put and we'll have to wait ages until a decent place comes up. I am abit impatient though so I suppose we've only been back 3 weeks!

I put an ad in the Gemeindeblatt of the area we want to move to for next week. If it doesn't work we might have to re-word it somehow.

Never been to Austria Canella, always fancied visiting Vienna for some reason. Nearest I ever got to the border was Algaeu, nice healthy wanderungen and hills and lakes and brown cows with bells round their necks!

admylin - cant believe the kids in our area are going back to school already! seems mad when dd only finished last friday!
but pleased your getting the kids settled in - i'm sure the right house will be somewhere for you! in scotland people would say "whats for you will not go by you" kind of like whats meant to be is meant to be but in a positive way! (see i'm keeping up the positive thinking for you!!!

maninadirndl - glad you've come back from the depths!! i'm annoyingly naturally cheery so not needing your tips at the mo!! my love of asian food has never gone so i'll take any tips you've got about that!

Austria is lovely. It is subtely different from Germany, more like a sort of German speaking France. Accent can be hard to understand though! Last weekend we were at the private zoo at Ebbs, and visited St Niklaus church and waterfall nearby.
We went to Vienna for a day a couple of months ago, it was very impressive.

I too had to read admylin's post twice, as we are also just relaxing in the first week of the holidays!

Well, what a difference a school makes! Talk about different worlds! This Gymnasium is so nice and everyone was so friendly compared to the one ds used to go to. And such a mixture of cultures too unklike the sea of blonde headed dc at the other place. Ds happy in his class, one boy was born in UK and he brought his dad in to introduce him to ds today! Dd has her old best friend in the same class and we didn't even know she was going to that school and hadn't managed to get in touch since we got back so that was a huge surprise.

OK, now we just need a nice house, affordable with garden and not too far for them to get to school (on the bus route would do, did you know they get free monthly bus tickets if they don't live right in catchment area? In UK you have to pay if you choose a school out of catchment area) well, I'll settle for a large flat I guess.

I like Thai style food too, dh likes his traditional style north Indian but I find it a bit boring after a while because it's basically just the same spice mixtures, add ginger and garlic then the main part, veg or meat, cooked for ages to reduce the gravy to a thick curry sauce. I'm having rissotto tonight anyway.

Great to hear that the DC are enjoying the new school, Admylin. Hope something turns up soon on the house/flat front. Still, you are sounding happier than you have done for a long time, despite the small flat.

Canella
Well done to DD for the report.

We are almost at the end of our school hols Gott sei Dank. They are startign to get a bit fed up. And I am fed up with the constant stream of visitors. I am going to speak to DH tonight, I feel we have to selfimpose a ban on more visitors than once a month or something. We are our own worst enemies, when someone mentions coming to Geneva, we always say yes, DH even offered his colleague when she could have stayed in a hotel. She arrives tomorrow, leaves on Thursday and the next guests arrive on Friday till Tuesday. DH's sister might visit on their way home from France the Tues/Wed that the weekend guests leave

I don't think DH realises how much work and effort it is.

Sorry, did not mean to moan moan moan. Bit fed up today. I have a cold again and it is getting me down.

Hi again. You do sound as if you have alot of visitors mmelindt. Does your dh not get fed up of it either? We don't hav ethat problem now as there is no way we could invite anyone in the one bedroom flat we're in!

Still no house or flat in sight. I phoned for one yesterday and got a viewing appointment on Friday but although it's big (128m²) it's Dachgeschoss and when I drove past it yesterday it really did look as if it was all under the roof and on a busy road so not sure now. It's hard to tell just by seeing one side of the house but doesn't look that great.

ooer, dachgeschosswohnungen - is that not neighbours underneath constantly complaining about your children's feet pounding across the floor?

Better to be on the top than underneath

We had a Dachgeschosswohnung, in Wü. Was great, no neighbours dancing about above us.

You are right Nighbynight, there could be problems with the pounding feet coming from our flat! Anyway, we drove past it yesterday and I'm going to cancel the appointment because it's on a busy road and the house looks as if it might be pulled down soon anyway! Not nice, so we'll keep waiting. Our ad is in the local Wochenblatt paper today too so we might be lucky.

Dd still skipping into school happily as her best friend is with her and the rest of the class is nice. She's stressing abit about doing the work and spellings but she's a perfectionist who unfortunately can't spell so she'll just have to practise and we have to be chilled about it so she doesn't stress.
Ds has made friends and has been initiated into the joys of Yu-Gi-Ho card playing so he's bought himself a starter pack so he can join in and some boys gave him some of their spare cards too.

Mmelindt, my first flat in Germany was a Dachgeschoss and it was so cosy and nice but I can't imagine it now with shopping for a family of 4 to drag up the stairs and the rising heat in summer did make it very hot. I want a house to myself really but that'll be hard to get around here unless we get a pay rise!