Endlich Fruehlingszeit in the German Corner

[admylin]

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

Thank goodness it's over at long last! That was a long winter. Welcome Spring!

Thanks westvan, Hameln is a good idea as dd went there on her last school trip and she would love to go back. Especially to replace the little mouse figure (well, it was a rat probably) that she bought me with her pocket money as I dropped it recently.

Steinhudermeer is also a good idea, our only British friend here keeps going on about how great it is there - trouble is I come from the lake district so lakes don't do much for me! Still, if it keeps dh away from his lab then why not.

abroadandmisunderstood, yes keep coming to talk to us, the winter was long and hard but now Spring is here you can get out and about. Most importantly think about how cheap wine is here in Deutschland...there's never any excuse not to have plenty in the house and wine always helps wash away the blues.

Ernest I was thinking - your dd is maybe crying in the night because she's experiencing so much during the day at Kita. She's still small and they have to take alot in during the day which sometimes gets bearbeitet at night resulting in crying and waking up.

Is she in a mixed age group? Ds was in a mixed age group when he was 4 and 5 and I remember the smallest ones all used to wake up crying and then one mother always coming in and saying david is scared of the older dc (ie ds and his friend) so maybe they shouldn't play cowboys and indians - then she got them to stop knights in armour games, starwars games and anything to do with bionicles (which both ds and his friend loved). In the end they removed all toys except wooden bricks and crayons and a dolls house so ds hated kindergarten from then on. Not saying you should do that but it could be a reason for your dd waking at night.

morning all!! no german lesson today so have got some nice peace and quiet with just me and dd!! hope the weather holds so we can get out on our bikes for the first time this year!

Ernest - i heard it was snowing in the UK - will not be impressed if it heads this way! it really needs to be the end of winter now!

Abroad - i'm sorry to hear your so fed up with life - am i right that you're in Austria? the winter was long and hard but hopefully the spring flowers and warmer temps will cheer you up a bit! and keep coming on here to moan - i'm sure admylin would tell you it helped her loads last year with her decisions about being here or in the UK!

My MN is playing up - it wont let me type big posts!!! so this is part 2!

Nighbynight - well done to your dd about her U9! i've forgotten how old she is - sorry! we're def not sending ds1 this year (he'll be 6 in Oct) and it turns out that quite a few of the kids in the village arent going although he's the only "kann kind" - the rest are just not ready.

Westvan - hope you feel better soon altho it looks like the docs are taking good care of you and getting the investigations going!

Admylin - loved the rational to staying in germany - the wine is cheap!! but it is so true! i'm constantly amazed at how little i have to pay for wine but am trying to not drink so much at the mo!

abroad, that doesn't sound good does your dh feel the same. The winters are long that's for sure. Enjoy your holiday with your db. Forgive me if I've got it wrong, but you're just the other side of Munich to me, with a ds just a little bit older than my dd? MAybe we could meet up, either yours, mine or in town?

Ad & Ab aww thanks for thinking of me. Dd actually slept through the night last night! All the way till 7.15! I actually got a full, undesturbed 8 hours without having to get up for another crying child (this is sod's law for me inthis house - dd actually sleeps, so then anpther one wakes up crying just to keep me on my toes, grr) but no, no kids waking, no need for a wee, nothing. Bliss. I honestly can't remember the last time. Feels weird.

I think her sleeping is in general improving a lot. The waking up at 3, well I can say she had a longish nap (2.5 hours) but that was 11.45 till 2.15 the day before, so shouldn't have had that much of an impact, but I will be careful to limit her daytime sleep in future.....

In the Krippe, they are all mx 2.11 (ish) as soon as they get near 3 they start in the Kindergarten, so I don't think she has problems from the bigger ones. Plus having 3 big brothers she is, erm, how do I say nicely? Assertive

Sorry for your ds in his Kindergarten - banning anything fun for the older kids is more than a bit crap. Poor ds, no wonder he hated it if he wasn't allowed to play Bonkers.

Good to hear you got a full nights sleep ernest. You'll feel like a new woman I bet! Sleep deprivation is awful.

Canella, it amazes me too when i see the price of beer and wine over here compared with back home. Sometimes I buy mineral water that costs nearly as much as the cheap beer!

I'm going shopping today, scared already of the mad rush as we have 3 Feiertage coming up so everyone will be buying in bulk. I only need water and a few basics like rice and flour. Also get to shop for some baby clothes as we have a new nephew in the family. I love an excuse to buy baby clothes as they are so cute. On the other hand we had a useless wasted trip for dc shoes and clothes yesterday. I'm going on line later to order them some stuff as we never get what we want in the shops.

Aberita, I think I need to join your flying thread, I have lists but I never get through them, might be encouraging to see other lists and make me try harder to get everything done.

Off to wake my dc up, they are still asleep!

I think we're entering the teenage era. There's a light at the end of the tunnel for you ernest, as teenagers you'll be trying to get them out of bed most days!

only 10 years or so till I get a lie in then - can't wait

The boys are good sleepers.

Remind me to tire them out today please......

wow ernest a full nights sleep!! bet its a long time since you had one of those! my ds2 was always a crap sleeper but since turning 3 its just been getting better! bribing him with sweeties always seems to solve his problems! he's got staying in bed sweets & toilet sweets going on at the moment!! this probably puts me in the crap parent category but after all these years if it works i couldnt care less!!!

off to the IL's this pm - they've volunteered to have ds2 till sat so i'm obviously happy to take him and drop him off!! imagine 3 days of no fighting!! heaven!

Morning all,

Glad to hear you got a better night's sleep Ernest, it certainly sounded like you needed it. It's always the way though, isn't it - if it's not one waking up, it's the other. Everyone slept much better last night here too; I lay in bed for a while this morning listening to some Radio 4 podcasts as I didn't want to wake the DC by getting up!

The price of wine is definitely something that would put me off moving back to the UK - and I'm only half-joking... We've discovered some nice wine at Lidl and stocked up on about 20 bottles when it was on offer recently (less than 2 euros a bottle). The thought of a glass of wine in the evening is sometimes the only thing that keeps me going through a difficult day.

You'd be very welcome to join the flying thread admylin - it's really helped me, and everyone on it is very encouraging. I'm still struggling to get everything on my list done most days, but the thought of having to post that I actually haven't done anything at all is very motivating! There's usually just as much chatting as flying going on too.

Lucky you canella - am I right in thinking you have three as well? I find it so much easier when I just have two of them, but put all three together and an argument is guaranteed to start within 5 minutes.

Well, shopping done, wasn't too bad in the supermarket but we went in a clothes shop where there was a sale on and it was crazy, women crowding around the sale baskets and buying arm loads of stuff - I only wante da baby outfit which wasn't in the sale but it took us half an hour to get out of there!

Just ordered shoes, reeboks and converse for the dc and still need to find some nice choice websites for clothes. I get fed up of otto and neckerman somehow. Where do you all order online?

Aberita, there are some nice wines at Lidl! Dh sometimes goes mad and buys really expensive bottles of wine that taste awful (or not to our taste anyway) and he has to admit that some of the 2 euro bottles are much better.

I hardly ever buy clothes online although it would make sense, as shopping is so stressful with the DC around - I have to rely on DH to distract them and vice versa. I did order some stuff from Otto recently though (for me and DC) as I had a voucher, and was really pleased with it. I've also ordered from Boden in the past, but it's very expensive for what it is and I've also gone off them a bit now - I'm a bit about a lot of their clothes. Otherwise, I tend to rely on H&M (not online) - but braving their shop on a Saturday is only for the masochistic.

I've only just found out that you're only supposed to eat green food on Gründonnerstag - MIL has just informed me they always have spinach. Not sure how that will go down with the DC... they used to eat everything, but have got very fussy recently. I also suspect that if we stay here much longer, the DC won't have any teeth left! PIL took DS to the doctor's this morning as he has a slight cough (ignore any sniffling or sneezing at your peril, as it's likely to turn into pneumonia) and came back with a big bag of Gummibärli as he'd been so good. This is in addition to all the sweets and chocolate that they've already had for Easter. Is Easter such a big thing in Germany present-wise as it is here? The DC really do NOT need any more toys; I'm constantly decluttering, but seemingly to no effect.

aberita, just make them pancakes with green food colouring

Ad, I order mostly from M&S

What are the sizes like ernest? On the big or the small side?

I think I could try and brave a trip to H&M too, they have nice stuff for dc.

On my 3rd cup of tea today, I have to drink more as I always forget so have made an effort to make and drink my cups of tea before they go cold.

Green pancakes, now that's an idea. I wonder if I could even get away with sneaking some spinach into them...

How much postage does M&S charge, Ernest? We sometimes go to the one in Bratislava, but it's more or less a day trip from here.

It cost 7.50 for dh's jumpers the last time we ordered. My 2 love the school uniform polo shirts and they are really cheap for 2 or 3 in a pack.

OMG, I heard the phrase Gründonnerstag, but I didnt know owt about it!
Green food eh....spinach lasagne perhaps?
We have had that frozen spinach that's advertised on the tv a few times, with various sauces. I really like it, but my younger children cant be persuaded.

dd2 is 7 in November, so almost exactly a year older than yours canella. We held her back last year too.
She'll go to the grundschule where the others went - I dont have the energy for another montessori parents marathon, especially after our experience of the nursery that didnt even bother to send a flyer out telling parents that they were moving outside the town, "because everyone has been talking about it, Frau Nighbynight"
The only annoying thing is, that dd is in line to get the same teacher that ds2 has got at the moment, who is also the same teacher who put ds1 down the year. She is v oldfashioned and thinks that repeating the year solves every problem (how about HELPING my son??)
I really cant stand the thought of a THIRD year of her! !

It can make such a difference can't it nighbynight, often depends on getting the right teacher for dc to settle. At the moment ds has a Klassenlehrerin who is very strict and old fashioned and everyone is so looking forward to going into Year 7 and being rid of her.

So what are you all doing over the feiertage?

Had an email back from a Makler, he's looking into places for us, that'll be near to 2000 already gone if he finds us a place.

we too paid a fortune to a mackler - sharks.

we are going to france on Friday for a few days, the boys are with their father so it is just the girls and I.
I will try to get dd1 practising for her german as a FL IGCSE. Her first GCSE - she's 13!

Oh well done, did you organise it all through an online thing? Where is the exam? Ds would manage his no problem too, dd would need to practise her spellings alot before she could attempt it.

Wow, a GCSE at 13! She'll probably sail through it with her German being fluent. Are IGCSEs the same standard as GCSEs? A friend of mine who teaches German in the UK said that the examining board isn't that bothered about spelling etc as long as the pupil gets his/her message across. Can't imagine it being the same here! DD1 also has a very strict teacher; she's in her 2nd year at the moment and this teacher is supposed to be even stricter in the 3rd and 4th years. Everyone says her pupils will have it easier when they move up to secondary school, though. DH's nephew is in his 4th year and apparently his teacher is starting to panic because she hasn't done enough with the children. I was to find out he's doing things like the 17 and 18 times tables, though!

It's good that the Makler has started looking for you, admylin - hope he finds you somewhere decent soon that makes you think he was worth the money!

I told DS (3) that it was Gründonnerstag tomorrow and he replied solemnly, "Yes, and we're only allowed to eat green things." How has it taken me nearly seven years of living in Austria to find this out? We have spinach and fried egg to look forward to tomorrow.

DD2 said to me earlier today, "Mum, you speak German very funny." Ten years of learning German, 11 living in Germany and Austria - and my German is still criticised by a 5 year old! I'm just waiting now for the DC to start correcting my mistakes.

Hmm, green day so I have some broccoli in the fridge -that's the green food and my dc love that strange German Waldmeister taste so they could have jelly!

Same here though, never heard of the tradition of eating green food!

My ds always corrects my endings when I have to write something in German. I can speak it fluently and if I mumble abit no one really notices the endings too much but in letters Akkusativ, Nominativ, den or dem is a mystery to me even after so many years. But, I can do Genetiv for some reason.

Now broccoli is something that my DC do like. I don't think MIL ever cooks it though - she doesn't really do vegetables, in fact. Just went into the kitchen to find the DC eating ham rolls (about an hour after breakfast) "because they won't be allowed to eat them tomorrow". That's another thing I'd forgotten about - no meat on Good Friday.

Mumbling is always my solution too, admylin. I'm OK on cases and endings as long as I know the gender of the noun, but that's not always the case. DH is the only one who corrects me atm but I get my own back by correcting him if he uses the Austrian gender as das Teller, das Monat etc just sound wrong to me. I also tend to get to the end of a sentence forgetting how I started it or what verb I need to use, but if I hesitate for long enough I find that people will usually finish it for me!

Here in Hessen lots of people eat Grüne Soße today. It´s basically 7 different herbs mixed together with schmand or creme fraiche or yoghurt and then served with Pellkartoffeln. It´s really delicious although each family has their own recipe and lots of people add hard boiled eggs which I find pretty revolting.

admylin - I hope the Makler can find you something. It must be really annoying paying out so much money just to find somewhere before you even start paying the rent.

nighbynight - have a great time in France.

I always think my German is pretty good although I do realise I still have my English accent. Last week at Kindergarten I had to explain to one of the children that her mum would be a few minutes late. She just looked at me, tipped her head to the side and said "Warum sprichst du so komisch?" You can always rely on children to be honest .