Sommer, Sonne und Hitze - living in Germany thread

[admylin]

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

Summer is here at last, now we can complain about it being too hot - when it isn't raining!

oh i didnt even look at the roast beef meals - just the thought of frozen roast beef makes me a bit yuck! i had a nice chat too with a german pensioner who asked me what the blackcurrant squash was! then i made a fool of myself by calling beans "birnen" !!!!! Bohnen isnt a word i often use in german!!! think i really need to carry on those lessons!

geekgirl - sorry my dd and her friends are a bit young for your dd - dd's not quite 9 yet and is really unreliable at writing letters to people she knows! sorry!

admylin - can i enforce Ruhezeit in our house - can you tell ds2 that!! i'd have a nap every day if i lived in your building! love it!

geekgirl - I don't know if DD1 would be a bit young for your DD (she's 8.5), but she'd be happy to write to her. We got involved in the MN postcard exchange and she really enjoys writing postcards to other children, but I'm not sure whether her writing skills are up to writing very long letters (though her German is obviously fluent, as we live in Austria, and her written German is better than her written English). I won't be offended if you decide to take up a better offer, but the offer is there!

admylin - I could do with some Ruhezeit here! DD2 and DS are both overtired as they spent the night at a friend's; we now have her two DC over, who also seem overtired... a recipe for quarrelling, crying and general noisiness.

Oh well, I can hardly complain after my easy day yesterday - a classmate of DD1's came for an English lesson at 9 am and didn't leave until 7 pm. DD2 and DS were both out all day and I hardly saw anything of DD1 and her friend - I actually managed to get some work done, which I wasn't expecting at all.

DD1 stayed up with DH yesterday to watch the football - she has decided that Spain is "her" team as she has a Spanish football T-shirt, so was very happy that they won! Thanks to her late night, she had a lie in until 9 am so I was able to finish off my last translation this morning before the other two got back.

Morning Germany!

Can anyone out there help? KiGa want DS1 to bring Badeklapperl to a school trip on Tuesday. Thing is, my dictionaries plus all my German friends don't know what this is!!

Whatever it is, I have to get it today before everything shuts tomorrow. DH has the car on Monday.

Do you think it might be Crocs or sommat? I think he's going to a stream.

Are you sure it says "klapperl" not "kapperl"? If it is the latter then I assume its a cap for swimming. I don't know a proper English word for it. I didn't know they still make people wear them in a pool. I hated them as a child when they were still compulsory in most public pools.

Oh, no wait. I googled and supposedly we Bavarians call Sandals with wooden soles "Klapperl". Not in the part of Bavaria I come, we don't.
Makes a lot more sense in the context though. I think Crocs would be fine.

Yes, Badeklapperl are any kind of shoes/sandals you could wear to go paddling in (they're usually waterproof or at least the kind where it doesn't matter if they get wet) so crocs should be fine.

Every Austrian seems to have a pair of Klapperl (the wooden sandals that Gracelo mentioned) that they put on to go out into the garden - they always remind me of the kind of shoes my mum used to wear in the 1970s!

I'm pretty sure it said 'Klapperl'. All the notices are handwritten in KiGa which doubles the effort for me!

It's got to be swimming sandals, hasn't it, if he's possibly going to the paddling stream.

You can learn a new word every day however long you've been in Germany - Klapperl, that is a new one!

Horrible few days ahead of me, got keys to new flat and now it's empty all the horrors of hidden corners are coming to light. Had to strip ds's bedroom yesterday and now have to hire someone to paper as there is no way I can do it. Painted dd's room and half of mine in 38 degreees but it isn't going to get any cooler so just have to get on with it.

There are patched places in 3 of the rooms where someone in the past has papered over something (can only imagine it must be damp spots) but it looks crap so will have to have something standing in front of it.

The bath tub is so scratched and un-cleanable that I am going to have to get the owner on the phone on Monday and get her to replace it. As usual, it's my fault for not looking more closely at the besichtigung but we wouldn't have found anything since then in our price range anyway so we practicalyl had to take this place. We move in on Friday

oh admylin - what a lot of stress and in this heat!!! my heart goes out to you!

this heat is unbearable at the mo - every day is as hot as the one before! and they keep giving weather warnings for Gewitter but none appears! i would love a good thunder to clear the air!

off to go in cold shower!

hope you get some luck with the owner admylin!

Hi everyone! Wow, I feel like it's been months instead of only 3 weeks since I've been here. So much to write but I hate typing on this laptop. The weather has turned beautiful so we've been spending a lot of time at Vanouver's parks and beaches. Next Sunday we're going to head down to Wahington State and Oregon in the U.S. and do some camping. My parents, 74 and 81, are causing my two brothers and me a fair amount of stress as they seem to have no plan for their future and refuse to sort out any kind of financial or care details, thinking that things will just take care of themselves. Arghh. I'm really reluctant to leave things as they are. One brother lives in their house in his own apartment but is threatening to move to the East Coast and the other brother lives in Ottawa with his family, about a five hour plane ride. It's so dfficult for us to find the the time to Skype when I'm in Germany.

Hope you're all surviving the heat. I know I'd just be in a puddle if I were there now!

Good to hear from you westvan. Sounds like stress with your parents though, it must be a worry. How fit are they?

My parents are in a similar situation in that they live in a huge house and sleep up on the 3rd floor for some reason. No idea why they won't sell up now while they are still fit and move into somewhere smaller and more managable. Do they have a system in Canada for helping old people in their homes?

Are you enjoying all the long missed home food?

We move on Friday, packing last few things today then 2 days painting (with a helper who we have employed to paper and paint).

Hi admylin! I was so sorry to hear about the mum of ds' friend. What a sad situation. Would they be entitled to a Haushaltshilfe until the dad gets back on his feet again?

My parents aren't all that fit and the bedrooms are upstairs so it can be a struggle but they're so reluctant to leave the house and I think they'd go crazy in a smaller place. My mum loves gardening and dad putters around in the garage and workshop and I think that's what keeps them going. There are services to help seniors but they are being so stubborn at the moment and refuse to do anything.

We've been eating lots of sushi and lovely fresh berries from roadside stands and
the seafood here is wonderful too. I'm trying not to gain weight!

Good luck with the move. I hope everything goes smoothly and that the temperature goes down a bit for you. I can't believe it's been so hot in Hannover, hasn't been like that for several years.

Do any of you have a good rechtschutz? I'm looking for one. The house owner of our new flat is turning out to be a monster.

Man papered ds's room today - it took him 8 hours and the heat was unbearable - tomorrow we paint then Friday is move day and I don't want to go through with it but we have to. Why do things like this happen to us, we must attract it.

Hi from Austria. I never noticed this topic before! I've been living in Vienna for about 2 years and previously lived in a smallish town in Steiermark. DP is from Lower Austria (Weinviertel).

Nice to see other posters in Austria and Germany

Admylin - are you members of the Mieterbund? They can help with rental problems and such. I don't think it costs very much to join up. Sorry they're giving you trouble right from the start. And I'm glad someone else was wallpapering dd's room and not you. I can remember doing that in our house and it was horrible even though the weather was cooler.

Just keep breathing and telling yourself that everything will be fine.

We had lunch with my 94 yr old godfather and his wife today. Every time I see him I fear it will be the last but he just keeps on going. Such a sweet old man.

Hi proudfoot - welcome to the thread!

Hi proudfoot!! Welcome to the thread!!

Happy moving day admylin!! Hope it all goes ok!!

This thread has been quiet while I was away - have you all been out enjoying the sun?

I'm sure you've been very busy with your move admylin; I hope it all went well. Sorry to hear about the problems you've been having with the owner of your flat - the Mieterschutzverband here was v. helpful when the owner of the house we were renting went bankrupt (although they couldn't help us get our deposit back as Mietrecht doesn't apply to terraced houses for some reason).

Hi proudfoot, nice to see someone else from Austria here! We live in Lower Austria but not far from Vienna, where DH works (he's from Upper Austria). How do you like living here?

Hi, very qiuet here - holiday season I guess!

I have had one of the toughest moves ever (and I have quite abit of experience) but I think it was down to the extreme heat and the fact that the removal firm sent us one man and a trainee who must have been under 18, they nearly died in the heat and took them ages to move everything.

Trainee dropped a big box full of lego bionicle pieces in the stairs, scattered every where, we'll never find all the bits and ds had been so careful with it all since he's had it.

He then dropped a basket with all my spice jars (glass) and a few other kitchen items, only one thing broke though - and the basket.

Oh, and he scratched a big long scrath in the wooden floor of old flat pushing a heavy wooden shelf.

We moved on Friday and I'm still unpacking and I have pain everywhere, and bruises all over me. Still, it'll pass won't it!

Oh and welcome proudfoot and how was the holiday Linzer? Was it relaxing?

The holiday was lovely thanks, admylin - a bit too hot for my liking, but at least we could cool off in the pool or sea. It was much more relaxing than I'd been expecting and I even had to buy another book as I'd finished the four or five I'd taken with me - it would normally take me a year or more to read that much!

It must have been awful to move in this heat; you must be relieved to have it out of the way now. It always take me weeks to unpack; I'm sure half the boxes could go missing and I wouldn't miss whatever's in them.

The letter from DD2's new teacher was waiting for us when we got back from our holiday (she starts school in September), complete with the usual long list of things she needs. I counted 47 different items so I dread to think how long it will take me to do the labelling (each felt tip, coloured pencil etc needs to be labelled individually).

It's DS's birthday on Saturday and he has announced he wants a pirate cake - DH has ambitiously accepted the challenge (rather him than me). We're keeping our fingers crossed that his main present (a bed with a slide) will arrive in time - we actually picked it up a few weeks ago, but it had to go back because some of the parts were missing.

admylin - glad you survived the move (even if some stuff didnt!)! i was really thinking of you last week - it was so hot - i was sweating doing nothing so the thought of having to carry all that stuff! but at least your there now - it took us nearly a year to unpack every box!! so no pressure for you!

linzer - glad you enjoyed your hols! how did the birthday party go? A friends little girl here is also going to school in september - she said there was one and a half sides of A4 paper full of stuff they were to bring with them!! i need to start getting dd's stuff for next year - cant believe she's going into the 4th class - there's talk of gymnasium etc already!! going to try not to put any pressure on her - what will be will be!

so not been on here so much - my sister is here for a 10 day holiday (a bit too long for us to be together!!!) but we've had a nice time! apart from fri when it peed down the whole day the weather has been good so we've been out seeing everything! had a lovely day yesterday at a great fest! might go back tonight - theres a big firework display! but going to the IL's with her today - they live in a lovely city and my sister's never been so going to let my MIL do the cooking and then we'll have a nice city tour!

what are you all up too?

Hi, anyone in Munich know of anywhere cheap to stay either near the airport or Hauptbahnhof? Our car is playing up so we have to travel bu train from the airport and arriving from the UK at 9 pm means that the connecting trains would get us home at about 4 in the morning with numerous changes and a bus trip too. So the only answer is to stop for the night but the prices are so high as there are 5 of us and we'll also have mil with us too.I'll also post this in the travel section. We don't mind a hostel if it's geared for families,as long as it's cheap!

Sorry deb, no idea about Munich and places to stay. Linzertorte used a good website once which I can't remember but she might be around!

Atlast someone is coming to help me fit the flooring in my bedroom tomorrow so I can build my wardrobe and bed and get back to unpacking. I'm stuck at the moment because I need the big wardrobe, it's a huge one and is use dto store lots of stuff, not just our clothes.

He'll also be putting the lights up in the bathroom - we've been using a lamp plugged into the shaver plug. It bugs me everytime I have to move and every lght fitting has been removed.

For those of you with the long school lists, look forward a few years and the dc will just go with their lists and get it all themselves, you'll just have to fork out the cash!

I've ordered the excercise books on amazon and then any writing books and paper they need they will go into the shops after school and pick up themselves. It's nice to have moved closer to all that now so the dc can be independant.