School differences, part 1

The cold from hell lingers on still, but at least I'm not having to take drugs to cope with it & my nose isn't as red and shiny as Bobo the clown's (thank you Kleenex Balsam)!

Today is the first day of the school autumn holidays, in England it would be called 'half-term' and be 1 week long. Here its 'Herbstferien' (autumn holidays) and is 2 weeks long, excessively long most parents would agree but this 1st term of the school year is a long one, we started back in the middle of August and run right up to Christmas Eve, so the children need a 2 week break, especially as they go to school so early in the morning - 1st lesson is usually at 0750, meaning they're leaving the house around 0715. Don't feel too sorry for them as they are home at lunchtime usually, German schools have a last lesson that ends at 1410, that's if they have a full timetable that day and if all the teachers are there...they have a very relaxed view to schooling structure when you consider how serious they are about so much else...

In England children start school at the age of 4, spending a year in reception class which is mostly play, then into year 1 where the learning starts (with a little roleplay thrown in). School usually starts at 900 and finishes around 1530, there's a lunch break in the middle of the day and usually the children are on the school grounds all day and usually the grounds are locked. Children can't get out and visitors have to speak to the school secretary to be admitted to the premises. At the end of the day the younger children (years 1, 2 & reception) are handed over only to a recognised guardian.

The school day starts with registration when the child's main class teacher takes the register, then there is often assembly (although this sometimes happens at the end of the school day also) which used to be of a religious nature but in this day and age is more to do with the engendering of the school community.

In Germany children start school at the age of 6 (the precocious can start a year earlier, but this is on the sayso of the kindergarten staff) these children have, however spent 3 years at kindergarten (which can be 900-1300 or can be 900-1600) prior to school but there is little formal learning at kindergarten.
Years 1 & 2 are not a very serious learning experience but in year 3 the pressure suddenly appears because in year 4 the school will decide whether your child has what it takes to go onto gymnasium or whether realschule or worse beckons.

School starts, as previously mentioned, early, before 800 if the child has a first lesson, (sometimes they don't) and ends anytime between 1130 and 1410.
Everyday the timetable is a different length and if a teacher is absent the children are sometimes sent home early...with no warning - this can be 6 year olds we're talking here, sent home alone possibly to an empty house...

There is no registration and no assembly the children are expected to walk themselves to school - they walk in groups, not alone, but it is not usual for the parents to accompany them (we foreigners always stand out as we're the ones escorting our children to and from school) and the school grounds although fenced are not gated, anyone can walk through them, on and off the premises.
A child who decides he doesn't want to go to the next lesson can easily walk out and take the long way home to arrive home at the expected time (if you're lucky). This system of trust works well enough with older children but for children who've only just started school to be entrusted with getting from one building to another, possibly to a lesson they don't like, is it any wonder some bunk off?

So at the end of the day there is no official handover of the child to the responsible guardian, they slip out of their classes and wander home, hopefully in the company of their friends.

There are of course many more differences between German and English schooling, but I think I'll leave those for another day...

LuLu's

The 2nd Thursday of every month is expats night at a little bar called LuLu's just a stagger down the hill from where I live, so it would be rude not to go.

Last month there were 3 of us plus the bar owners (1 Texan, 1 Mancunian), Hugh, Rebecca & me. This month we 5 were joined by 3 more, Ian & Kamesh who both work for RWE (BIG power company) and Seline.

It was an entertaining evening, both Rebecca and I needed some light relief as we'd both been stressed at home, Rebecca with trying to organise her family of 5 to go on holiday today and me with a 12 year old who has taken it into his head to want a gun...because 'all my friends have got one'.

LuLu's is a cute little bar http://lulu.fm/welcome.html , very unlike other German bars, the decoration (having been done by 2 women) runs to deep purple, hot pink, a splash of orange and gold. To use my 12 year old's favourite word 'cool'.
The drinks also run appropriately 'girlie' if the desire should take you (and it does, whenever I'm there!) they have a great martini list - chocolate/fuzzy/saketini/captain's/rattlesnake/original/virgin and so on. My goal is to try them all but I don't fancy the saketini at all, and can't see the point of the virgin and the bar concensus has it that I wont like the original as I don't do olives (keep expecting to grow up enough to like them, after all I've managed to educate my palate to like blue cheese and red wine...surely olives is the next step?).
SO last night I had a rattlesnake followed by a russian and lastly to end on a sweet note a chocolate - delicious.

Onto the conversation last night:

Kamesh has been here 3 or 4 weeks, speaks barely any German (which shocks the Germans, but what they don't appreciate is that he speaks 6 languages already & will probably pick up German really quickly once he starts with his lessons) - he's missing real tea and is having to make do with drinking coffee, so we've suggested a really good tea shop in the middle of Essen, you just can't get what you're used to in the supermarkets!

German versus UK tv habits, how the British always seem to have the tv on whereas the Germans don't (probably because their tv is crap - but I think that could be a whole nother post)

Food shopping - the tiny trolleys, multiple shopping trips & how scarey the big UK supermarkets are when you've got used to the little ones here.

The Scoville scale http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale which is a way of measuring the 'hotness' of chilli, Hugh seems to think it's quite important...I reserve judgement!

Rebecca's fight with T-mobile over the delivery of her new iPhone - the delivery guy demanded to see her Ausweis (identity card) she told him she didn't have one & offered driver's licence & passport instead, but no, even when realising she wasn't German and so couldn't have a German Ausweis he wanted her British Ausweis, he couldn't get it that such a thing doesn't exist (yet).

Ian managed to get tickets for Glastonbury 2010, he's never camped (other than in a caravan) in his whole life (he's older than me) and will be praying for good weather, whereas I think the photos will be far more entertaining if it rains...although it's mean to wish bad weather on such an event!!

Kamesh is planning to have a house warming next week and wants to introduce his colleagues to proper curry (he's Indian & so knows how to make an authentic curry) but is starting to feel concerned that the food might prove too hot for the tender German palates - could be funny!!

The serious attitude of Germans when it comes to sport - I was quite surprised to hear my own observations coming out of someone else's mouth - the making a walk into proper exercise with the addition of nordic poles, the need to have your own equipment in order to practice a certain sport (borrowing clearly not on).

And I'm afraid that anything more is lost in a martini fog....

die Erkältung

I'm well into week 3 of this damned cold & I'm totally fed up with it.

Week 1 was the worst sore throat I've had in 44 years, being unable to swallow without pain relief? I guess I should have realised at that point what I was in for!
Week 2 was the start of the snot & then the sinus pain.
Week 3 more snot & a hacking cough that makes me sound like a smoker.

I've lost count of the boxes of Kleenex I've gone through, finished one packet of vitamin C tablets and started the next, tried endless combinations of anadin/paracetamol/ibuprofen and I've discovered the hot toddy - the best thing to come out of this cold, in fact the ONLY good thing to come out of it!
I found a recipe online & Simon (bless him) volunteered to make one for me, then the following night he volunteered again & again...now, I'm not a whiskey drinker, but when mixed with hot water & honey & lemon - delicious!!

The Germans of course are full of helpful suggestions to combat a cold, some of which I've taken on board, some I've ignored:

• Grippostad, which turns out to be paracetamol & vitamin C together in a tablet, marketed for cold/flu relief - has about the same effect as plain old anadin/paracetamol/ibuprofen.
• vitamin C (this from the Apotheke - I wasn't impressed) I'm still taking it & if it's increased my ability to get better I dread to think how long this cold would have lasted without it.
• Gelomyrtol tablets which seem to work like eucalyptus oil from within, odd & I'm unsure as to the effectiveness of them, so much so that now my sinuses have stopped giving me such grief I've stopped taking them.
• Tea. I don't even bother to ask them which particular tea I ought to drink (the Germans do love their fruit & herbal tea) I'm English, I want tea from India that needs milk in it, I don't want some poxy pink stuff in a little bag that smells of raspberries! I've been drinking lots of tea (gotta keep the fluid levels up) but it probably isn't the kind they think I should be drinking!
• Ashes or was it oatmeal in my socks...as you can tell, I didn't pay much attention to that suggestion, I can think of SO many reasons why it wouldn't work (apart from the fact that my socks/shoes would be ruined)

So I'll stick with my hot toddy & various combinations of over the counter drugs, well, I say 'over the counter' but here in Germany to get any kind of 'drug' aka paracetamol/anadin etc you have to ask the lady in the Apotheke (chemist) & then she'll let you have 1 box...so unlike the supermarkets or chemists in England where you can buy almost as much as you want without having to beg for it (although there are limits to stop you from overdosing, but nothing to stop you from stockpiling with a view to overdosing...) consequently the drugs we have in the house are stockpiled on trips to England and brought back with us!

I refuse to go to the doctors of course (although most Germans I know whould have been there on day 1 whining about the sore throat) and there are several reasons for my refusal:

• you have to sit in a waiting room full of sick people - suppose I catch something else?
• it is, at the end of the day, only a cold, and there's nothing the doc can give me to cure me, I'm intelligent enough to self medicate. I know what the limits are.
• when I was a child I never went to the doctor, I had to be almost at death's door before a visit was organised, and I guess that kind of habit stuck - it's not that I don't trust them or anything, honest!

I haven't been out for a run for 3 weeks, I shall be so out of shape when I finally get out there again, I was toying with the idea of going tomorrow but I guess I should wait and see how the coughs going, maybe leave it till next week. It's gotta be gone by then surely?

I need shares in Kleenex!

Complaining

The Germans (imho) are world class experts in the art of complaining.

Perhaps I notice it more because, being British, it's not really something we do very often, we don't like to do it, it makes us uncomfortable.

I think the reason the Brits don't complain is because we see it as rude, not very polite.
The problem with complaining is that the person you speak to about the problem is going to get upset, there's no 2 ways about it, they take it personally, even if they're just the go-between. Take it from one with experience in this, it's personal.

One of my paid occupations was working for Severn Trent Water in the customer service department. What this entailed was answering the phone, non-stop for the 7.4 hours of the working day to customers. Now people don't ring a water company phone line to say 'thanks for the water (that I pay for) it's delicious'.
Oh no, they ring to rant, their bill is more than their neighbours, they can't pay, the charges have increased, there's no water, there's brown water and so on. And on the receiving end was me, and trust me, you do take it personally, especially when they swear at you or accuse you of incompetance.

But even with that in mind, I don't think the Brits like to complain, we don't like to hurt people's feelings, we don't want to be embarassed or embarass someone else, we like an easy, smooth life, so if there's a little problem we're more likely to take it on the chin & let it go.

Not the Germans.

There is no issue, too small that they wont stick their neck out about. Here are my examples and then see if you agree with me that they are the kings of complaining:

• at New Year it is traditional to eat doughnuts (the round, ball-like ones, and these ones, at New Year come with every filling imaginable - champagne, advocat, jam of different flavours, Baileys, chocolate, apple, plum - it's a shame the tradition doesn't last longer than the period between Xmas & New Year because I never get to try them all...) Last January I was at the bakers and the lady in front of me was complaining that one of her doughnuts had had no filling. Quite what she expected the poor baker to do I don't know...
• at a market stall a lady spotted that the sunflowers were more expensive than when she'd bought them from the same stall the previous week, the reason was quite simple, she'd bought them at the end of the market day and the stall holder had wanted to get rid of the flowers - but she wasn't happy.
• at another market stall a lady brought back the small cardboard carton (carefully bagged up) of raspberries that she'd bought 3 days previously (market is only twice a week) when she'd opened the raspberries she'd found a ball of ants inside. So she'd kept the whole thing in her fridge for 3 days to bring back to complain about.
• my friend had her dog in the garden for a couple of hours in autumn as she had guests who didn't like dogs (he's a boisterous dog). It rained a little, but he has a kennel. A neighbour anonymously sent her a letter telling her that she shouldn't be allowed to keep animals and that if it happened again she would report her.
• our neighbour was having garden work done, it was a friday bridging day after a bank holiday and late lunchtime, the neighbour on the otherside came out to rant at the gardners that they were ruining his 'Ruhetag' (quiet day).

So, what do you think? If complaining was an Olympic sport would the Germans win gold, silver and bronze?

You know they'd only complain if they didn't!!