anybody lived in Germany before? We're moving there in the fall and have a hundred thousand questions. This counts for people who lived there as kids, too, cause we've got the school thing to work out, too.

wait wait wait?!?!? moving to germany...tell us more!! :thumbup:

My parents lived there (military), but that was before my time. I have made a few trips if that helps any.

do tell us more...

Is spending 6 weeks in a german home considered living there ??? :lol:

Seriously, I have german friends who could maybe answer your questions.

What will you be doing ? Where will you be staying ? For how long ? Kids would go to german or english school ?

The military's our excuse, too. We're going to the Bitburg area, Mosel Valley - sounds divine, I can't wait. It's close to the borders with Luxembourg and France, so great for weekend trips to awesome places (besides those in Germany, I mean).

We hope to be there for the full three year assignment, but expect it may be cut short, because that's how things go for us, so we're going to front end load all our sightseeing and hopefully be utterly exhausted by the time we have to leave. Perhaps that would make Idaho look appealing...

We're trying to line up a house at the moment, have a lead on an awesome one but we'll see what pans out there. We expect to live in the local community, so the biggest dilemma is where to send our kids to school. In Japan, they went to Japanese preschool, here they're going to Lithuanian schools so they're well acquainted with the whole "here's your school, now learn the language" thing. But in Germany we probably won't be able to hire a tutor like we did here, ($-Euro being what it is) and our oldest two girls will be in Grs. 4 and 2, so they'd be expected to read and write right away, I'm guessing.

So here's one question, does anyone know if there are bilingual schools, or GSL courses offered in primary school? I realize this is fairly specific info, but I can't find the answers anywhere else, and the font of TP knowledge is the deepest I know!

Kindergarten for the little ones should be easy, we're planning on full up local for that, but any one with some experience on that, let me know pros and cons...

And this one's sheer laziness, anyone know if we'll be able to buy an automatic 6+ passenger vehicle when we get there? I haven't driven in three years, and the three before that were in Japan on the wrong side of the road, so I really, really don't want to have to learn to drive a stick this summer! I'm really not looking forward to relearning at all, truth to tell, but I guess I can't rely on public transit and taxis in the woods in Germany. Especially hauling groceries for the masses...

Company's coming, so I've gotta haul out the futons for the kids...

Oh, and by the way, if we get the awesome 6 bedroom house on the river, there'll be a guestroom for waifs and strays...

:cheers:

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :jawdrop:

I saw this thread yesterday and didn't begin to post b/c I didn't have time....but am glad I came back b/c I cannot believe what a small world it is!!!!!!!!!!

I was born in Bitburg; my parents were stationed there for a few years. :lol:

I was last back oh gosh I guess it was 1998, 7 years ago, and can't believe they are still sending people there? I thought the base was about to close down or was closed down and not much went on there anymore....hell and that was back in 98.....?

Anyway I was too young to go to school when I was there; about 0-3 yrs, but I will ask my parents some of the things you've mentioned. But yeah, the location is great :thumbup:

Wow I am so excited for you and like I said, what a small world!!!

Hey,

Yay for you! Sounds awesome. My brother in law and his wife are stationed at Baumholder (they live in Idar-Oberstein) right now. They have two years left on their contract. They're having a blast though! They managed to secure a huge house with marble staircases and the whole works with their housing allowance (both officers) so good luck on your home! Hey, I'm a waif! Haha.

My aunt and uncle spent two years in Germany when their kids were in elementary school. I'll find out information for you. Would the military be able to assist with that, even though they'd be going to public school? Do you have a contact in Europe?

I can't answer the vehicle question for you - sorry.

See, I knew this was the place to turn!

I've figured out the answer to the car thing, so that's not critical.

So now the big questions revolve around school options. Back up plan is the school on the base, but we'd really rather send them to local schools if we can find one that's either bilingual or has some kind of GSL type courses to bring them up to speed. So if you can find out about the general school situation, I'd love to hear anything...

I've also heard that kindergartens are pretty much, "throw em in a room and let em slug it out" style, so if anyone has any experience with kindergartens, that would help a lot too.

Just got word that there may be a change in our moving dates, what a surprise, but we're still hoping to get there before school starts. What an adventure.

There's a piece of graffiti here that I just love, and keep meaning to photograph because it seems to be our family motto:

"Your life becomes more and more of an adventure."

(I hasten to add, that I'm opposed to graffiti in general, don't try this at home kids!)