JN53

I actually thought turkeys were only pardoned before Thanksgiving and not Christmas.

Can you find cardboard envelopes? You'd ask for:  Briefumschlag mit Karton verstärkt. Those might be good. You wouldn't send it as a Paket. It wouldn't be heavy enough. I doubt it would go as a Päckchen, but I assume the post office would know how to send it. Would you want to make sure it got to the embassy? I think that might be "per Einschreiben," if I remember correctly.

I once had a really good hair cut in Lichterfelde in the Schweizer Viertel (near Goerzallee). That was several years ago. I think I paid 40-50 euros for it. 

I think the bigger a building-at least in Berlin-, the longer it takes to get to know people. It took me almost two years to get to know the lady below me and that was only in a 3-apartment building. By getting to know, I mean that I started to exchange two or 3 sentences with her.  In another place in Berlin I lived for 15 months and I rarely greeted anyone in that building, which had maybe 16 apartments in my entrance. In another house in Berlin, where I took care of children, I definitely greeted everyone and they greeted me. There were 6 apartments in that house. I suppose it varies with people and situations.

I don't remember what travel insurance I had when I travelled to the US, but I am pretty sure I found out about it through my regular insurance, TK. Can you check with your insurance in Germany? The insurance I got was very inexpensive.

I can't give you any ideas on Grundschulen, but if his German isn't up to par by 1st grade, you could always have him stay in kindergarten an extra year. Some people might even suggest that he go to a German only kindergarten in order to learn German very quickly. There are others on this forum that I am sure can help out more.

    While I can't say that you are wrong, I do know that Panda is a very highly respected member of this forum and I have never been led wrong by any information she has posted from her vast knowledge of German taxes. I would always tend to believe what Panda says.

I'm sure someone else more knowledgeable will contribute, but I assume you got your master's in the U.S., so I assume you'd be licensed to teach German (and French) only as a foreign language. I'd say there are enough German teachers in Germany, so that would not be an option. In my opinion, you could try the international schools.  Good luck and hope it works out for you.

Excellent advice, French bean. My mother worked for years with Alzheimer's patients and I was around them some, as well as a grandmother who had Alzheimer's. 

I assume you mean the pastries. I don't know exactly what kind you want to send, but when I sent Schneebällen to my family in the U.S., there was no problem. They were fine when my family got them.

There's a library at the Rathaus Steglitz stop, if you want to go there. I haven't been there for a couple of years, but I assume there library is still there.

I'm not knowledgeable on this topic, but I do know a German family that took their daughter out of school for 2 weeks and then had 2 weeks of vacation, so they could go the Asia for a long vacation. They were able to get special permission from the school director since their daughter was doing very well in school. I suppose you should just ask the school your child attends.

  If you mean by "sported" - wearing a cow lick, there is no way I could have worn my grandfather's cow licks -huge squares-, but I did taste them as a child. 

  Hi 2B,   Thanks for the wave. I do regularly follow many TT posts. I just don't post much myself. TT has been very helpful to me and many others.

I may not be of much help, but I had tried years ago to get citizenship through my Great-grandfather. It did not work because it went through my mother, but that was because I was born before the mid-1970's. I can't remember the exact date, but it seems that after '75 or so it can go through a female relative. Anyway, that is all the info I have-not sure if that helps you, though.   I suppose your German isn't good enough to start asking at the Bürgeramt, but maybe a friend could go with you and you could start there? Good luck! Hope you get citizenship.