robinson100

  The OP is aware of the Hausverbot!

  Very happy for you, Cunha! Actually, as all of the older members here can confirm, this is exactly what TT used to be about - helping each other! It`s not always about literally getting out there and physically "doing something" for somebody else, but also about listening when somebody is troubled, or offering advice when somebody has a problem. Glad you found your way to TT!

  Thanks for that, Vivanco! Okay, so most of my cotton bags are over twenty years old now, and are still good to use, so I guess that they are "okay". The main thing to take from the report is that one should use bags (whatever they are made of!) over and over again.  

  Really? I would love to see that study. Anyway, since I already have cotton bags around the house, I guess it will cause no further suffering to the environment if I continue to use them, will it? I find them great for a trip to the baker`s - they are happy to pop my rolls straight into the bag, and I am happy to have them kept clean and safe until I can eat them.   Sorry for drifting away from plastic!  

er, did I miss something here?   I thought this was about civility - being nice to each other and other such (increasingly) peculiar stuff...    

  I think that this cannot be emphasised enough - it is "normal" for Germans to repeat a year or two of schooling, even though it would be viewed as a shameful disaster in other countries. The Germans have no problem with this concept at all.   Whilst the OP has the equivalent of the Mittlerer Reife, at least on paper, the language skills are definitely lacking. It obviously depends a LOT upon what the OP intends to do in the future, as to what s/he does now - theoretically s/he could go out and find a job, or s/he could stay in the German school system, accept that things are different, and work towards getting the Abitur and studying after that.   Is it the family`s intention to stay in German forever? If so, then I would recommend staying in school and making the most of the opertunities open to you.  

I guess a lot depends upon your future intentions as a family, but my money would be on the Englisches Institut, for the simple reason that a German Gymnasium is tough, really tough, and you have a child who cannot read and write in German and whose spoken German leaves a lot to be desired.   How good is your kid in school? If he is super-dooper good, then  he might well be able to make up for the past five school years or so within a year, but then again, maybe not, and would he be happy?   At least by sticking to an English-speaking environment, he would have the best chance of keeping up with the other kids, and of getting good grades.

  Maybe a good idea, but surely a sexist one, oder?! some men are vulnerable, as are people of certain creed or colour...

  It is common for stores to get a "bearbeitungsgebühr" - at a well-known discounter, it would be €50, and has to be payed immediately.

1 - don`t know 2 - pay the fine, and it should be over with 3 - you comitted a crime, were caught, and admitted it. What can a lawyer change?   4 - don`t be so bloody stupid in future! Talk to friends, colleagues, or even the student union - somehow you will find a way to (legally) get enough food to last until the end of the month.

   - have you ask the dogs if they have by any chance seen it? Sneaky buggers, they are!  

I agree with going outside as much as possible - whether for a long walk and jumping in puddles, or out flying a kite - kids need the outdoors!

  - he really does need to go on a starvation diet, if you ask me

  Just a word of warning, if you like - your boss can ask for a sicknote for any time you take off "sick", and if he is giving you a hard time at the moment, be prepared for him to insist upon getting one even if you go home early with a headache in future. Get a sicknote for everything, just to keep yourself safe from him, okay?

Surely the OP has also been sending sicknotes to her Krankenversicherung, so why not give them a call? The Krankenversicherung will surely know all the ins and outs of the legal situation, and be able to give the OP the advice she requires at no extra cost.