Then they decided to tell the landlady that we were too loud in the morning, and since our kitchen is over their bedroom they can hear me putting dishes away or something. The landlady called the school secretary, who called us, and then talked to the people downstairs, and it became a big deal. They could have just come up and knocked on our door. I have one entire post about that incident, so if you are really interested (or just really bored) go back and check it out.
We invited them, and all the other neighbors, to our Thanksgiving/housewarming party. They came - actually I think they were the first to arrive.. We learned that her name is Katrin and his I can't remember anymore but knew it for a little while. His English is pretty good and he decided to bring up the issue of the noise making in the morning in the midst of our small talk at the party. It was awkward.
Then just two weeks ago, I had to pick up a package at the post office. When I went to the counter with my little pick up slip, the post office man asked to see my passport. I tried to talk him into accepting my drivers license, my bank card, my credit card, or any other form of ID but he would not have it. The risk of having the bike tubes I'd ordered fall into the wrong hands was just too great. So, grumpy and irritated, I called Brian and told him about the situation. We agreed that he would throw my passport out the window. This is not as crazy as it sounds... ok maybe it is. But because we live on the 4th floor and there's no elevator, sometimes it's easier to just toss things out the window than to hike all the way upstairs. Brian got the passport, put it in a little bag, put a pen in the bag to weigh it down, waved to me standing on the sidewalk, and dropped it... right on the windowsill of the neighbors below us. My thoughts at the time? 'Ohhh crap. what do we do now? Can we throw something else down to knock it off the windowsill? Are we going to have to knock on the door and ask for it? How do I explain in German what a dumb thing we just did?' So even more grumpy and more frustrated, I started to hike up to our apartment. And on the way, Katrin and whats-his-name open their door and hand the passport back to me.
Then about 5 days later I tried to install an ashtray that looks like a bird on the balcony railing. I know, that sounds awesome, doesn't it? It actually is. Now instead of leaving his cigar ashes in the grill or in a flower pot, Brian can use this:
In my excitement about the ashtray, I started to use the little allen wrench from the box to attach it to the railing. As I leaned over to screw it on I - believe or not - dropped the allen wrench. It fell into the little garden behind our building, and guess who saw? The neighbors below us, who were sitting out on their balcony. So I went down and managed to fish the allen wrench out of the groundcover. I was too embarrassed to try again right away but a couple of days later, when I knew the neighbors were not home, I tried again. This time I got the ashtray screwed almost completely on, and as I was tightening it, I dropped the wrench again. This time it landed on their balcony. When I came home later that evening it was lying on the mat in front of our apartment door. I can just hear Katrin and whats-his-name talking about us - "Dumb Americans upstairs. Don't they know about gravity? Why do they keep dropping things on us?"
Brian and I decided that we needed to do something for them to acknowledge our stupidity, or at least our clumsiness. 'Should I make cookies? Most people like them, but they are an American thing and not a German thing, maybe it would remind them that we are foreigners. But maybe that's a good thing because they'll cut us more slack. Maybe wine is better, but what kind do they like? A cake would be good but then I'd need the pan back and I'd have to go back down there and that would be awkward...' Let's just say I was over-thinking it. And in the end I made cookies and left them outside their door with a note that said something like "Sorry for things falling on you. We hope you like the cookies."
We actually ran into Katrin in the stairwell a few days ago. She thanked us for the cookies and waited patiently as I tried to explain in German why my passport fell out of our window and landed outside hers. Hopefully a steady supply of baked goods will prevent them from calling the landlady on us to complain about ashes, passports, and small tools falling on them from our apartment.
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