Locked out with the key in my hand...
Rehearsals for the orchestra concert are well underway and going great so far. My initial worry about our first sectional with the (ornery) French flute professor ended up being unnecessary as he was actually pretty nice....very picky, but nice. After that it was mostly rehearsals with the entire orchestra until last night when we started rehearsing with the big band. It's an all jazz concert, by the way. One piece is the Gershwin piano concerto (without big band), which is really fun to play, and the other two pieces I'm playing are with big band...and really jazzy. It's cool to hear the big band with the orchestral accompaniment. And it changed my stereotype that Germans are too rigid to play jazz. Of course, the jazz professor who is conducting those two pieces is an American....and he's really great, but the German musicans are doing a great job, too.
Anyway, so that's been taking most of my time this week. I wasn't able to teach English to the little girl because of time conflicts, and the other family cancelled for today because of a sick kid. But my new student I've had about 5 times just left. He is a really nice pharmacist.
My bible study leader as well as one of the other girls and I met for dinner on Wed. night. It was our first time seeing each other since beg. Dec. and so it was fun to catch up. We ate at a cool place on a street (Simon Dach Str.) in Berlin famous for its hip restaurants and cocktail bars. I was glad to finally have a reason to that area of town there since I always forget about checking it out. It's true - the strip was pretty hip and everything was affordable since it's mostly a student district. But I think it's a lot cooler in the summer when they have outdoor seating. During the course of the evening, our leader announced that she will be retiring as our bible study leader but would like to continue meeting without the responsibility of preparing a lesson. It was sad news, but what can ya do? She's busy raising a 1-yr. old and is planning on adding to the family soon.
By the way, I'm drinking tea from my new teapot. It was a Christmas present from my parents that I picked out here. I also got a stand that holds a tea light candle so the pot stays warm as you drink. I've been excited to have any chance to make tea, so every time my English student comes over I have a pot of tea for us. Since he's Russian/German, he is always happy to drink up! Bethany gave me 2 nice teas for Christmas, white tea and a fruit tea, and I just bought some jasmine tea.
I also was introduced to a Tajikistan Tea House a little while back by Jan and went back with Bethany while she was here. I took this link from her website (thanks, Bethany!) which has a picture of the interesting tea house, including interesting artwork and low tables with cushions on the floor. It's a well-hidden little place and hard to find, but always packed and almost impossible to get a seat in! http://www.berlin-bildergalerie.de/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=0&pos=-132
In other news, true to my heading, where something strange happens nearly every day, I had a very awkward and troubling experience last weekend. As Matthias and I were leaving my apartment to go into the city, I opened my door by unlocking it with his key that was in the door. My key was hanging from the handle, and was the one I was going to take with us. Matthias left to throw the trash down the chute and I pulled the door shut behind me and then tried to lock the door by turning my key in the lock. But 'lo and behold, the key didn't move. I panicked and quickly remembered that I hadn't actually taken Matthias' key out of the lock, but had turned it only enough for the door to unlock. That meant that his key was still in the lock on the inside and mine couldn't therefore lock, or unlock, for that matter, the door. We were officially locked out.
No amount of jiggling or pushing with my key could loosen his key on the other side of the lock. Not even all the little doo-dads on my pocket knife keychain would do the trick. So we went downstairs to ring the Housemeister's doorbell. No one home. I called their number, then their son's (who also lives in an apartment in this bldg.) and no answer on any of theirs. So we went back upstairs to try again, still to no avail. A little old neighbor lady (not the one with the monster son) came out to help us and brought us some screw drivers to try. Nothing worked. Then she nicely brought the cell phone numbers of the Housemeisters over to me. I called both numbers and there was also no answer there. So we went back down one more time to ring the doorbell and then knocked. Much to my surprise, the door opened.....
....to a VERY angry, sleepy looking Frau Housemeisterin with no pants on! It was clear she had been sleeping and was absolutely not happy to have been woken up (probably several times with all the phone calls). This woman is usually very nice and helpful, so I felt terrible to see her standing there glaring at us with a death look. I stood there in shock and tried to apologize. I said since we thought quiet hours were from 1pm-3pm, and it was 4pm, that it would be okay to stop by. She retorted angrily that she thinks sleeping a little later on the weekend could be expected. sidenote: *Fine, but the house rule is quiet from 1pm-3pm...and if she wants to sleep longer, no problem. But if woken up, it's her own fault!*
Anyway, we explained that we didn't come for no reason, but that we were locked out. She said we'd have to call the locksmith. Then she left and came back a min. later, (probably after talking to her husband) and confirmed that we'd indeed have to call for help. We went out to the lobby and got the number from the board. Problem was, it was going to cost 90 euros for the job! As Matthias was on the phone, however, Mr. Housemeister came running out telling us to stop. He thought he could fix it and had a piece of wire hanger with him.
I was relieved that he would try, despite the annoyance, and we all went back upstairs. Unfortunately the wire didn't work, so he went to get a stronger one in order to lift the latch. The 2nd one didn't work either. I was praying hard by this point. Then an older neighbor man came out into the hallway and joked about how he wasn't now the only one who had locked himself out, and had a different hanger of his own for such instances that he gave to the Housemeister. This one did the trick and the door finally opened. The freshly painted door is now chipped around the knob, but we were just relieved to save the money. Upon insistence of some money from us for him, the Housemeister requested 10 euros and I was very happy to have saved 80 euros that day! But the question is if his wife now hates me...and if I can get the image of her in her underwear out of my head!
p.s. Also thanks to Jen, my Grandma, my parents, and the Jones' for sending me Christmas cards! They're still decorating my fridge even though I took the tree down and stuffed it back under my bed for another year...or till I move out, which ever comes first!
Anyway, so that's been taking most of my time this week. I wasn't able to teach English to the little girl because of time conflicts, and the other family cancelled for today because of a sick kid. But my new student I've had about 5 times just left. He is a really nice pharmacist.
My bible study leader as well as one of the other girls and I met for dinner on Wed. night. It was our first time seeing each other since beg. Dec. and so it was fun to catch up. We ate at a cool place on a street (Simon Dach Str.) in Berlin famous for its hip restaurants and cocktail bars. I was glad to finally have a reason to that area of town there since I always forget about checking it out. It's true - the strip was pretty hip and everything was affordable since it's mostly a student district. But I think it's a lot cooler in the summer when they have outdoor seating. During the course of the evening, our leader announced that she will be retiring as our bible study leader but would like to continue meeting without the responsibility of preparing a lesson. It was sad news, but what can ya do? She's busy raising a 1-yr. old and is planning on adding to the family soon.
By the way, I'm drinking tea from my new teapot. It was a Christmas present from my parents that I picked out here. I also got a stand that holds a tea light candle so the pot stays warm as you drink. I've been excited to have any chance to make tea, so every time my English student comes over I have a pot of tea for us. Since he's Russian/German, he is always happy to drink up! Bethany gave me 2 nice teas for Christmas, white tea and a fruit tea, and I just bought some jasmine tea.
I also was introduced to a Tajikistan Tea House a little while back by Jan and went back with Bethany while she was here. I took this link from her website (thanks, Bethany!) which has a picture of the interesting tea house, including interesting artwork and low tables with cushions on the floor. It's a well-hidden little place and hard to find, but always packed and almost impossible to get a seat in! http://www.berlin-bildergalerie.de/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=0&pos=-132
In other news, true to my heading, where something strange happens nearly every day, I had a very awkward and troubling experience last weekend. As Matthias and I were leaving my apartment to go into the city, I opened my door by unlocking it with his key that was in the door. My key was hanging from the handle, and was the one I was going to take with us. Matthias left to throw the trash down the chute and I pulled the door shut behind me and then tried to lock the door by turning my key in the lock. But 'lo and behold, the key didn't move. I panicked and quickly remembered that I hadn't actually taken Matthias' key out of the lock, but had turned it only enough for the door to unlock. That meant that his key was still in the lock on the inside and mine couldn't therefore lock, or unlock, for that matter, the door. We were officially locked out.
No amount of jiggling or pushing with my key could loosen his key on the other side of the lock. Not even all the little doo-dads on my pocket knife keychain would do the trick. So we went downstairs to ring the Housemeister's doorbell. No one home. I called their number, then their son's (who also lives in an apartment in this bldg.) and no answer on any of theirs. So we went back upstairs to try again, still to no avail. A little old neighbor lady (not the one with the monster son) came out to help us and brought us some screw drivers to try. Nothing worked. Then she nicely brought the cell phone numbers of the Housemeisters over to me. I called both numbers and there was also no answer there. So we went back down one more time to ring the doorbell and then knocked. Much to my surprise, the door opened.....
....to a VERY angry, sleepy looking Frau Housemeisterin with no pants on! It was clear she had been sleeping and was absolutely not happy to have been woken up (probably several times with all the phone calls). This woman is usually very nice and helpful, so I felt terrible to see her standing there glaring at us with a death look. I stood there in shock and tried to apologize. I said since we thought quiet hours were from 1pm-3pm, and it was 4pm, that it would be okay to stop by. She retorted angrily that she thinks sleeping a little later on the weekend could be expected. sidenote: *Fine, but the house rule is quiet from 1pm-3pm...and if she wants to sleep longer, no problem. But if woken up, it's her own fault!*
Anyway, we explained that we didn't come for no reason, but that we were locked out. She said we'd have to call the locksmith. Then she left and came back a min. later, (probably after talking to her husband) and confirmed that we'd indeed have to call for help. We went out to the lobby and got the number from the board. Problem was, it was going to cost 90 euros for the job! As Matthias was on the phone, however, Mr. Housemeister came running out telling us to stop. He thought he could fix it and had a piece of wire hanger with him.
I was relieved that he would try, despite the annoyance, and we all went back upstairs. Unfortunately the wire didn't work, so he went to get a stronger one in order to lift the latch. The 2nd one didn't work either. I was praying hard by this point. Then an older neighbor man came out into the hallway and joked about how he wasn't now the only one who had locked himself out, and had a different hanger of his own for such instances that he gave to the Housemeister. This one did the trick and the door finally opened. The freshly painted door is now chipped around the knob, but we were just relieved to save the money. Upon insistence of some money from us for him, the Housemeister requested 10 euros and I was very happy to have saved 80 euros that day! But the question is if his wife now hates me...and if I can get the image of her in her underwear out of my head!
p.s. Also thanks to Jen, my Grandma, my parents, and the Jones' for sending me Christmas cards! They're still decorating my fridge even though I took the tree down and stuffed it back under my bed for another year...or till I move out, which ever comes first!
posted by Heidi at 2:06 PM
5 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hey Heidi, somehow the teah house link doesn't work, but here it is again:
tea house
Okay, I just updated it now so it works. Thanks for the info.!!
Always something new and unusual in Heidiland...
heidi ho ho...you always have the best stories!! i used to have some good ones but now my life is so ho hum that nothing to report!! glad you got my card. and glad you saved 80 euros!!! i've been locked out too and luckily got back in too but after a lot of other tricky tries!! another story another time. glad all is well miss ya girl!
jen
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