mothwing | Wednesday, September 21st, 2005

Honestly, our neighbours scare me.

Areet, the guy who lives in the flat across seems really nice and has a dog - and pets instantly win my heart whoever is concerned.
I have never seen the woman and the man who live next to us, but we have heard them quite often, especially their alarm clocks and their TV set, so I cannot say that I am all too fond of them.

There is a scary-looking, very unkempt and unwashed guy who lives above us who always gets up at 8 a.m. and who likes to jump around in his flat a lot, apparently. He also does not know how to turn the sound on his TV set down, but it never bothered us so much we felt any need to complain. I rather like his taste in music, too.

Now yesterday, all was quiet, all was peaceful - when suddenly someone started crying and shouting and raving in the flat next door, and not only for a few minutes, but for a quarter of an hour which was when we grew really worried.
What to do? Should we just ignore it?
Call the police, tell them what we heard and leave them to deal with it? But we could not simply call the police because we had heard something next door, surely?

And what was it that we were hearing, anyway?
I have to admit that I grew so worried, and, heck, curious that I went and listened, ear pressed to the wall to find out what was going on, because it sounded like someone was being beaten up. What I heard did not calm me down a bit:
"No! Please, no, god, no! You cannot do that, god, please no, no!" - and a voice, crying and crying.

Scary. Very scary.
But then, the benefits of thin walls are that even without much sneaking around and listening we soon were treated to the information that she had cheated on him with the unkempt guy from above. I do hope they will be alright.

Honestly, what scares me most about that is that I never figured I was the kind of person who listens at walls to find out what the neighbours are doing, I thought only pathetic, obsessed people would do that, and now I have joined the forces of evil.
Call me ~~Ishmael~~ Petunia.

And still, what to do if something like that happens again in the future? I am sure that I will not listen at any walls again, but if things sound dangerous, should I toddle over and ring the bell and ask people who are as yet complete strangers to me whether everything is alright, or should I/we just wait and see what happens and eventually call the police in case there is anything serious going on?
Or am I just over-anxious and should leave them to it and keep my nose out of other people's business altogether? I honestly don't know.
But I would not want anything truly bad to happen next door without me calling the police if necessary. Mabye I am overly panicky because it's only because this is my first flat, well, ours, but my first time away from home.

Apart from the interlude yesterday, we are having a stressful, but good time. Yesterday, we have matriculated and now finally have access to the main Library - which is a dream. They even have most of the things we have in their German department, which is depressing. Lots of things are depressing here.
Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht
Bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht...

It depressess me beyond words how much BETTER ORGANISED this university is compared to my university in Germany. Virtually everything seems better so far, but I don't doubt it really is.
The equipment, especially as far as media and computers are concerned, the buildings - which are old, older than the Hamburg ones, but in an excellent condition, the organisation of classes as far as I can see, the organisation of Departments and teaching matters in general... ARGH! I envy, envy SnapeRulez who gets to finish her course here because she receives a scholarship. I wish I was elegible for one of those.

If only we had their beautiful old buildings and their funding. And the SAAS. That last point is the most important one, and I wonder how Scotland organised that and how we can get that programme to Germany. Probably not at all.

Today we enrolled for our courses and have just been bombarded with all kinds of information - which was great and very tiring at the same time. It turned out that the vast majority of Literature students seem the same as at home (certain party queens which generally look bored and as though they were just doing this because they do not know how else to spend their time and their parent's money) and that Linguistics people are the same as in Hamburg, too. Which is good.

We have also got the letter we need to activate our bank account. When we first tried to get it, it all sounded sooo easy.
Bank Guy: "Oh, and we'll need some verification of your address."
We: "Uh, sure. Verification. And... where do we get that?"
Bank Guy: "Oh, just run along to your adviser of studies, the university people will know what to do.")

Yesterday, upon receiving a letter by my slightly confused adviser of studies, back to the bank we toddled. And were told that the letter apparently was not good enough for them because it did not say "To the Manager..." above, now Crockster's adviser has kindly printed out another letter addressed indeed to the manager. Hopefully they will be more happy with that, I dare them not to be, those idiots.

When we told Crocky's adviser that the "university people" in the eyes of the Clydesdale Bank would know what to do, he went all: "Hu? The university doesn't have a bloody clue. Bank idiots."

I hope for the sake of our nerves and theirs that they will not send us away again to get what Crocky's adivser referred to as "the Stamp of God" from the Registry. If we will be shood off again and have to go and bother the registry people with that, I will throw a screaming fit.

What else?
Classes start next week on Tuesday. I already love my Russian class and already hate the guts of Jane Austen for writing Emma and am looking forward tremendously to the Psy classes.

So, I do not intend to clutter your "Friends" page even more, have a nice week, wherever you are!
Lots of hugs.