Arjan Talks to the New Neighbor

Tuesday Arjan came home and found the new neighbor had left the key in the door. Oops...I've caught the neighbor below doing that as well. So, he rang the bell and the woman, who is there most, came to the door with no head covering making it clear to see they are Moroccans and not Turks. The daughter came to the door as well and helped her mother with Netherlands. I heard Arjan talking to them and telling them about our cats and me so decided I'd make an appearance. The woman was nice and even shook my hand. I was so surprised when the daughter told me her name is Sameera, now don't know if she spells it the same way my Indian "Sameera" spelled it.

It totally brought me back to the summer's of 1980 and 1981 when I worked at Four Seasons Day Care Center right near my house in Buffalo. Three Indian sisters really took to me, Sareena was 10, Yousara was 6, and Sameera was 2. They were so sweet. (I hope to remember to post a photo when I find the one of them, if it will scan ok from that long ago.) So, needless to say...the neighbor girl, who's probably 8, and I got on well.

Arjan also informed her that the residents are responsible to clean up after themselves and take care of their own mail. Some of the six places in our building have gotten lazy with their mail and anything they don't want or comes that is not for them they just throw on the ground beneath the post boxes. Someone even put a box down there now to hold it. Well, when these people opened their box, of course, it was chuck full and they just put it in the box, causing it to overflow and and it was all over the place. (They do not have change of address cards like they do in the US.) They do have stickers you can put on your box to not receive ads or the free weekly papers, it just the people don't do it...I'm thinking of getting some and just putting on their boxes.

That evening I went on a walk and when I went downstairs I found Sameera was emptying the box in the trash, granted there are still sunflower seeds and a piece of cable on the floor. The mother had water all over the floor in the storage area, where her and our storage areas are. Part of me thought she was cleaning up something another part of me thought she was cleaning the floor. When I returned they were gone, the floor in the entrance was dirty from stepping in on the wet floor then on it, and the storage hall floor felt sticky. What did I find yesterday when I opened our storage but whatever it was leaked onto our side, fortunately looking like only in the front. I think it's water and come up to get something to get it up with, only to find out that it is a sticky yellow substance. AARG! I'm hoping it will dry up and be ok.

The new neighbors are still not living there but the power and gas was turned on Wednesday and I saw a light in there yesterday, and there are drapes up in the living room, besides they've moved more things in. The problem is they don't come to do anything till late in the afternoon or early evening and last night they were still making noise in the hall after 11:30...I wanted to go out and remind them the children still have school for two more weeks in Rotterdam. They also have a thing with ringing the doorbell I'm probably going to have to at some point have to let them know that we hear it. I get the feeling these people may not be used to living so close to other people, at least other people that are not family or from their culture.

So, our building becomes more multi-cultural.