$6.00 Maple Syrup and our Neighbors

We went shopping at the German version of a very low budget Walmart today. We like going there because they have a larger selection of food than our local grocery store and as well they have the home stuff as well. The big excitement tonight was a blender and hand mixer! We were in the international section looking at the american food and I thought it would be nice to make pancakes for Sunday breakfast...until I looked at the syrup and realized it was $6! Then I noticed the Pam spray was $5! So we decided that pancakes weren't necessary!

I also realized that I do not think I have given a good description of our neighbors. We live in a building with 5 other apartments and one doctor's office. We never seem to see anyone going in or out of the dr. office but their packages and mail seem to be picked up so we are going to assume for now that they are really a functioning office! Our neighbors below us seem to be pretty quiet, we believe they are a married couple with one child. In Germany instead of apartment numbers you put your name outside of your door and that is how the mailperson delivers mail. So their plaque has 3 names on it and that is as much as we know about them. Our neighbors that share our entryway (our apt. was once 1 large apt. now separated into 2) is an Indian couple who will be here for another 4 months..... so a little bit about this couple. When we first moved in it was just the man living there. It was a nice peaceful quiet existance. Then his wife came. Now it is another story. Like me, she is not able to work while she is here so she is generally home, cooking. Very aromatic cooking. That tends to drift into our apartment. Matt has often commented that he almost jokes when he comes home from work. I am sure the neighbor man is very happy with his home-cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. We aren't feeling the same. She also seems to blow a fuse every other day. Now, normally I wouldn't know about this but given that their fusebox is in our apartment I am constantly informed when a fuse goes out. She is nice enough but between the cooking and the constant knocking I am starting to feel differently!
We are very lucky and happy to have hardwood floors throughout and very tall ceilings. Our neighbors above us are also very happy to have hardwood floor throughout. As well the woman is a piano player/piano teacher/voice teacher/flute teacher/amature singer. She loves to share her talents with others throughout the day. The piano part is actually enjoyable when she is playing but when the 13 year old beginner comes over it is quite another story. The wood floors and tall ceilings are excellent acoustics and carry sound very very well.

So, our neighbors are all very friendly and seem to be very nice. But, I don't think the "shared wall" theory is well known to them!

We are still enjoying relatively warm weather here. We have had a week or so of very cold weather but lately it has been in the high 40's! It looks like we might get down in the 30's next week, but the city of Frankfurt always seems to be a little warmer than everywhere else!