I had my first run-in with a SNAFU or the Arbeitsagentur (I wasn't surprised - are you?). The letter requesting that I show up on the 27th turned out to be, as I suspected, a mistake and since I knew that I let the matter drop after two unsuccessful attempts to get a hold of the woman who had sent it. (I am not drawing benefits; I only came in to get my resume reviewed and ask a few questions only to have a letter arrive two days later asking me to return for "a discussion of my employment situation" - could they be vaguer?)
My in-law's house, where we are staying is a disaster area (our fault), but we are feeding the cat and keeping the "rolladen" rolling shutters in the appropriate up or down position. Check this out - Years ago, D. was house-sitting for his parents and neglected the rolladen in a half-bath on the first floor. The room is not used and I, personally, feel that it is the height of silliness to raise and lower the blind in a room which no one enters. Well, apparantly, when his parents returned from vacation, the neighbors informed them about the blind which had not been raised and lowered. D. no longer remembers whether his parents were annoyed.
I refuse, on principle to mess with this blind. It is bad enough that we are fooling around with the blinds in unused bedrooms upstairs, in some cases wasting electricity to accomplish this. Is this to American, too practical? That's not me in the photo, btw. I am not blond, nor are there palm trees here near the Black Forest.
We were running out to work the other morning when two neighbors way-laid us and made sure we put out the trash cans. I think one of the cans was actually empty - but I didn't want to argue. I am grateful; we hadn't looked at the schedule, but one definitely does have the impression that one is being watched. The grape-vine among employees of a federal agency where I worked and where we all lived together is small potatoes compared to small-town Germany.
4 comments:
I don't get it. What's the point again of opening and closing blinds in unused rooms? Is this some ridiculous law?
hi there annonymous -
every culture has it's unwritten rules. The closing of blinds, even when isnt't necessarily running around in the buff is a well established tradition. Perhaps it's because German houses are set closer to the curb and people walking by look direclty into your home. Germans also tend more toward closing doors inside the house.
What I'm confused about is why open the blinds in the first place? If it's an unused room, why open them. I understand closing them at night, but in rooms that I never use, I never open the curtains. What would be the point? Is it tradition to open every blind every day?
Haha - I just read this (old) post of yours for the first time, and I can *so* relate! When my in-laws go on vacation, we are also on blind (and garbage can, and sweep-the-street, etc. etc.) duty and I can assure you, somebody *is* watching you!
@anon: it's not necessarily tradition, but leaving the Rollladen down is taken for a sure sign that potential robbers will think you're not home and break into the place.
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