Crazy Americans

So, after that amazing meeting with Nathan’s teacher, I headed back to our apartment in the rain. As I got closer, I could hear my boys yelling for me… typical White boys. ☺ I waved and realized that they were ALL out on the balcony. Wes was taking pictures, and the boys were all waving. I thought everything was fine… until I got close enough for Wes to ask me if I had a key to get in. I didn’t, b/c they were all home, and they usually just buzz me in. I’ve never needed a key before… until this particular day!

Our sliding glass doors have no handle on the outside, so if you shut the door behind you, there’s no way for you to get back in unless someone INSIDE opens it for you. Well, yeah, you guessed it. Wes had asked Jonathan to go inside to get tissues for Carolina. Wes was wiping Carolina’s nose when he hear the door shut… Jonathan had closed it solidly behind him. AND, since I didn’t have a key to get into the house… there was no way for me to let them back in!

My guess is this is all very European (or maybe just big city), but we have a door-bell that has a camera connected to it. When you walk up to the outside of our apartment, there is a button for each apartment. So, when someone buzzes ours, we can look into the screen and see who is there. We push the button and it unlocks the first gate and then the inside door to the lobby for them to enter. Then, once you get up to our door, there is no door-knob on the outside. It can only be opened with a key or by somebody on the inside (since there IS a door knob on the inside). So, even if could’ve gotten a neighbor to buzz me in, there was no way for me to get into the apartment itself.

I had quite the adventure with the language that afternoon! I had to walk down to the real-estate agency that rented us the apartment, and try to get them to understand what happened. I didn’t have a phone on me or anything… there was no way to even call a colleague to help! I didn’t know anyone’s number by heart. They were all in my cell phone! So… the girl at the office knew who I was, thankfully, but she didn’t speak any English. I was pleasantly surprised that I knew enough Spanish to communicate what had happened. I’m sure that I didn’t say it all correctly, but she got the gist of it. She was very patient and helpful. She started making phone calls to see if she could find the owner.

Well, to make a long story short, the owner came over to unlock the door for us. All in all, it could’ve been SO much worse!! Wes and the kids were out on the balcony (while it was raining) for about two hours. When I first walked up, I was so scared that Wes was going to tell me that Carolina was inside the apartment by herself, and the rest of them were locked out on the balcony. THAT would’ve been really bad. Also, if we leave the keys in the door on the inside, you can’t unlock it from the outside… even if you have the key! I was also scared that we’d get up there, and we wouldn’t be able to open it b/c of that. SO, praise the Lord, everything worked out ok! I stood in the rain for a while, and the kids got a little cold, but we were all just fine! What an adventure! I’m sure they were all thinking what Crazy American’s we were!!! ☺