German elevators are horrible

This building is driving me crazy. Not, like, I have cabin fever and need to get out, but rather, the actual building is driving me crazy.

First of all, dust collects in this room like crazy. I don't know how. It doesn't makes sense! There is one vent in the room; it's in the bathroom, but it doesn't blow air into the room - it sucks it out - so I don't think that's the source. I have a radiator, so there's nothing coming in from there because, well, it radiates. I rarely open the windows so it's not from there. The only thing I can think is that the dust is coming in from the hallway. It's the only possibility. Nicole made the comment that, after we were gone for 3 days to the Bodensee, that she couldn't believe how much dust had collected even while no one was there and while there was no one opening or closing the door. So does that really mean that all this dust is coming from the half inch opening between the bottom of the door and the floor? That's crazy if it's true.

Then there is the problem with the elevators. I have never seen anything like the elevators here - and by here I mean all over Munich and not just in Orange House. Honestly, it is really common for a building to have a really small elevator with a door that opens like a regular door and then, once the door has shut, there is a sliding door inside. It was weird at first, but I got used to it.

There are 2 entrances to my building, the south and the north, and I usually go in the north because I live right near the north stairwell on the ninth floor. This elevator is always acting up. I am constantly coming home and there is a sign that says the elevator is out of order. Sometimes I walk up the nine flights and sometimes I walk down the hall to the south stairwell, depending on how I'm feeling.

So today I was walking down the stairs (I think it's lazy to take the elevator when you're decending) and when I hit the ground floor I went to open the door like I always do - with a lot of force because it's a big heavy door! BAM! I bounced! I think I bruised my hip in the process, too! I check again to make sure I was on the ground floor and tried the door again. It was locked. I have no idea how or why, but it was locked. So I had to walk up to the first floor, head down the hallway to the other stairwell and then go back down to the ground floor. I walked towards the north stairwell to see if there was something that could be done from the other side of the door. There was nothing, but I confirmed that it was locked from this side as well. Oh well, when I headed back home I knew to use the other stairs.

So when I was done my errands, I entered through the south entrance instead of the north and hit that elevator. A couple of weeks ago (I think it was on Dec. 26 or 27) there were several notes left in the stairwells from the housing department that said they had to fix something in the south stairwell on the 8th or 9th floor and, therefore, the elevator would be set not to stop at the 8th floor for a period of, like, 24 hours. That's fine, no big deal, right? Well, two weeks later and they haven't reactivated the 8th floor. Everytime I use that elevator (and, again, recently I use it a lot because the one in the north stairwell hasn't been working well) I have to go to the 10th floor and walk down. I'm not so lazy as to get really upset about the fact that I have to walk down a hall and a flight of stairs, but I'm just really getting annoyed that nothing works!

It might just be bad timing because maybe the Hausmeister is on vacation, so nothing is getting fixed, I don't know; but it's still really, really annoying! Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I have to go ice my hip.