The Red River Path

Our house (apartment building) has a blog site now to keep everyone updated on events and it also gives a place for everyone to complain.

So much red

We live on Rauðarástigur or Red River Path in English

Our new neighbor put red lights in all his windows leading to jokes about how this building is the Red Light district of Reykjavík.

To make it worse, he (the new guy) has started to change hallway lighjt bulbs to the red ones.

It is getting hard to see our way around now.

But if you walk past our building you will know you are here from all the red windows and if you open the building door you will be greeted by a nice red light.

It is all starting to get a little creepy.

A Bad Joke

Our new neighbour came over and asked Davíð how to use the washing machine. Davíð called me and I told him that he needs to pull out the drawer on the top of the washer, then add the soap, pre-wash soap and softener in the appropriate spots. I though I had explained it well and in detail.

The next time I go to do laundry, the washer is fine. Then I get to the dryer. I pull out the part that holds all the water to empty it, our dryer saves the water- then we pour it down the drain.
The container is full of ...... not water but laundry soap!

ahhhhhhhhhhhh......!!!!

I do not know where to even start trying to get all that laundry soup out. The dryer does not work well when it is full of soap!

So I went to get angry. I am still a little upset - between the two of them someone should have figured out which one was a washing machine and which one was a dryer.

Now our newest neighbour thinks Davíð did it on purpose, as a joke. He, the new guy, say: Good One!

I am not convinced it is a good one.

The New Neighbor

The first clues about our newest neighbors are a little troubling. They seem to lock themselves in the apartment, or use a combination lock when they go out?

I wonder why they do not just use a deadbolt lock like everyone else?

It is just too strange.

Davíð and I talked about it and decided that they must be werewolves. They are locking themselves in the apartment to keep everyone else safe, just in case of a full moon.

But then who is letting them out in the day?

The New Neighbor

This is not the kind of new neighbor we were hoping for.
It looks like some more unwanted tenants, similar to the ones earlier in thew year that were living in the attic, have moved into Gísli's old apartment. Since the city owns the apartment we will call them in tomorrow to clean it up.
I tried to get pictures, but Davíð had already gone in and locked all the windows and the door so no one could get back in with out smashing a window, and that might still happen.
So this is the damage so far:

Blinds taken down, this probably happened when they went through the window. (We are guessing)

Someone went through our storage rooms in the attic.

made a mess in them, we might have to call the police, in case something was stolen. Almost everyone who lives in the building is on holidays, so they will not get the news until they get back.

Someone even found a photo album for some light reading.

Dragged other stuff around.

There is some food on the counter, I guess everyone needs to eat.

Clan's Gone

The small town that was living in one apartment on the third floor has disappeared. I am not at all disappointed. It seemed almost magical that they could fit at least 15 people into an apartment the size of mine.

Not that I have much right to complain, there is 5 of us here in my apartment.

This is great news for the laundry room. Finally I do not have to stay up until the middle of the night to try to wash some clothing.

Two apartment are also on holidays and one is empty, so we almost have the place to ourselves.

The stupid guy who does not pay his house fees is still around, too bad.

So all is well on Rauðarástigur, for now.

A broken washer

Thursday night I went to do laundry so we would have some clean clothing when we came back from our trip. I put the clothing in the washer and when I went to get them out, two and a half hours later, there was water everywhere.

I tried to fix it, Davið tried to fix it, the stupid spin cycle is broken.

I talked to the guy across the hall and he said the same thing happened to him. So everyone else seems to know the thing is broken. I mentioned that some one should call a repairman but since I was leaving right away for camping I could not.

I came back from camping today to see that no one has fixed the machine or called someone else to do it.

Everyone kept trying to do laundry all weekend, so it is no secret it is the thing is broken, so why didn't anyone do anything about it?

I guess that is the problem when the washer belongs to everyone, everyone assumes that someone else will take care of it.

Tomorrow I will call someone, because now I have no clean clothing.

A Clean Attic

The attic has finally been cleared out.

There have been threats since July but now it has been done.

And it was sick! Needles from the junkies, gross furniture and garbage everywhere. It is all gone now.

It looks so naked up there now!

Soon we paint!

Our First House Meeting

I am hoping this is only the first of many to come. Up until now it has been a very inactive house.

What is a house meeting? Everyone who lives in the apartment building gets together to decide things for the building. We vote on everything. Renters do not get votes and people who do not show up do not get a vote either. It is one vote per apartment. Most of the meeting is about the house fund and what should be done with it.

What is the house fund? The house fund is an account we all pay into each month. There is a set amount that each apartment is expected to pay. Right now we pay 5,500 a month, about 80.00.

Highlights

• Davið is now the chairperson of our house. He leads the meetings and sets dates for new meetings. I think he is also responsible for making sure things get done.
• Linda, the older women from right above us is still in charge of the finances. We are hoping this will change because maybe she is not that honest with the money. She avoided showing anyone bank information. This will get better because in June we are switching to an online banking so everyone in the house can see what is going on with the money.
• Starting in June 2007, we are raising the monthly house fees to 8,000 kr a month. We are hoping to get some real savings going and do some renovating.
• Starting June 2007 we are starting to have the house fees officially charged to the bank accounts. This way people have to pay them, and on time.
• Two people in the house were not paying the fees. One did not show up for the meeting and it was agreed collectors would be sent after him. The other one claimed he had completely forgot about them. These guys have not paid for an entire year. They are both going to have to pay now and it will be some good money for the house fund.
• The people upstairs want balconies.
• The guy across the hall from me, the kinda crazy one, was not at the meeting. There was posters reminding everyone of the date but Linda told him it would actually be on Monday. This will cause a problem. No one wants to be the one to tell him we had the meeting without him. Luckily he is only a renter and has no real say in things.
• Everyone finally kinda agreed to cancel the newspapers that were coming here. Sure they are free but no one reads them and we are the only ones taking them int o be recycled.
• The guys that owns the apartment that housed strippers claimed that he will be renting to a family now who will be here a long time.
• The guys that had the crazy party did not show up, I suspect they were just avoiding anyone.
• This Sunday everyone will be working together to clean out the attic. The next weekend we will be painting it.
• The laundry facilities will then all be moved up to the attic. This will be such a hassle for me.
• The old laundry room will be used for bikes and strollers. This is good because they are always blocking up the hall.

I think that is it for tonight. It might seem really boring to most people, but to me I see this as a sign that my apartment building will get better.

New Girls Upstairs

In the apartment upstairs, that is owned by Champagne Girls, a strip, dance place downtown, has some new tenants.

They look like dancers too, just like the last girls that lived there. The ones that did not get paid.

So they must be new too.

The question is should I mention to them that the last girls were not paid?

Reasons Why Not

1. I do not know them well, so they might not even believe me.
2. I do not want an angry club owner after me
3. I have kids, I really do not need to worry about them any more then I already do
4. It is not really my business
5. They might be getting paid, then I would just seem to be a liar

Reasons To

1. Nobody, including me likes to see someone get ripped off
2. I might not be able to sleep the same if I just pretended not to know anything
3. These owners are bad people, they should be stopped
4. I might be able to save someone anymore trouble

Anyways, it is something to think about. I am not sure yet what to do but if you want to work there for free yourself I found an ad online to apply.

http://www.thebestdancers.com/strip_club_info1.php

My Apartment, from the top

This is my neighbourhood. My building Red Roof between the red and blue one. The big white thing across the road is the hotel I work at.

The girls upstairs

We live in a very colorful neighbourhood and my apartment building is a great example of it.
Today I will only tell you about one apartment.

On the third floor on the left is an apartment owned by the owners of a club called Champagne Girls. The owners use this apartment as a place to house dancers and bouncers for the club.

Champagne Girls is a strange place. I have heard stripping is not allowed in Iceland but these girls dance. Then guys can buy the girls drinks. The girls sit with them and be nice while these stupid guys pay lots of money for drinks.

Two of these girls moved upstairs from me. They were super nice and moved here from England and Scotland to make some extra money.

They were hired under contracts and promised large amount of money to come work in Iceland. After a month of working it came time to get paid..... The employers took huge hidden fees and what they called taxes off the checks and left them with next to nothing.

They worked 6 days a week, often 12 hour nights and tolerated unfair treatment. Then when it was time to get paid they were left with just enough to fly home with.

They were badgered and harassed until they agreed to just take the small amount of cash offered to them.

I suspect that I will be seeing a lot of this. This company brings in girls from all over the world.

What if these girls had lived farther away? Lucky for them there is cheap flight from Iceland to England, so they could get home. I can imagine that a lot of girls would have trouble getting the money together to leave.

This is only a part of the story, the entire thing is to long to type out in one day, but I think you can get the point. So, if ever in Iceland and happen to walk past Champagne Girls downtown, please feel free to grab a rock.