Elevator
Sometimes my elevator just doesn’t come after I call it – or so I thought when I moved in. Normally it would arrive in under 30 seconds, but sometimes minutes would pass before I’d give up and walk down 11 flights of stairs. Or at least I’d start to do so, before finding an elevator waiting, empty on the floor below mine.
By now I understand that nearly a third of the time the elevator goes to the 10th floor instead of the 11th and sits there, waiting to be noticed. It happens every time the middle of the 3 elevators rises towards the 11th floor. Since those of us who live on the 11th floor never know which elevator is coming, this means that we have to periodically peek over the stairwell railing to see if there is an elevator waiting for us. This is easily done at night, when the elevator light reflects off the floor, but it’s a real challenge to tell if the elevator is there during the day. To really know if it’s waiting for you down below, you have to run down the stairs, take a look at the light, and then run back up if it’s not on.
In defiance of the odds, in the 4 months I’ve lived here, every time I’ve run down to the 10th floor the elevator has come to the 11th.
The first time I realized that the elevator had decided to stop a floor short, I wondered if it had gone haywire, and whether it was safe to ride in. Of course I preferred risking a stuck elevator to taking the stairs, and after a few nervous rides I decided there was nothing to worry about.
Once you're inside the elevator, the only real challenge is understanding the talkative deliverymen you meet there. Somehow it’s these short, on-the-street-type conversations that are toughest for me. I can maintain a reasonably complex conversation about, say, politics without too much difficulty, but I can’t understand the empanada man talking about the weather. I smile and say “sí, sí, claro,” counting the floors left between me and my escape.
By now I understand that nearly a third of the time the elevator goes to the 10th floor instead of the 11th and sits there, waiting to be noticed. It happens every time the middle of the 3 elevators rises towards the 11th floor. Since those of us who live on the 11th floor never know which elevator is coming, this means that we have to periodically peek over the stairwell railing to see if there is an elevator waiting for us. This is easily done at night, when the elevator light reflects off the floor, but it’s a real challenge to tell if the elevator is there during the day. To really know if it’s waiting for you down below, you have to run down the stairs, take a look at the light, and then run back up if it’s not on.
In defiance of the odds, in the 4 months I’ve lived here, every time I’ve run down to the 10th floor the elevator has come to the 11th.
The first time I realized that the elevator had decided to stop a floor short, I wondered if it had gone haywire, and whether it was safe to ride in. Of course I preferred risking a stuck elevator to taking the stairs, and after a few nervous rides I decided there was nothing to worry about.
Once you're inside the elevator, the only real challenge is understanding the talkative deliverymen you meet there. Somehow it’s these short, on-the-street-type conversations that are toughest for me. I can maintain a reasonably complex conversation about, say, politics without too much difficulty, but I can’t understand the empanada man talking about the weather. I smile and say “sí, sí, claro,” counting the floors left between me and my escape.
previously there was anti-war
afterwards you have Ladies First
comments
andrea
as regards the weather and to help you out with the deliverymen i'm sending the typical phrases you will hear around baires. it doesn't really matter whether it's cold or hot, rainy or sunny, some utterances will come in handy anytime. all year long you will hear neighbors saying "lo que mata es la humedad" referring to humidity, or "el tiempo esta loco" meaning how changeable the climate is or "el pronostico anuncio otra cosa" (they always forecast the very opposite so no problem with this sentence). my suggestion is replying with any of these sentences. if they're talking about other things just follow the conversation with "que barbaro, que terrible" if they are complaining about something. or just "claro". we also make use of these phrases when we don't feel like talking to taxi drivers. good luck!
[submitted on 22 Feb 03]