Our Crazy Neighbors

We have an interesting set of people that live across the hall from us. We live in a building comprised of 4 apartments. Our across the hall neighbors moved in sometime between September and November..not really sure when. English is not their first language, and I have yet to hear them use English when they are in the hallway or screaming at each other in their apartment. There are possibly 2 guys and 1 girl. (I say possibly because I haven't seen one of the guys in a couple of months, so he may have moved out.) They are no taller than 5'7" and have a combined weight of 220 pounds, yet they individually sound like 2 ton elephants when they come up the stairs. The walls of our apartment sometimes shake. Now, I don't use this elephant analogy lightly. I grew up with 4 younger brothers and sisters in a 2 story house. My mom would constantly tell us to walk quieter down the stairs because we sounded like a herd of elephants. My siblings and I didn't even hold a candle to our neighbors. Nicholas and I have tried to make as much noise as they do when we come up the stairs, but every attempt thus far has failed.
They also yell at each other, or at least the volume of their voices are well above the 6 inch inside voice I was taught to use in elementary school. They are speaking Chinese, so I cannot accurately say they are "fighting." In fact, when they first moved in, I was terrified that the girl was being beaten based on her high pitched screaming. Much to my chagrin, I found out she was only laughing.
There was also an incident where the girl was trying to stick her key in our lock at 11 o'clock at night. Nicholas has knocked on their door before because they were being too loud. They didn't answer, but just got quiet. Another time, he knocked on the door because they had left their keys in the door. It took several attempts and "loud speaking" through the door to explain why he was knocking. There are also some interesting smells that waft into the hallway. I could handle smells from ethnic cooking I am not accustomed to, but I know that a good portion of the smells come from accumulated trash. It is sickening how much trash 2 people can amass, but they wait until they have 3 or 4 bags of trash before they take it out. Granted, our dumpster is far enough away that you really do have to "drive" your trash there, especially in the winter wonderland we have experienced as of late, but I have also seen them pile it on their balcony and leave it there for awhile. On a side note, it seems we have new neighbors that just moved in below them (and are smokers) that have the same trash philosophy. Lucky us!
The whole point of this diatribe was not really to complain about our neighbors. We have accepted our fate and count down the days when we will no longer be sharing space with them. No, I give you this background information so you will see the humor in this story. Each apartment has 1 assigned parking space. Our space happens to be right next to our across the hall neighbors, at the end of the row. I commented to Nicholas the other day that I had to park close to the curb because our neighbors park so close to the white line we share that I have recently had trouble getting into my car. This is even worse when it snows, and the snow accumulates in the empty space they have left in their parking spot, thus increasing the likelihood they will park closer to my car! I digress...Yesterday, Nicholas and I were walking out to the car for church around 8:45AM. It was snowing (or really "ice crystalling"), but it was really only wetting the payment. Imagine a row of 8 cars parked (with mine at the end), but one piece has been removed (kind of like Jenga) and is hanging on the edge. Oh, yes. Our neighbors had their car parked outside their parking spot, as if someone was in their spot, and they had parked behind them, except their spot was empty. Judging by the dryness under their car and the wetness all around, it seems they had been parked that way for quite some time, possibly all night long. Although, who knows when their night ended! We took a picture with Nicholas' phone, but I can't get the picture off *sigh*. The funny thing is that I wasn't surprised, just amused.