Photo Challenge Day 4–Mailbox

This is our mailbox… right outside our front door.  Our German mail lady, who in the summer rides by on her bike with a big basket in front, asked me to put my family name on the mailbox itself… so I did.  Below is the place where we collect German newspapers and then promptly recycle them.

The German package lady finds herself on my doorstep at least twice a week, sometimes more.  She has seen me in my loungewear and workout clothes with no makeup more times than not, which is actually the same as my extended family via skype) but I have stopped caring and she doesn’t seem to mind since I’m helping her out quite a bit.  I am now known as the ‘official stay at home mom’ of the block I suppose.  Everyone else on my street works, and if a package comes and they’re not home, which they never are, then she comes knocking on my door to be ‘the official package collector’ because I’m almost always home.  I sign my name to receiving their package and then they get a slip of paper in their mailbox that says their package is over at the Johnsons.    The funny thing is that MY packages come through the military (Chris has to pick them up on base)  so she never delivers anything to me.

The speaker is part of an intercom system which is really cool.  In my family room and upstairs in the hallway right outside my bedroom are the phones that attach to the outside intercom.  When someone rings I can pick up the phone upstairs and say hello.  Then I can push a button to automatically unlock the doors and let them in.  Very handy.

The two buttons under the speaker are the doorbells.  Yes, plural.  The top one for ringing the top floors and the bottom for ringing the bottom floors.  I’m not sure why we need two since we can hear them no matter where we are but there you go.  Two bells.   Germans NEVER knock on the door -- they always ring. At first we forgot and knocked on our neighbor, Sylvie’s, door and she asked about our knocking.   I  I told her that Americans always knock first and then maybe ring and she thought it was very fascinating.  I’m remembering to always ring instead of knock.

The button below the doorbells is the light switch so you can turn on the outside light –which also can be turned on and off from inside the entry way.