hace ruido

I'm quite stressed. So in our little handbook that the program gave us, it states that noise after 11PM is forbidden. The director told us all during orientation that people can just call the cops on us for being noisy without any warning. I don't know or understand what is considered an appropriate decibel at night. When you put 5 girls who love to laugh together in an apartment that echos like a tunnel, things tend to get loud.

I wished that the program had put us all together in a dorm-like place, like Steph's Berkeley travel study program. They're all together and connected (albeit their internet connection sucks, so I've heard, and they also have a security guard). It's quite difficult to plan activities with other people in the program when we're all spread out around the city. It'd also be nice to know if I'm bothering people or not with my noise level.

In this creepy, dark, and echo-ey apartment building, I haven't seen any of my neighbors except for these guys who live on the floor below us. They told us to shush one night when Tina and I were talking while eating dinner in the kitchen. They need more laughter in their lives.

The landlady also likes to pop in at random times to check up on us. Apparently she has gotten some noise complaints about us from other tenants. When? How? What were we doing?
I don't want to be disrespectful and add to the stereotype of rude and loud Americans. I don't want to draw any attention to myself. I already stick out like a sore thumb, being of Asian descent and whatnot.

It's interesting that Spaniards go out until 4-5 in the morning, play tonsil-hockey on the metro and at the park, and yell at each other on the streets at night, but they're bothered by a bunch of girls giggling. Heck, the garbage truck comes every night at 2 AM on the dot. Where do I file a noise complaint for that?

The landlady also popped in unexpectedly while we were having a couple people from the program over to watch Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone. We're not allowed to have people over, even if they're in the program. It is quite inconvenient because there's really no place for us to just hang out (or have study groups). I guess it's understandable because they don't want to be liable for anything that happens.
Apparently, Armine was napping when the landlady came to install smoke detectors and she told Armine, "Tu no vives! (You don't live here!)" Uh.. yeah she does.