rauchen - to smoke

my friend from cologne comes to visit us this weekend. in honor of our first visitor i have tried to clean the house from top to bottom - not hard, the place is pretty small. everything looks clean: the floors are scrubbed, the surfaces are clean, the bathroom sparkles, but there is one problem. the smell!

the owner of this apartment smokes. the lingering stench of cigarette smoke greets you at the door, curls up with you on the couch and taints the aroma of our dinner. it drives me nuts! i bought febreeze the very first day we were here. i washed all the linens. i have little air fresheners in all the outlets. still it hangs in the air, taunting me, following me around the apartment, tapping me on the shoulder and laughing in my face.

then yesterday i noticed that the smell was dissipating. i could actually smell the cleansers i am using - not a great replacement, but a little better. victorious and exhausted i flopped myself down on the couch. my satisfied smile slowly turns to a grimace as i hear the woman upstairs return home for her siesta. moments later smoke literally seeps through the ceiling. i can practically see it! **sigh** i am back to square one.

everyone here smokes. in fact, it was one of the first verbs we learned in german class. i am tempted to give up. surrender to the smell. wave my white (slowly yellowing) flag. when in europe do as the europeans do. anybody got a light?