laundry

when I heard that I would have a washing machine in my apartment I was ecstatic! To think of the trips to the laundremat I could avoid let alone the torture of having to find a laundremat here before my clothes all smelled bad enough that they would ask if I could teach French lessons! Little did I know what adventures awaited me with my very own washing machine...

First of all, my washing machine (read washing machine NOT washer and dryer- Europe doesn't really do dryers) anyway, it lives on my bathroom floor and is about the size of 2 microwaves ontop of eachother (although the capacity is barely that of one microwave) and once you get it plugged in- at the top of the opposite wall accross the door- and the water hooked up- under the sink at the other wall- my already tiny bathroom becomes quite the jungle gym. The first day I asked Ilí how to work it and she said she didn't know but she would tell me later. ok.... then on Saturday when she came by I asked again and she said that one of the legs was broken and it wobbled and somebody was meant to fix it but they didn't- oh well I don't care my one bag of clothes is getting nasty. So together we figured it out- her Hungarian and my mechanical guess work. Then I had to buy detergent. Maybe an easier task had it not been Sunday which meant that everything was closed except the TESCO (SuperTarget) a short walk from my house. A god send in most situations- I know what stuff is, I can find everything and I don't have to ask for what I want. In this case it meant an entire aisle of detergents to pick from. shit. so I went for the one with some German on it- however, aparently my ability to say my name is sara, how are you? I live in the last apartment and thanks for the flowers to the little old ladies in my building had given me false confidence in my German abilities that did not transfer to laundry detergent instructions- oh well I'll just pour some in and hope my clothes get clean while avoiding the cartoonish image of soap suds pouring out my windows and doors.

Back in my apartment I "filled" up my load with 2 pairs of jeans and 2 t-shirts poured in some soap and hoped for the best. It started doing it's thing and turning and turning and I waited and waited and WAITED. It was over an hour and it didn't seem to be done so I took a walk thinking funny little Euro-washer takes it's sweet time! and then I came home and opened it up to check...

I found 2 pars of jeans and 2 t-shirts perfectly dry. Either I had the best washer/dryer combo ever or something had gone wrong. And it had. I never hooked up the water. Awesome. Take 2 went fine, didn' take long at all and I even managed to assemble the drying rack and hang my things up and now I have 2 pairs of Jeans and 2 t-shirts that are extremely stiff but also dry and CLEAN!