The Laundry is Whiter on the Other Side
With the experiences of being around the block a few times under my belt, I am capable of fixing toilets in any country (Gerry rigging counts), operating microwaves without a manual, cooking with the most bizarre of produce and making it edible, haggling without words, and getting most of my problems solved through a combination of Pictionary and pantomime. The single most frustrating task I have come across in the language barrier sector, aside from my moment of peril where I almost landed out in the middle of Slavic nowhere because I was short $2, is the seemingly unfailing operation of a washing machine. Back home, I owned mostly neutral colors but there were a few brights here and there. The clothes had all been washed a thousand times and then washed together without fail, so why should I change my clothes washing procedures now? Foreign washers have so many choices (A through X on cycles and temperatures) that I am broken down to absolute frustration trying to fathom what my options are. It doesn’t help that the temperatures aren’t always listed.
My landlord’s daughter in Croatia gave me the head’s up on the washing machine, telling me that if I used brights, “5” would be the best setting. After a pair of lacy pink panties squeezed into my all-white linen load, all hell broke loose. What will the landlord’s think when they pull into the driveway and see pink sheets hanging from my balcony??!! This will be Foreign Laundry Incident No. 2. Incident No. 1 took place in Turkey when again I washed my clothes together, with a well-washed turquoise blue hoodie and white Gap t-shirt amongst the load. If you guessed pale blue Gap t-shirt, I’ve set this up all too well. If when I unscrewed the caps at the grocery store there wasn’t an impermeable cover, I could smell which one is bleach and solve all my problems. Today’s mishap seems to be nearly solved, after a thorough re-washing of the whites sans panties. My Gap t-shirt is still recovering and seems to be a bit whiter after being exposed to pink. Am I completely stupid, non-technical, and dependent on others to do my laundry? I don’t have an existing track record prior to March 2007, but apparently while in foreign countries I am definitely in need of assistance where all things laundry are concerned.
Tags: Croatia, India, laundry, mishaps, Tag Index
cristi.farrell