Laundry

Do you remember the first time you really felt like an adult? For me it was in 1992, after way too many evenings at the Laundromat we bought our own washer and dryer even though we were poor, poor, poor. I never thought buying an appliance could make me so happy! Ever since then, occasionally when I do laundry I still say a silent thank you for the ability to wash and dry clothes at my house. If you haven’t spent a lot of time in a Laundromat before, you might not understand the significance, but they are very strange places. I could have written a blog about those days for sure!

I’ve been observing the washer/dryer situation here from a distance afraid to ask too many questions and risk coming off as a critical American. I understand having both a washer and dryer here is not super common due to space. The washer is usually in the kitchen which one doesn’t see in the States. We usually have whole rooms devoted to the washer and dryer, although they are usually small and unfinished. I have heard people here talk about having a washer/dryer machine that washes and then dries the clothes but they don’t seem to do either very well. When I was house-sitting, they had a dryer that had a water compartment that had to be emptied occasionally. There was no dryer duct that connected to the outside. I have never seen a dryer like this and it seemed to take an extra long time to dry clothes. I have also talked to folks who have no dryer, and rely on their radiators in each room to dry their clothes. Of course they also hang clothes out on the line outside, which just seems like an exercise in futility to me. When we lived in El Paso, Texas I hung out every load of laundry we did on the line, but El Paso is nicknamed “Sun City”. Clothes were dry in no time.

I was telling H about this on the phone one night and his response was something like, “We’re spoiled Americans”. In my opinion, having a way to dry clothes does not seem like being spoiled, but then when Mel visited I had to change my thinking. After being here only two days she wanted to do laundry. Okay, we are spoiled Americans.