After having such a good yesterday, today began in such a horrid way: Laundry day. I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate doing laundry. I hate doing it in America… and now I hate it all the more doing it here. I hate the sorting, the waiting, the folding… It is a terribly annoying and necessary process when there is so much better things to do. It is like pulling weeds, or filleting not-so-fresh-fish… I hate it with a passion. At least in America I understand the buttons and what they do… here… I could be sending my limited supply of clothing to a boiling and / or shrinking doom. On top of that, today I found out that laundry isn’t free and it requires two 50 euro cents. No big deal, but I found this fact out after my two loads of clothes were sprinkled with detergent and inside the machines. I was trying to figure out the buttons and the black screen when I looked up and saw the nasty little “coin eater” and its cruel little German sign for 50 euro cents. Okay, I can do 50 cents, no problem. I didn’t have the 50 cent coins so I put in two 20 cents and a 10 cent… Round of applause: I can count to 50! I pushed the red button, then the black button, and then the metal button, and sadly my coins were rejected and rolled back out to me.
I opened the door to the room and looked for an assistant… nobody. Okay, so I’ll just take out my clothes and try to do them by hand? Um… the machine door won’t open? It’s locked….. and my clothes are still inside???!!!!!!! I pulled on the rim and pushed my fingers as much as I could around the door, tried to say nice things to the machine, but it didn’t like my English and refused to budge. I was really trying not to panic, but these are my clothes and I didn’t know have any way to get them out! I walked inside, outside, up and down stairs trying to find someone, anyone, to help me… but there wasn’t a bloody German in sight. I didn’t want to knock on any doors and disturb someone on his / her day off. I wouldn’t want to open the door to a panicked version of myself either and I try to follow do-unto-others kindness, so I sat on the staircase and waited, attempting to look at the situation as something to laugh and write about later (I’m currently writing, but still waiting for the laughter). Half an hour later, the friendly girl from the cafeteria walked out of her room. “Bitte! 50 euro cents?” She went back into her room and I was able to exchange my rejected money for the machine acceptable kind. I triumphantly went back to the laundry room put in one of the 50 cents… nothing happened… It needed to eat the other 50 cents. I put that coin in and machine started… but I still had the problem of the other load, still sitting drizzled with detergent and still locked away from me. I was crushed.
And so I waited for another German… 20 min, 30 min, 31, 32, 33… 40 I never thought clothes could ever stress me out! Finally another girl came into the building. I gave her 2 euro cents and got back four 50 cents…. Ran down the stair placed my two 50 cent into the machine… nothing happened. Pushed the red button, the black button, and the metal button… this time the money didn’t even come back to me. Angry and frustrated I added the next two 50 cents. The machine turned on and I quickly pressed Start (the one word featured in English) before it changed its mind. When I came back the door still wouldn’t open but after pushing every button in different sequence, I discovered that pushing the white and orange button at the same time opened the machine door.
For now every door and drawer has an article of clothing hanging from it: I wasn’t about to try using the drier. I don’t have an iron, and the wash didn’t take all the stains out of my jackets. I hate going to work in a wrinkled uniform. I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, hate doing laundry and I hate it all the more here. I will need to face my fears and attempt this again… but next time I’ll make sure to get a bag full of 50 cent coins and hand wash everything small enough that fits in my sink. At least with all this frustration I have a very clean and neat room. Floors washed, bathroom detailed, and my purchases from yesterday placed away… If only these clothes would dry so I could put them away as well.
Onto the goodish news of my day, we talked to chef this morning and found out our best internet option. Vodaphone has a wireless card. I added the “ish” to the good since activation is 50 euro and then 40 euro for each month of use. Seems the only option and I truly hate going after work or waiting till there are little to no hotel guests in the lobby. No one has directly told us not to go there, but I don’t think they really like having us there either. I really don’t want to go where I don’t belong. It is an added expense and more than I was hoping to spend, but I am going to split the cost and share it with the other intern… getting to use the card every other day. I would love to finally use my Skype. Emails and Facebook messages are one thing, but a familiar voice would be so welcome right about now.
I had to get out of my room, so while my buddy was napping, I took my ipod with me to the woods and breathed out the frustration of my morning. It helped, oh it helped so much and I was able to come back to Sonnenalp with more of a smile on my face. After she woke up we found the hotel laundry room and exchanged our towels and sheets for those fresh and clean. For dinner: no cafeteria for us. We walked down the road to a restaurant also owned by the hotel but run by trainees. It felt good to get out and be somewhere else and eat the German version of Italian food. We needed it to get out of our rooms and far away from the laundry machines to relax before these next five days of work.
1 week and 2 days since I got here/9 weeks and 6 days left in Sonnenalp/ 10 weeks and five days till I fly home/ 11 weeks and 1 day till I am back in Miami.
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