String Theory

I'm taking a break from doing laundry. For one load it has taken me four hours, so far. I am having such problems with the laundry system here that I am seriously thinking about sending it all out.

First, a brief history. Today was my third time attempting laundry here at school. I'm in a dormitory of almost 200 people and there are (apparently) eight washing machines located sporadically throughout the building. They are coin operated, but do not take euros, only tokens that are worth one euro each. These are about the size of a quarter and have a hole in the middle (like the yen). In the first instance, the machine had a sharp edge and tore small holes in some of my delicate clothing (plus the light in the room didn't work, so I occasionally scratched my hand on the broken door retrieving the wash). Two weeks later I managed to complete a wash without any tears, but the spin cycle never happened so my clothing was soaking wet. And the drier didn't work, so I wasted 2 euros on that and still had to wring my clothing manually.

Which brings us to today. So, at about 6PM as I rode back from The Hague with Meita (Indonesia), Helga (Honduras), and Nuttakan (Thailand), I mentioned that I would be doing some laundry tonight. Someone asked if I knew about the string trick. Basically you tie some thread or floss through the token, put it in the coin slot, then pull it out once the switch is activated. Apparently you need to have the string a certain length for it to work. So we decide to test it. The laundry room that we went to is on the 8th floor and everyone swears it's the best. I load my clothes into the machine, shut the door, then put the coin in. It gets stuck (don't double the floss, just use a single strand). So we put another token on a string and attempt to dislodge the first one. The washer starts making noise like it is on, but it isn't filling with water. We attempt to stop it but the door won't open. My clothes are locked in.

After about 10 minutes of fiddling with the machine a minor miracle occurs. The second token is spit out and the machine door opens, freeing my clothing. But we decide to shut the door and try again. By now there are about six of us attempting to manipulate the machine and we have a butcher's knife. After another 10 minutes we have not freed the lost token, but have managed to put another token on a string in the machine and start it again, but this time with water. Then we give up. Getting free laundry isn't worth this much hassle.

I wish the story was over. An hour to wash, then to the drier. My clothes seem fine. The string trick doesn't work either, even though over half the people present had gotten it to work on both that washer and drier. So I pay. An hour and a half later I retrieve my clothes from the drier. They somehow managed to become even wetter than they were when I put them in. But now they are hot too. The room is like a sauna. I cannot continue to use the drier without putting in another token (I’m out). So I lug my wash back to my room to dry on the rack. And the lack of drier sheets and no place for fabric softener make the hanging a chore because I need to turn the heat on and open the windows or end up with stiff scratchy clothes. Plus, I still need to wash my sheets and towels and lab coat. I think that will wait until tomorrow when I get a second opinion about the laundry situation here. I am both entertained and perturbed about how complex the laundry situation is here.

At least my classes aren't as difficult.