Laundry Funk

Hello all!

Sorry for the lack of posting during the work week- not too many exciting things happening when you spend 11 hours of your day going to or being at work!

My nights this week have consisted of doing laundry! Lame I know and not worth posting about at all- except I have the worst luck when it comes to doing laundry (apparently). Laundry is a bit more challenging over here, when the Hilton charges $15 an ITEM! Most of my clothes, like an Old Navy tank top, aren't even $15 new!

Monday I went to check out the base laundry. It's free except you have to bring your own detergent. Sounds simple, free laundry right on base- perfect right? But no, I couldn't figure out how to get the dumb machines open. It said to press the red button to open the door- there was no red button. My coworker was as dumbfounded as me. Strike 1.

So Tuesday I was planning on going over to the SBT's house to do some laundry there. I loaded up my backpack and a tote bag with dirty clothes. However, during the day, a lady I met here, Janet, who just moved here at the start of October for a 3 year tour, just got her new computer and apartment and wanted some help installing Skype so she could see her grandkids. No big deal, I could just go there and do my laundry for she has 2 washers and 1 dryer in her new place. (The government gives her $60K a year to live here- she has a sweet crib!) Well the silly washers we could not figure out to use. There were no standing settings but there was an 8 hour soak feature and a dial with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, B, C, D, E, F. In the future, don't ever put it on randomly guessed setting "E". My clothes were stuck in there for hours and since it's a front-loading washer, we couldn't get them out. Even the manual was unhelpful! While my clothes were still spinning in wet water for hours, we walked to Dominoes nearby and ordered a pepperoni pizza- NO GOOD! The pepperonis tasted like a cross between fish and ham. We were quickly learning basic things were not as simple overseas.

I eventually got my clothes out after cutting the power to the machine, and threw them into a bag soaking wet. Hopped in a cab and after 6 hours of unsuccessful laundry was back at the hotel, hanging dripping garmets up around the room. Strike 2.

Wednesday rolls around and I decided to give laundry another go. I brought the clothes I hadn't even attempted to wash yet, since the Janet-night clothes were still drenched and I didn't feel like taking bags of wet clothes on my hour long commute. Jon picks me up after work and takes me over to his place. The washer and dryer looked familiar-  I've seen the exact models before. This is promising. I throw my clothes in, water starts coming out. It's looking good. The settings are in English, it's getting better and better! I go to dinner with the guys and come back- my clothes are GONE!

Oh wait, just kidding, one of the other guys in the house moved them over to the dryer!!! Everything worked out :) The SBT is totally keeping me alive and sane!!!

Thursday night I go back to their place to just use the dryer on the still very damp clothes from Tuesday night. Jon tells me I should just wash them all again or they're gonna have a "funk". He said he's been in this situation before and clothes line-drying for 2 days will smell "funky." At this point I'm so over doing laundry but he's right, as I pull them out of my damp backpack there is a weird smell to them. So I just go for it, all the clothes in 1 load- darks, whites, pinks etc.

I go to dinner expecting to come back to a greyish-pinkish mistake. NOPE! It was all good!

Last night Melissa stopped by on her layover at 2am. We got breakfast this morning and this afternoon I'm off to Bali with her- with some fresh smelling clothes!!

Not sure if I'll post while in Bali, but I sure will when I get back next week!

Miss ya!