Doing my Laundry

written January 16, 2008:

Here I am in a foreign country where everything and everyone is new. Everything. The language. The food. Where I sleep. Most of my coworkers are Thai and even if and when they speak ‘english,’ I usually still can’t understand them. I even have to trust other people to do my laundry…

I walked down to the laundry room looking for the self-serve machines…well, there aren’t any. So I tried to explain to someone that I didn’t want certain things dried. Good luck. No one in the laundry department speaks english. What an exercise in letting go. As I looked around, all I saw was huge commercial size laundry machines with piles of laundry from every department of the resort stacked up like mini mountains…and there was my little bag, with my treasured shirts, a few socks, my brand new workout gear….and I just had to trust it would all come back to me. That was 3 days ago...

So today was the big day when it was supposed to be ready. I head down there and not only is everything dried but half of it is missing. I have a minor panic moment and go up to my room to double check that I am sure things are missing…yes, they are missing. So back down I go. I just looked at the lady and said ‘English?’ She goes and gets some guy…and much to my hearts content, as soon as he comes over my way, I notice another little stack of laundry in the corner that is the other half of my stuff, dried as well so it probably doesnt fit anymore (exaggeration) but hey, at least it didn’t get eaten by the big commercial size washing machines.I try to ask him how I can make a note next time that I do not want my things dried. He told me to just write it down next time when I drop my next load off. But I wasnt feeling too confident about that plan since no one in the laundry department spoke english. After he scratched his head for the tenth time, I just smiled and said thank you and walked away. Thank goodness for my sink, my liquid soap, and my drying rack….