I thought Bender would be a good one to watch over this post, because I'm having to go toe-to-toe with ornery machines.Remember that scene in Pulp Fiction? "You know what the funny thing about Europe is? The little things. I mean, they got the same shit over there we got over here, but over there, it's just a little different." Vincent Vega (a pre-Scientology Travolta, when he was still cool) was referring mostly to the ability to buy beer in unlikely places and to smoke weed in "certain designated areas" of Amsterdam. What I'm talking about at the moment is dealing with my fucking laundry here.
Fortunately (in French: "happily"), I found a link to a short-lived blog by an American providing hints for day-to-day life in Paris (I can't find it now), so I wasn't completely unprepared. The major difference between French and American laundromats is that the former are all controlled by a central machine; you set up your load to run, then go over to the central computer and tell it which machine you're on and feed it your money. What I was not prepared for was the cost: 4.50 EUROS a load, plus 1 additional Euro per 10 minutes of drying. I spent just south of 20 bucks doing two loads of laundry...it's like a few months ago when I spent over 20 at that stupid parking garage in downtown San Francisco while dealing with the French consulate. It's a good thing I have not spent a centième at cafés or restaurants, b/c otherwise I'd be tap-dancing for change in a Metro station.
Vincent Vega was right about the little differences making things more interesting, but it's also the little differences that make things so much more difficult. Every task becomes an ordeal, especially for neurotic idiots like me. Going to buy food? Recite list of vocabulary in head, think through route to and from store, anticipate potential hazards, check and re-check wallet and keys, allez-y! Going to meet up with someone? Scour over map, re-read e-mail for the "digikode" for the door, recite relevant phrases asking for directions, go. Etc. Everyone I've talked to in the know agrees that dealing with the Bibliothèque Nationale is its own special brand of hell, dwarfing my more quotidian concerns with food and hygiene, so I haven't even started worrying about it yet.
Some people enjoy this kind of thing; they find the exploration invigorating and they like feeling themselves grow and learn in the process. As in so many things, I follow an adage of Borges: "I like having traveled, but I hate traveling."
4 comments:
To save $ on laundry, do like the French: buy string, make clothesline, don't dry, but hang, clothes to dry. There are all kinds of problems with this method - like the soggy walk back from the laundry room, problems with drying when it's cold and we outside - but it will save you from paying beaucoup bucks to dry your clothes.
I definitely found myself reciting relevant phrases to myself so i could pull them out as needed.
yeah, I ended up getting a foldable drying rack when I had to pay for doing my own laundry in Austria. It was about the same price, I think - five euro for the wash, a euro for 10 minutes drying sounds about right. I ended up stuffing the washer as full as it would go, and using the schleudern machine for a euro (no idea what this is in French - spin cycle, gets them about half dry) and only spending money to dry my jeans and socks (because air dried jeans and socks are weird to me). Good thing was, if you stuff the washer full enough, you only have to wash every three weeks. :)
Well, now you know why they bitch and moan when they come over here. "Americans are all wasteful! They do their laundry several times per week and that includes drying, think of the energy and water they would save if..." So yes it sucks, but there is a positive side. It encourages people to be more resourceful.
And K's right. The *only* time you dry clothes in a drying machine anywhere in Europe is when it's dead winter and you're desperate to have that clean warm and soft bed sheet in time to sleep. Everything else is hung out to dry... no one here seems to u/s why I bought a drying rack and didn't use the grad stud housing laundry machines. I'm too French for that nonsense! Besides your clothes will last longer if you don't put them in a dryer.
P.S. This is also why I bought syntentic wicking fabrics that I carry around the world with me. 7 swiss francs for a load of laundry or a large bucket (former hostel garbage can washed out) with cold water liquid I bought for $1 here and ported around in my luggage the whole summer.
Thanks to all for the advice. I will be shifting to a half hand-wash, half machine-wash plan.
Side note: 4.50 a load is still too damn much.
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