(My apologies to those of you who want to know more about this country I'm in. Since I have arrived, I've been holed up in this hotel and not very able to get out and see things. That will soon change! I'll be moving into a slightly more permanent residence on October 2nd. Hopefully things will get more interesting then...)
Ahhh… Life in a hotel. If you haven’t tried it, you should.
I’m not talking about merely a weekend stay or anything like it where you know when your departure date is, and, most likely, you’ve planned your trip to take you all the way there.
No, I’m talking about really living in a hotel. I’ve stayed in lots hotels, but have only lived in one twice.
Really living in one means that you have considerably less space to get along. The seating isn’t great and the kitchen is either absent or drastically reduced. And, if you are all alone, then it’s really quiet.
But, and more to the point, your resources are limited – to the point that you will run out of them. You have to constantly be thinking about how to replenish those resources, just as you would do in a house. And you have to do it in far less space and probably on a tighter budget. It can be very challenging just meeting your basic needs from day to day.
It’s an exercise in creativity and flexibility to make things work.
Well (and here’s the reason for this post) one amenity my hotel lacks is a laundry facility.
Actually, that’s a lie. If you want to do your laundry, you let the hotel do it. They have these little plastic laundry bags, and next to those bags is a price list for each item you want washed. You know how much it costs to launder one pair of ‘trousers?’ 21 Riyals. That translates to about $5.25. One pair. Whew! My budget can’t take too much of that! I estimate that an entire load would probably turn out to cost around $25.
So, I stewed about that for several days. What to do about it… hmmm… Before leaving, Shannon packed for me some laundry detergent that I expected to use in the residence hall. But I never thought that I should have packed a washing machine!
Well, I figured it out. And I’m well pleased. And now, once per week, I turn myself into a washing machine:
I start by putting out the “Do not disturb” sign (very important). Then I fill the bathtub with water, add a little detergent, scrub out spots on the clothes with my spot remover, throw the dirty clothes in, gyrate them around for a few minutes (the wash cycle), scrub each item – focusing on spots, gyrate some more, drain the tub, fill it again with new water, gyrate the clothes again (the rinse cycle), squeeze as much water out as I can (the spin cycle), and place the items around the room to air dry (the dryer – I’ll shake the clothes occasionally to speed this process up.). The sign stays on the door until all the clothes are dry and put away.
It ain’t pretty. But it gets the job done. And the room smells nice too.
The $5.25 pants/trousers were especially challenging to figure out because I knew that after the spin cycle they would be way too wrinkled to wear to work – and the room doesn’t have an iron or ironing board.
But I figured it out! I follow the same process, but I eliminate the spin cycle. So when finished, the pants/trousers can’t hold any more water and are NOT wrinkled. Then I nicely hang them up over the tub so that the dripping water will go right down the drain.
No, I won’t go so far to say that they are just as clean as a real washing machine would get them, but it’s good enough to last me till I get to a place that has one! Boo yah!
I don’t know who invented the washing machine. I’ll bet it was some pioneer woman who got sick and tired of scrubbing out her husband’s stinky, sweaty, filthy, gross trousers. You go, Pioneer Woman! I have a newfound appreciation for you now!
So here’s to good, ol’ fashioned ingenuity… May it ever be present to get us out of tough situations!
Do you not have access to the campus? Where do you go for a game of foosball or air hockey?
ReplyDeleteI haven't seen any such games on the campus yet. They may exist, but I haven't seen them. They do have bowling and a movie theatre, but when it comes to laundry, everyone who is considered to be temporary or short term, only has the laundry service as an option. I have to be in their long-term housing to get a washer/dryer. But the waiting list for that is pretty long...
ReplyDelete