Week 8: Appreciating European laundry

SO many others have written about hteir experiences abroad.. in trying to do laundry today I discovered a drying room, and have no idea about it. So I googled it and found this post. It is informative. For me anyway. Many days I feel like I have come to some backwater place to live, the drying room really made me feel that way and having only one washing machine in a 3 tower apartment building. But this lady says that it is better for the clothing, despite the huge inconvenience to me the weare of the clothes. The clothing bought here is of such low quality that they need all the help they can get.

Another 52 Weeks

This weeks assignment isn’t so much a challenge but an acknowledgment. The realization that there are silver linings to be found just about anywhere.

And it revolves around dirty clothes.

Before moving to Switzerland I had lived in about 122 different apartments and houses. In almost all of them I had access to washing machines and dryers IN my living quarters.

And then there was Bern.

Let me explain a little about laundry in Swiss apartments. Often there are no washing machines and dryers in the apartment units. The machines are communal, in a basement, and shared based not on a first-come-first-served basis but on an assigned day of the week.

Our day is Friday. When I first learned we would have one day each week for laundry, my jaw dropped. At four months pregnant I could only imagine the laundering needs of a new little person. I’d heard tell…

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