Messin' with Texas

I am no stranger to doing my own laundry. Throughout university (in the US and in Switzerland) I had to do my own laundry. When I came to Turkey however, my house keeper was doing my laundry once a week. She kept doing things wrong like washing things I didn’t washed, or washing dry clean only thing. So I got annoyed and took washing into my own hands. Until two days ago, I was reasonably successful.

The first few weeks of doing laundry I would set the machine to some setting where the machine stays full of water and doesn’t unlock (it’s a side loading machine). I could understand if there was a soak setting where the machine would fill with water and sit, but this setting seemed to wash the clothes and then just never finish the cycle. The only way I could figure out how to get them out was change the setting and try again. Through trial and error, I found the one setting out of 8 or 10, that I can use on all clothes and doesn’t take too long.

Two nights ago I encountered a new problem. When I opened the washing machine, my clothes smelled really strange. Our original giant bag of detergent had run out so I had used something else I found under the sink. Suspicious I called a friend to consult. Very slowly I sounded out the words on the bag as the other end of the line began laughing. Apparently I had washed my clothes in some kind of chemical you run through the washing machine to protect it, and I had used a lot of it!  It was too late to buy new detergent, so went to sleep.

Having learned my lesson, I went to the store the next night to buy detergent. Again I called a Turkish friend to consult on which one to buy. Eventually I found one and brought it to the front of the store. No wallet! I frantically began searching my pockets for my wallet. I needed this detergent. I hadn’t done laundry in three weeks and I literally had nothing left. I found 5 lyra, a far cry from the 23.50 it was for this detergent. Like an idiot I had to walk out of the store empty handed after having held up the line as I rummaged around in my pockets. I needed that detergent.

I thought about it for a bit then I thought why not borrow the money from someone else. So I called the guy in charge of our building, Ercan. He knows me well because I am always getting locked out of my apartment and he has to let me in. Using another friend to help translate, I managed to borrow 15 lyra. Not quite enough to cover the bag I wanted, but could just buy a cheaper bag; problem solved!

Back in the store, detergent found, waiting in line, paid for! It was 18.50 so I had only 1.50 lyra left. Just as I paid my friend called to check how things are going. I said I had to buy a different one because the other was too expensive. As I read the label, she informed that I had once again bought the wrong one. I had bought detergent for bleach. Not knowing what to do, I had her translate to the cashier my error. After laughing at me (I was laughing at myself too), she went and got the right detergent and gave me a new receipt.

Problem solved, laundry done.