Sincerely, Sans Dryer in South Korea

I washed my first load of Asian laundry on Sunday.

I picked up a drying rack at E Mart on my way home from work last Friday and some laundry detergent as well. Purchasing laundry detergent was quite the brigade since I can't read Korean. It took me a little while to figure out that I was actually in the dishwasher detergent aisle at first.

By Sunday evening, though, I was with drying rack, detergent, and a full load of laundry. It was time.

The other thing about living in Korea, the buttons on your washer are in Korean.

Thankfully, the previous tenant, left this handy translation sheet:

It helped, but it was still a really long process to figure out exactly how to get everything set right. Then, I turned the water on (a lever on the pipe) pressed the start button and VOILA! Nothing.

I waited about ten minutes to see if the water would start coming. Nada.

I then flipped the water lever back to what I thought was the off position (where it was when I moved in). Ah, yes, water! I restarted the cycle, waited about an hour, and my clothes were fresh, clean, and WET!

At the Rowan household, we pretty much hang dry nothing. And by we, I mean my mother who does laundry like it's going out of style. I'm a dryer girl, born and raised. But, I had to go on. This is my result:

Everything was dry by Tuesday morning, so I think I did okay.

Jeans, though. I might have to drop those off somewhere with a dryer. Drying jeans is akin to resuscitating patients with those chest surge pads you see on all the ER shows. 1-2-3 CLEAR! I just HAVE to dry them. They are stretched out and lifeless if I don't.

Everything else turned out pretty well. Nothing too wrinkled that matters. I mean, really, I play with kids all day who wear Hello Kitty maryjanes and plastic princess tiaras to school. I don't think they'll notice if my clothes are a bit wrinkly.

My boss, James, said that there are laundry facilities available around our neighborhood. There are no do-it-yourself laundry mats, but drop off, pick up services. He says I can get a load of jeans done for about 6,000 won (less than $6). Sounds like a plan to me!

School this week has gone really well. I found out today, though, that Sue's family is moving to Jeukjon, the next town over, so she will be leaving at the end of September. I'm bummed. I was really motivated to catch her up with the other girls.

My little sister turns 18 tomorrow! I wish I could be there to buy some lotto tickets with her! Happy birthday, Bear! Dig you!

A trip to Japan is in the works for the first weekend in October. It's a holiday weekend, Friday and Monday off. Also, depending on how my hip feels, I might join up with the same group from last weekend for a 30k bike trip on Saturday. I'll keep you posted on both!

An yeung!