Washing Machines and Peanut Butter

I attempted laundry yesterday, and let me just say that it was a trip. Not like the Wizard of Oz, where there’s a blatant yellow road to follow with comrades in arms. No, it was more like Finding Nemo, where you have no idea where the heck your going, and your destination is extremely questionable.

First problem: finding out which machines are washers and which are driers. They all looked the same, really, and (me being me) I didn’t notice the vague directions pasted on the wall. I got the washer part down right, after inspecting the inside thoroughly, but the drier was a right mess. I threw my clothes into an unknown device (which I’m pretty sure was a steamer or something) that pretty much just soaked them some more. This, of course, pinched a few nerves and made me really worried about whether my clothes were going to get ruined from all the rough-housing. The metal ones I ended using were in English, but the designs of the other ones all looked the same, unlike the varying proportions of the laundry machines I’ve used at home.

 

These were fairly small. In fact, they were very small, which can either be accounted to the fact that, well, they’re just small models, or that the Greek’s conservation of water extends to even their appliances. It already does so for the toilets, which have varying flush cycles depending on the amount of water needed to get the job done. Why not washing machines? Well, I suppose the size can also be just for the convenience of space as well. You also have to turn the power on and off to use it, as well as turn on and off the lights in the room and other hallways in order to conserve energy. We discussed this today, that the energy restrictions are due to Greece’s lack of natural resources, and that the importation of coal, oil, etc. starts to get expensive after a while. Also, Athens is squeezed into this valley, and holds 2/3 of Greece’s population, so water distribution would of course be sanctioned. Hence the conservation bit.

Oh, and the peanut butter issue. I’m pretty sure it’s official: there’s no peanut butter in Greece. I know I won’t die or anything, but I gotta say, I’m craving a PB sandwich like crazy. I’d imagine that might just be because PB is an American thing, because I haven’t heard or read much of anything that explains it’s absence here.

Adio~