Laundry

Tonight I am at home doing my homework and, obviously, blogging. Today a guy from the program turned 21 and is having a party at his apartment to celebrate. I asked him if he was going to go out and buy himself some alcohol today, to exercise his new-found alcohol rights. He said that he'd already bought alcohol while he was here, but today when he was buying alcohol was going to be better than all the others. I would have gone to the party. I would really like to be there right now, actually, but unfortunately, I am here, and I am exhausted.

This exhaustion mostly comes from my house being on a hill and my school being on a hill. This means that, no matter where I am going, I must always walk up a sizeable hill to get to my destination. Not only does this mean that I am tired when I get there, it also means that I am hot, sweaty, and have a distinctly European odor about me by the time I get to the top. This, coupled with the fact that I took a two hour walking tour of Prague Castle today (and factoring in that I'm in general a lazy bum), is why I am not helping the guy ring in a newer and better year at the pub by his apartment. I apologize.


There is one thing I regret not doing before leaving home: buying new underwear. I considered replenishing my supply--I even threw away some particularly old pairs, but I never replaced them. I realize now that I should have gone and loaded up on the Victoria's Secret 5 for $25 deal.

I did my laundry for the first time this whole trip a couple nights ago. They handle their laundry very differently here--Miroslav told me that when his wife gets back from "spa," she will want to do my laundry for me. This in itself will be a bit of a shock for me--Mom has had me doing my own laundry since I was thirteen. Seven years of me being the only one to touch my dirty laundry has made me particularly protective of it.

This, though, is not what has made me wish I had bought new underwear. Rather, it's the fact that I pretty sure there are no residences within the city that have a dryer. Instead of tumble dry low in the dryer, it's hang dry in the living room. For everyone to see.

This is something I would be completely fine with if I were one of those people who doesn't care about what other people think. But, I am not one of those people. I care that people are looking at my leggings, I care that people are looking at my dirty, holey socks, and I care that people are looking at my underwear and judging me for them. I'm sure they couldn't care less about whether or not my socks actually match, or that I have [some] granny panties (sometimes I prefer the extra room), but every time I walk past those clothes, it's all I can do to keep from judging myself, acting as a third party observer, and asking myself, "Who the hell is this person?" before I realize that I'm judging myself.

Of course, the only problem is not that my clothes are displayed for everyone--some kind of limited time exhibit. It's also the practical fact that those clothes are hard once you take them off. Any of you who have ever hung things over a drying rack to dry your clothes know that your clothes are incredibly stiff by the time they are dry.

This presents the problem of chafing.

I suppose I'll leave that to your imagination and say goodnight now.
Dobrou noc!