For me it’s different to say the least that flats in new buildings that are 8 or more stories high do not have laundry machines inside. Instead, there is a set of laundry machines in one of the stories or in the basement and people go there to do the laundry. Sadly enough, most of these machines are coin operated.
That poses two problems. Firstly, it is costly. Secondly, if you have never seen this system in place and the laundry machines are old, you might be completely clueless when it comes to operate them.
That’s exactly what happened to us in our temporary accommodation. There was a set of machines and they were all coin operated. However, they were very old and there were no instructions. Now imagine being in a foreign country with a limited number of clothes and at some stage, having all of them dirty! I’m sure you’ll understand the case is even worse if I say in Washington it is more than 35 degrees now and humidity is very high!
After many unsuccessful attempts to put them to work, things didn’t seem that bright. As clever Cambridge MBAs we thought we were, we didn’t give up. We tried all different possible combination of coins, all different buttons and still the damn machine wouldn’t start working. After exhausting all possibilities and making use of our recently learnt MBA skills, I’m proud to say we finally found a reasonable solution:
2 comments:
Jorge, Marisa, I ve just by accident ran into your blog. So interesting...I am an intern in IFC, World Bank and I live at 1500 Mas too:). I am an international student from Russia. I have started my blog since I came here, check it out if interested. It would be great to meet you, guys, sometime, especially taking into account we live so close!
If you live at Massachusets ave 1500, you have to use cards with cash on it instead of coins. And it's pretty easy. It took me 5 min to figure out. Much more convenient than coins. And every single machine on the 6th floor has detailed instructions on it;) Have fun!:)
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