Today, I had one goal to accomplish. Actually, it has been my goal since I moved into my apartment: wash a load of laundry.
I’m very happy to have a brand new washing machine in my apartment. And while I do not have a dryer, I do have a very nice folding rack to hang clothes on to dry. But, of course, the controls on the washer are in German so I wasn’t exactly sure how to use it. I couldn’t find an English version of the user manual online, but with the always useful Google Translate, I was able to figure out the basics and was prepared to give it a shot. But I had to buy laundry detergent first.
So off to the grocery store I go where I was faced with way too many options for detergent. I bought a small bottle of something that seemed to have a neutral scent (I typically buy unscented detergent in the US) at a reasonable price and came home to give it a try. I loaded the washer, added the detergent and watched as the water began to pour in and the drum began to agitate. Hmm, I’m not seeing any suds. I continue to watch. The washer appears to be working properly, but… no suds. I look at the bottle of detergent again and decide to translate some of the words, again using my trusty Google Translate app. Lo and behold, Weichspüler is fabric softener. So I’m “washing” a load of laundry with fabric softener instead of detergent. And although I figured out enough of the controls to operate the washing machine, I did not figure out enough to know how to stop the washing machine once it has already started. So now I have to go back to the grocery store to buy detergent, or Waschmittel, wait for this current load to finish, then try again.