Laundry Cliché

The laundry on the west end of campus reopened last week. We have a washing machine in our apartment and used it regularly before we discovered the laundry. In the fall we would hang our cloths on the porch off the living room, like much of China, and it would dry quickly in the Beijing heat. Like so much of daily life when we are illiterate, the laundry was right in front of our face for 6 weeks, but we didn’t “see” it until we were ready to peek behind the door. The laundry uses driers and for 11 kwai (about $1.70) we can get a small load wash, dried and (sort of) folded. Not bad! We typically take 5 loads a week over there. Yes, yes, the cliché of the Chinese laundry. It was closed for 3 weeks over the New Year so we have done our own laundry. But it is much colder now, so we had cloths hang cloths inside the apartment to dry during the night. It is great to have the laundry back in operation!