Posted by carolineh on Monday, May 15, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

After my failed attempt to hand wash my clothes last week, I finally decided to plug in our rusty washing machine and give it a try. Based on what I’d heard from the girls who have used their washing machine before, I knew that it would use a lot of electricity, I unplugged everything from the outlets and turned out all of the lights. After loading my clothes and adding detergent using my iPhone flashlight, I realized that I had no idea what any of the cycle options were because they were all in Italian. I pulled out Google Translate and decoded the options. After finding the one I thought sounded best, I turned to look at the temperature options. At Vanderbilt, we have three options for washing our clothes: hot, warm, and cold. This washer had one knob with a range of temperatures written in Celsius. I googled the traditional temperatures associated with “hot,” “warm,” and “cold” settings in the States and then converted these temperatures to Celsius. I settled somewhere between warm and cold then pressed “Accesa.” The machine started making a loud clunking noise, which I took as a good sign, so I left the bathroom. Unlike in America, where I can look at the screen on my washer and know exactly how long my cycle will be, I had no idea how long this wash cycle would take. After about an hour the loud clunking was replaced with a low buzzing noise. I figured that the cycle was done and that the buzzing simply came from the machine being plugged in—I was wrong. I opened the washer door, and water came rushing out of the machine.

 

I quickly shut the door and grabbed the mop to soak up the river created in our bathroom. Once I finished with that, I spent 30 minutes trying different options in an attempt to drain the rest of the water from the washer. Finally, I got the water level down far enough that I could open the door without it spilling out. I quickly grabbed my soaking clothes from the machine and ran up the stairs to our rooftop clothesline.

 

Although I knew that coming to Sicily without knowing any Italian would create some difficulties for me, I am surprised each day with a challenge I did not see coming. It usually happens with the little chores, like trying to decode food labels at the grocery store or choosing how to wash clothes in a foreign machine. These little daily struggles have given me a much greater appreciation for the power and importance of language. When reflecting on my experience today, I was reminded of the Sicilians who refused to learn Latin under the Roman occupation of Sicily. It is so hard for me to imagine how the Romans effectively ruled a people who could not understand them. Yes, not understanding the washing machine was hard, but, in the grand scheme of things, it was a minor chore. I can’t imagine not understanding the laws and/or daily happenings in the government. It did not seem to bother the Sicilians much, though! Unlike the Sicilians, I am making an effort to learn all the Italian that I can from my experiences here, so if you need help interpreting the washing machine, let me know!