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Published: April 24th 2006
More complaining.
Don't read if you're offended by mild to medium profanities. :-/
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I've started to resent the house I live in. From here on out, "they" refer to my hosts.
They only use one garbage can and it's the one in the kitchen. It's always full, sometimes overflowing, and it's most disgusting when the baby's dirty diapers are in there. Today the whole place smelled like rotten food b/c they had 2 sacks of garbage just sitting there.
In the kitchen sink, there are always dirty dishes, coffee cups, pots, pan (there is only one pan), baking ware, mugs, utensils, etc. When the sink is full, the plates and bowls are stacked to the sides of the sink. When they do wash the dishes, they do a shitty job. The reverse sides of things are always still oily, sometimes bits of food stuck on, coffee cups have stains, glasses have finger prints, nothing ever looks CLEAN.
And in the bathroom, on the floor, there are rolled up bundles of dirty diapers. And in the toilet room (separate from the bathroom), there is no garbage can, and there is a budding collection of used toilet paper cores.
And I guess this is the part that bugs me the most.
I've signed up, and I've paid, for staying at their house for a month... And they don't want me to do laundry there. WTF?! They have a microwave sized washing machine that they run practically every other day, and when I asked after 2 weeks to do laundry, my reply was like "well, ok, you can. No, nevermind, you can't".
I wanted to wash my clothes, OBVIOUSLY, and also my bedsheet, pillow case, and blanket cover. My hostess set the machine up to do half a load (think toaster oven size), and so when I put in the sheet and pillow case and it was almost already full, I just threw in my underwear and a few socks. No point in jamming the machine and nothing comes out clean, right?
Well, when she came by later and I told her I was going to do another load for the blanket cover (and obviously some of my personal items), she told me no, she would just give me another cover. Ok, so there went my one chance at doing laundry!
I've been really glum about this issue. Do they really expect me to wash all of my clothes by hand in the sink? They don't even have a sink stopper! And if I wash my clothes, where am I supposed to dry them? I only have 6 hangers in my closet, should I just lay them out on the one chair that's to my name? And I've been using the same towel for 3 weeks now; I can't wash it because it would take forever to dry, same with my jeans and cords. There's no heater for me to drape things over to expedite drying, I'm at the mercy of the sun, which doesn't shine into my room until the afternoon. So I went out and spent 99.90 zlotys yesterday and bought another pair of pants. The quick drying kind, thin and polyester. If they weren't so goddamn cheapass and let me use the machine, I wouldn't be spending all this extra money (Jeans from Tesco that I wore for 2+ weeks straight, 90 zlotys).
And, still yet, more complaining.
Today really sucked ass. I wanted to go and buy my bus ticket for my journey out of Krakow. It took me 1.5 hours to go from home to the bus/train station. 1.5 hours. That's 1.5 hours that I could've used to eat, sleep, and/or sightsee. But that's 1.5 hours wasted b/c I live in the fucking boonies and it takes 30 minutes just to walk and catch the right tram. And then walk some more, and then find out that the next tram isn't running because they've dug up the ground and walk some more to the bus station where the information desk was closed because the lady was on her 20 minute break.
Then to the kasa (ticket buying counter) where the lady had a bug up her ass. I said in Polish the essentials, non conjugated but so what:
Niedziela (Sunday)
autobus do Lublin
Then ms. hoity toity corrects my grammar (which really wasn't necessary)
"do Lublina" (I think was what she said).
Then she says
"kiedy" (when)
I learned my clock times over the weekend but wasn't too confident that I could whip it out right away so I had written on a piece of paper already the time that I wanted, so I pass to her the paper that had written on it
15.15 (I even wrote out my 1's in the stupid European way, like upside down V's. Whatever, this system is totally whacked)
Then she says again, really impatiently,
"kiedy" and then in English "when".
So I point to the paper and say in English now,
15.15.
And then she says in English, even more impatiently and now with her hands gesturing,
"yes, 15.15, but I asked you when. You give me the time, I ask you when. What day?"
So I say (now I'm starting to get defensive, but not overtly...),
"I already said, Sunday, niedziela."
She says:
"No you didn't. You tell me time, I asked you when. "
Of course I have to have the last word, even if it's in English.
"15.15 is a 'when' and I told you Sunday, niedziela, in the beginning."
She didn't understand my retort. Whatever, I got it out and I don't care if all the Poles behind me are getting impatient.
She punchs a bunch of keys and a ticket comes out. 32.00 zl. I pull out my credit card to pay.
Yea, more attitude for me.
"If you want to use card you tell me in the beginning".
And she's not taking my card, so I'm gonna assume... I have to use cash! Bitch! I'm sure there's a sign somewhere that says (but only in Polish, of course) if you want to use a credit card say so in the beginning.
Now I'm a total bitch back and I dig out my wallet and dump out all my little tiny groszy coins. (groszy coins are like pennies, useless) I had so many that they busted open the bottom seam of my sting ray wallet that I bought in the Thailand airport (did I blog about that? The lady there was a nut job, too). And I'm not at all embarassed at this point because I've seen little old ladies do this at the stores, digging for that last 2 groszy coin so they don't get more shitty little coins back.
Unfortunately, I didn't have enough to pay the whole 32 zl in coins, else I would have.
Then I leave, and I didn't even say dzienkuje, even though I know that word really well now.
* * *
KIEDY = when, but not "when" as in "what time" but when as in "what day".
Did I learn this in class before? No, so thanks, bitch, for the free lesson!
* * *
Whew. I feel better now. I actually have MORE to bitch about but I have to go home and do my home work.
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Of Course...
non-member comment
Well, it's just not true! "Kiedy" means "what day" and also "what time". I think she just didn't hear / remember what you said. And - of course - she could accept you credit card. There's stright rule in that kind of "burocratic" foolishness - don't talk to the bitch, talk to her boss. Don't wait, don't let her win - ask for the superior. Nowadays there's large unemployment in Poland, so it's very easy to loose job, if you're vicious bitch for consumers. Word "boss" it's understable for Polish, so you may always use it. You see the differance, if you ask to see "boss". Don't let them tread you like that, girl!