Doing laundry in the Tel Aviv university Einstein dorms can be a big hassle, there are five washer machines, and three dryers, and that is supposed to be enough for the hundreds of students that live in all the buildings in Einstein. Most people try to find a quiet time to go and do their laundry, when there are not a lot of machines taken, or when not a lot of people are trying to do their laundry then.
One Shabbat there were surprisingly a lot of people doing laundry. This is typically a quiet time to go as people are usually resting or spending time with families. And this is a dialogue between two students, one who spoke Spanish, the other who spoke Hebrew. The dialogue took place in English, because it was the common ground, however it was not either of the men’s first language.
Man #1: walks into the laundry room first and put’s his laundry in a machine, he realizes he forgot something and goes back to his room to get it
Man #2 walks into the laundry room, sees laundry in a machine that hasn’t been started- all other machines are full- so he proceeds to take the laundry out of the machine (laundry of man 1) and puts his own laundry in
As man #2 is trying to swipe his card to start the washing machine- man #1 walks back in the laundry room and sees that his clothes have been taken out of the machine
Man #1 starts speaking in Spanish, to the guy who took his close out (man #2) and man #2 speaks Hebrew. The two were not yelling, but speaking with stern tones for a minute and then both started speaking in English
Man #1- What are you doing?
Man #2- washing my clothes, why does it matter to you?
Man #1 – see those clothes on top of the washing machine? Did you put those there?
Man #2- oh yeah they were in the machine but some dumb guy left without putting in detergent, paying and washing his stuff.
Man #1- that dumb guy is me. Those clothes on top of the mashing machine are mine, I left some laundry upstairs that I went to get to put
Man #2 – sorry man, you weren’t here I was had to take advantage and put my stuff in. maybe you shouldn’t leave yours unattended next time
Man #1- I was here first, I waited for 30 minutes just for one machine to become available. It is so rude and inconsiderate for you to take a strangers clothes out of the washer and to aimlessly put them on top of the machine.
Man #2: what did you want me to do? All the other machines were taken, and I only have so much time I need to do my laundry~
Man #1: look at the other machines, 10 minutes left, 13 minutes left, you couldn’t wait for one of those to be done to put your stuff in?
Man #2: why can’t you wait for one of those to put your stuff in?
Man #1: because I was here way before you were!! This is absolutely absurd and so inconsiderate.
The two men ended up flipping a coin. The winner, man #1 got to put his stuff in the washing machine, the other, man #2 had to wait.
Man #2 said: Whatever, go for it, so stupid though you could’ve just taken the next one.
And he took his stuff out of the machine and left the room.
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