Doing Laundry in South Korea, it's Different

\

This is a comedic look at my experience with laundry machines, specifically dryers, here in South Korea. The bottom line is that they really don't exist. Standard one-room apartments that most foreign teachers get (and every other apartment or house I've been to or even heard of) seems to lack what we from the West take for granted: a dryer. At home we can take the stankiest underwear and gym shorts and have them springtime fresh in usually about 2 hours, an hour for each the washer and the dryer. Those who live here usually wait about a day before they can enjoy their newly cleaned clothes because hang drying is the preferred method of drying here. Now this can prove problematic for the experienced foreigner because: A) Summers here are hot and humid, so the water-heavy air slows down the drying process. B) Winters can be bone-numbingly cold, which means your clothes can freeze. Which is no fun. C) There is definitely a learning curve to figuring out how to use a drying rack.

So when I came to Daegu Gyeongbuk English Village I was just as excited as my man Nick (in the video) that THERE WERE REAL DRYERS! Like, seriously, OMG, totes excited. Only to find out after my first load that only one of the three washers and one of the three dryers work, kinda. As I choke back tears thinking about my crushed dreams of springtime fresh gym clothes, I am now in the market for another drying rack.

PRO TIP: If you are lucky enough to have air conditioning, run it while your clothes are drying near it. Bonus points if you can put a fan on it as well. Don't have air conditioning? You can try the same using your floor heating by laying your clothes on the floor and baking them.

Ashley R Guerrero

Ashley R Guerrero, Editor-in-chief of Global Pedestrian, lives, works, vlogs and writes in South Korea. Since moving here from California, she has taught for public school, University, and is currently teaching at an English village. She has been involved in numerous charity projects and currently is crocheting stockpiles of supplies for the imminent zombie apocalypse.