laundry day

I am typing in my undies and a blanket because I have no clean clothes.

I took a suitcase full of dirty laundry to a shop down the street from our hotel where the front desk staff said I could drop off and have my clean clothes delivered later at no extra charge. Sim, obrigada!

But the people at the shop seemed to think i wanted everything - socks, underoos, jeans, 12-year old t-shirts, hand-me-down sports bras - dry-cleaned. 

A kindly bilingual woman in line ahead of me translated for us. She asked if $300R ($150USD) was expensive for me.

I was about to reply “for whom (TF) is $150 for clean underoos not expensive?”

Then I realized they thought I was wealthy. 

I looked at myself in the full length mirror nearby, my filthy shoes, my ripped cords, my haggish, messy ponytail, and thought ‘Wow. The rich people in brazil have awesome style.’

Who could have known that thus would begin a journey through the rain, a little over four miles in total, dragging my cumbersome suitcase behind me (which made me miss my dog), humming the patty duke show theme because it was stuck in my head, looking for a normal laundromat?

Well, not me.

The same answer applies to: and who could have known there aren’t any normal laundromats in São Paulo, because all people here do there laundry at home, so anyone looking for one is categorically SOL? 

I didn’t believe it when the front desk told me so. I started to believe it when I read a thread on tripadvisor.com discussing the very issue in this very neighborhood. I only truly came to accept it when my friend confirmed it in an email (and invited me to use his apartment as a laundromat you can get drunk in -sim, obrigada!). there are no normal laundromats in São Paulo.

BUT they’re cousins! Identical cousins and you’ll find: you can lose your mind! When cousins are two of a kind!