Raining Cats and Dogs

To start off with, let me tell you that it rains in Hamburg. It rains in most places on the planet. But here, it RAINS. Several times we have been caught out and come home looking like drowned sewer rats. There is even thunder and lightning most of the time.
So on Friday, I had my eye on a second hand kids store. I had discovered that David isn't really a size two yet. He will turn two in less than a month, and yet size-wise he is very far from it. But packing, I did not know that. So I only filled his bags with size two clothes. I figured around his birthday he should fit them. Here they do size by centimeters height, which makes me feel a little bit better about my son. So I took a flimsy paper measuring tape I had pocketed from our trip to Ikea and measured the little guy. He comes in at about 82cm, which supposedly corresponds to 12-18 months (the size of clothes I left at home because I though they would quickly be too small). No wonder the 2Ts swim on him.
I like to shop second hand in general because it is easy on your wallet and good for the planet. I also find that some of the stuff in the stores is not even worth buying the first time, whereas second hand goods have already merited purchase once. But, the sad thing is that there don't seem to be many of these type of stores in Hamburg. So, we took an hour long train ride to get to one that was listed online. The whole time, David's shorts kept falling off, so much so that when we got to the store we just left them around his ankles. We bought him three pairs of pants and four shirts to last him till his next growth spurt (which I hope comes soon!). I guess I will have to step up how often I do laundry. We also got Ari a cute dress, and Elle a little monkey outfit. All of which was way overpriced for used children's clothes. My plan is to interrogate some of the people in my ward, because there must be a way. The way I see it, if they choose to have kids at all, Germans are only having one or two. If I were only going to have one or two kids, I would want the best stuff (which, in my theory, is why they put up with these ridiculous prices), and then, I wouldn't know very many other people having kids to give them to, and more than likely, they've already bought something themselves (so that they too can have the best). So in my hypothetical world there would be lots of perfect, expensive, cute clothes floating around that no one had a use for. Thus, the market would dictate that they would be readily available for the poor minority groups having lots of children to snatch up. And yet there seem to be almost no second hand stores. So I must be missing something.
Having seen the rain, we bit the bullet and bought Ari and Cyrus two raincoats (which also go for an arm and a leg...and maybe some other body parts too). Stupidly, these coats have no hoods, even though they are supposedly the best. And no rain pants, which were sold with every other jacket. So I'm starting to feel duped. Meanwhile it has rained each day since Friday. Today we forgot them, and it starting raining during church. Did I mention we do a LOT of walking. So now I have to find some place that might sell rain hats, and maybe rain pants that can be purchased separately from the jackets. I am getting a sour feeling about it. Or I can just buy Ari her own little umbrella.
All the humidity in the air isn't doing much for my laundry. When we moved in, the landlord showed us a single h.e. washing machine in the basement (more like a dank dungeon), where we could do laundry for 1 euro 50, then hang it to dry on lines. By the way, h.e. is code for takes FOREVER. One load can take over 3 hours on the most "energy efficient setting. I had several problems with this setup. In the US I averaged a load a day. 1.5 with cloth diapers. And I brought cloth diapers with me as the plan here. Also, that basement smelled awful. I doubt my clothes would ever dry in that space, and if they did, they would smell like that. Also, that basement screamed the perfect place for me to get mugged and for the kids to get hurt monkeying around while they waited for me to get done. Jeff talked to the landlord and they agreed that he would pay for half the cost of a new washing machine in the apartment, and we would pay for the other half. Then he would get to keep it when we left, to improve his rental. So now we have a nice washer. And at least it is in the apartment, even if it still takes as much as three hours to merely wash one load.

The next hurdle to laundry was that there was no dryer. This is a first in my entire life. Our first two loads were stretched over every available surface in the apartment. It was embarrassing to have my undies draped over the lamp for all to see. That night I searched online for indoor self standing clothes racks on Amazon (because we didn't want to string line in the apartment). There were wonderful models. But they cost 160 Euros to ship to our home. Back to the drawing board. We figured there must be a way if this is how they do things in Europe.

The next day Jeff found some metal racks at the local "Kaufland" (kaufen = to buy). So then we had racks. They are pretty nice, and relatively cheap (10 euro vs. 500 for a dryer). What previously covered our entire living room and every door, chair and table fit neatly into only one rack. I only wish I had maybe one more, because this is the main choke point for the laundry now. We are still not washing it faster than we are wearing it because of the drying time. Not that I want my entire living room given over to these racks, but it is certainly better than going naked. We have a small balcony, but I haven't seen anyone else put their laundry outside, and Jeff said some cities have laws about it.

The other interesting thing about the laundry is that they don't sell Tide here. I guess it comes as no surprise that when I grew up and moved out I just kept using the kind of detergent (and toothpaste) that my mom had. So now, I am at a loss. Right now I am trying Persil. I decided on that because it came in tablets, and I read enough of German to know that the other package didn't come with a scoop. You could get one for free online, but I needed to do laundry that day. I don't like using the new kind. I think it smells funny, bordering on stinking. I set our new washer to run an extra rinse (the controls are all in German too, so it took a little bit of doing), and that seemed to help. Also, there seems to be a lot more delineation on what the soaps are for, which I can't really make out as easily. Some are for white, some colors, some delicate, some wool, etc. I had to ask a church member which of the many bottles on the shelf was a stain remover. Because not only do I not recognize the brands, I don't even know the word for it. This is the part about being in Germany that makes me feel worn out and home sick. But there are so many things that are enjoyable and worthwhile that I am sure we will miss when we leave too. As I was shopping for the clothes drying racks online, many people said how they love the feel of line dried clothes. I can't imagine. To me they are very stiff and scratchy. But maybe we will even miss that when we finally head back to the States. Who knows?