Without the Washer

When we moved to Russia, one of the first things that we bought was a washing machine/dryer all in one unit. Ours is an Indesit, an Italian company that is known for its quality machines. Unfortunately, ours has been less than ideal. In the 6 months that we have been here, we have already called the "master," which is the name Russians give to repairmen, electricians, mechanics--i.e., people who have "mastered" some kind of handyman-type skills. Those calls to the master didn't include the three other ones that we made on account of needing to install, unhook, and then re-install in Moscow our machine.

Unfortunately, our machine is down again. But, to be fair to the machine, I do think that the fault lies more with the electrical circuits and plugs than it does with the machine itself. The biggest problem here is that there are often surges in power, and most of the buildings were built without grounded plugs. Thus, for example, just last week our machine went down, and so when the repairman came, he said opened our washer up and showed me that the circuit board was fried. SO, we are without the machine for another week.

BUT, thankfully, there is a one year warranty which covers both parts and labor, which means that we are not out of anything yet. And, since we are more than likely (barring any unforseen events, like crazy landlords or something) in this apartment for a while. Thus, this afternoon, we are having an electrician come and rig up an new line into our bathroom that will give us a grounded plug, hopefully ending any more problems with our washer.

We have another thing to be thankful for as well: our close proximity to my boss' apartment (only one block away), and their washing machine. They are graciously allowing us to use it right now, which is a blessing for two reasons: first, their is a dirth of laundramats here (I don't know if they even exist here--I know that our friends in Tver had never heard of that concept), and second, we are starting to get low on clothes.