Having had a relapse of whatever it was I got about 2 weeks go, I've spend the last 2 1/2 days in my dorm - not really leaving my room except for showers, food, and other necessities. It has afforded me the opportunity to finish up some reading for my Ph.D. exams and given the cold and the amount of rain that we've been having, it's actually been preferable to going outside. Apparently, however, my absence has been noted as people have been asking about me.
Rather than this being a lengthy post about either my reading or my illness, I figured I would take this as an opportunity to tell you about the latest goings on in the 2nd floor of Prinz Karl. The more responsible of the Brazilians decided that it would be a good idea to sit down on Tuesday evening and talk about our Putzplan. Putzen is the German word for cleaning, and Plan - well, I think you can probably figure that one out. Anyway, at 8pm we met in the kitchen and assigned weeks for cleaning and other responsibilities.
Basically, if it's your week, you must purchase toilet paper, make sure that the bathrooms are clean between visits from the Putzfrau, make sure that the garbage gets taken out, and clean any big things in the kitchen. In addition, we agreed that if you make a mess you clean it up. It is not the responsibility of the person on duty that week to clean up your dishes from making dinner for 10 people in the kitchen.
That was Tuesday. This morning, I go into the kitchen and find it a disaster. I almost took a picture. I really should have because it would show you the level of filth that some people think is acceptable to force other people to live with. Anyway, there were apparently about 8 people in our kitchen last night drinking, eating dinner, and having a good time, but nobody decided to clean up after themselves. Now it's one of the Brazilian's job to clean this week, and let's just say that he is challenged when it comes to basic household maintenance and well anything else that takes place in a kitchen. (As an aside, we were amazed that he cleaned his room last weekend, but then he has a girlfriend, and if he wanted his girlfriend to stay over, the room needed to be cleaned.)
Having talked to one of the Brazilians briefly in the kitchen today, he said that he cooked, but that the other Brazilian didn't get a chance to clean up. I thought to myself - wait a minute - it's not his job to clean up your crap. I mean, it's nice if the people for whom you cook help you clean up afterwards, and given the number of plates and glasses that were washed, I would suspect that someone did clean up after dinner. But don't blame your friend and fellow countryman because your dirty pots and pans were scattered everywhere. OR because there were beer bottles everywhere in the kitchen. OR because you were too drunk to take care of it.
Anyway, it's week one of the Putzplan and it's not going too well. The German woman on our floor - is up next week and I suspect it will be a little different with her. Let's hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment