The worst employee ever does laundry.

Once upon a time, there was a young girl who wanted to do an internship somewhere abroad. She was recommended a company, which she found somewhat interesting, and decided to apply. Miraculously, they got back to her, and as dialogue continued, it seemed certain they would hire her.

Alas, a job offer did come, which she gladly accepted. Although she wasn't being paid by the thousands as many of her fellow engineers-to-be, she was very much looking forward to the experience. What she didn't realize was that this whole "foreign country" thing would involve much paperwork and extra hassle, such things like getting new birth certificates issued and getting stickers on passports which were just temporary.

After some time and chores and the like, the fated day came and she flew off across the pond (the Atlantic one, that is). She was quickly introduced to many new adventures, like yielding as a pedestrian and becoming sensitive to the sounds of a bike, as well as shops closing at 18:00 and not being open on the first day of the week.

However, as she was also quickly thrust into her new job, she discovered that there were many errands to be run, and due to the limited working hours of government-type people, it involved some skipping of work. In addition, she had made plans with a friend within the first bit of her work, which warranted another day off. And finally, just within the first week and a half of working, she was overcome with rather distracting pains and had forgotten her painkillers at home, so she left work early in order to recover instead of just sitting at her desk looking pained.

In short, she was not looking like the best intern ever.

She rested at home for a few hours, then the painkillers started working. Recalling that she had determined to do laundry that day, she decided she may as well start on it now, so she grabbed the detergent containers from the washroom and brought them into her room. Pulling up the ever-so-handy Google Translate, she commenced some rapid typing of the labels and read the broken English which came out. It looked like she had detergent for whites, for colours, and some kind of powder that seemed to do well for both.

Then she stepped out into the hallway to observe the washer and dryer. Or was it dryer and washer? She couldn't quite figure out which one was which, and taking pictures of the instructions didn't seem to do justice. Finally, she took what seemed like an educated guess, and threw in her towels and some lighter-coloured clothing. There didn't seem to be a container to put the detergent powder, so she just threw it on top of the towels -- in theory, it's the same, she thought. Also, there were some misleading pictures on the other detergent bottles that led her to believe that perhaps Dutch people put their detergent directly on their clothing, rather than in a little container in the machine.

While the laundry washed, she decided to pick up those dryer sheets (you know, like Bounce) from the supermarket so that her laundry would be soft. Especially her towels. So she went to the store and after deliberating for a while, she bought the only two things which looked like they could be dryer sheets. Lo and behold, when she got home, Google Translate told her that they were. Both, in fact. They were also both very fragrant.

Anyway, she noticed that her laundry had stopped and was no longer going, so she tentatively opened it. There was still powder on the clothing, and it was dry.

"So that is the dryer," she supposed. She pulled her clothing from one machine to the other, and then, not wanting to make more mistakes, she knocked on her neighbour's door. He helped, but commented that "it's just laundry!" and made her feel guilty for making Canadians look incompetent. She also hoped that he wouldn't look into the dryer and see the little powdery bits everywhere, left from her mistake.

Once the washing machine was running, she quietly mopped up the powder and hoped that nobody would notice. Then she retreated to her apartment and wrote a story about her failure.

The end.

Well, for now... we'll see how the laundry turns out. I might end up needing to buy a whole new wardrobe.