Sharing the house with my roommates is a different living situation than I'm used to. More than roommates, it's like we're a family, so we all share the responsibilities- you don't just clean your own dishes or cook just for yourself, but whenever you do one of these tasks, you do it for everyone. Because of this, we try to rotate, so that it's not always the same person doing the dishes or cooking for the rest of the house. For some of the tasks, like taking out the trash or buying milk, I recently found out that we take turns. If the person who's turn it is doesn't do whatever needs to be done when it needs to be done, someone else will do it for them. Two of my roommates, especially, try to avoid confrontation at all cost, so they would rather do it themselves than have to tell you to do it. I'm trying really hard to keep track of when it's my turn, and also doing just do it whatever needs to be done for the house so it's fair for everyone.
When I moved in, I was first a guest in the house, so my roommates wanted to do everything for me. I also got sick right at the beginning, so not only was I treated like a guest, but they were also taking care of me. Since I also live in the house, I want to take a part in the responsibilities of the household and show my roommates that I, too, can be a good housewife. Little by little, beginning when I started to feel better they started letting me do more things- doing the dishes, participating in the Wednesday cleaning day "party", etc.
Every morning, before we go to school, we either drink tea or milk (or Nescafe)- by the way, there's two types of coffee, Arab coffee(pretty strong), which is what they call coffee, and instant coffee that they mix with hot milk, which they call Nescafe. It is usually the person that gets up earliest that prepares tea, milk or Nescafe- boiling water or milk- for whoever else is awake.
Most of the days, it is someone else that prepares the morning beverage, so I wanted to contribute to the house in the morning and prepare the milk for someone else. It was also my turn to buy the milk, but it seemed like there was enough for me and Maram (the only ones who were at the house that day- Mai left earlier and Areej had spent the night at her sister's), which meant I didn't have to necessarily go out and buy milk in the morning, but I could wait until after school.
I woke up a little earlier to check on the milk situation and see how much there was left. There was just enough milk for the both of us, so I put it on the stove and waited for it to be hot. I started doing other things and kind of forgot about the milk. I was getting my jacket from my room, when I heard the milk boiling and overflowing...oops! I still served it on both of our cups, thinking I had just made a mess, but when I poured all the milk, I looked at the bottom of the sauce pan-type instrument I was using and it was all black...great! I burnt the milk! I was mortified; I had finally started trying to participate more in household activities and I failed!! I thought my good-housewife skills would be under scrutiny if my roommies found out, so I tried to do everything I could so no one would ever know I burnt the milk.
I cleaned up the mess, put the pot in hot water and I left the house running to the little store close by to buy some milk. I came back, put the milk on the stove while at the same time scrubbing the other pot trying to clean it off. I don't know if you've ever burnt milk, but it's SUPER difficult to clean. I was scrubbing like there's no tomorrow, as fast as I could before Maram finished getting ready. Thankfully, she took longer than usual, so I had a little extra time to scrub a little extra hard, but it wasn't working. I put a ton of the super strong cleaning product, soap...nothing. It wasn't coming off. Finally, Maram was done getting ready and asked what was taking so long. I had to confess. She was pretty understanding, but I was embarrassed.
She told me to leave it, that we'd take care of it after school- but that meant the other roommates would see it and know about my milk burning incident. The worst scenario I was envisioning would have been to come home and find that Mai (who usually gets home earlier than us) scrubbed the whole thing for me. Then, not only would I have been the incompetent one that burnt the milk, but also the incompetent one that couldn't clean it...Fortunately enough, we came back home and Mai wasn't there yet- the pot was there, just like I had left it.
Areej was preparing lunch, and meanwhile, I continued scrubbing the pot. She asked why I was cleaning it so much, so I had to tell her. She said we had something that would make scrubbing easier and not to worry about it.
After three different times trying to scrub the burnt milk off the pot, I finally got it off. I learnt my lesson to pay attention to the milk, and hopefully my housewife reputation wasn't affected too much by this incident.
When I moved in, I was first a guest in the house, so my roommates wanted to do everything for me. I also got sick right at the beginning, so not only was I treated like a guest, but they were also taking care of me. Since I also live in the house, I want to take a part in the responsibilities of the household and show my roommates that I, too, can be a good housewife. Little by little, beginning when I started to feel better they started letting me do more things- doing the dishes, participating in the Wednesday cleaning day "party", etc.
Every morning, before we go to school, we either drink tea or milk (or Nescafe)- by the way, there's two types of coffee, Arab coffee(pretty strong), which is what they call coffee, and instant coffee that they mix with hot milk, which they call Nescafe. It is usually the person that gets up earliest that prepares tea, milk or Nescafe- boiling water or milk- for whoever else is awake.
Most of the days, it is someone else that prepares the morning beverage, so I wanted to contribute to the house in the morning and prepare the milk for someone else. It was also my turn to buy the milk, but it seemed like there was enough for me and Maram (the only ones who were at the house that day- Mai left earlier and Areej had spent the night at her sister's), which meant I didn't have to necessarily go out and buy milk in the morning, but I could wait until after school.
I woke up a little earlier to check on the milk situation and see how much there was left. There was just enough milk for the both of us, so I put it on the stove and waited for it to be hot. I started doing other things and kind of forgot about the milk. I was getting my jacket from my room, when I heard the milk boiling and overflowing...oops! I still served it on both of our cups, thinking I had just made a mess, but when I poured all the milk, I looked at the bottom of the sauce pan-type instrument I was using and it was all black...great! I burnt the milk! I was mortified; I had finally started trying to participate more in household activities and I failed!! I thought my good-housewife skills would be under scrutiny if my roommies found out, so I tried to do everything I could so no one would ever know I burnt the milk.
I cleaned up the mess, put the pot in hot water and I left the house running to the little store close by to buy some milk. I came back, put the milk on the stove while at the same time scrubbing the other pot trying to clean it off. I don't know if you've ever burnt milk, but it's SUPER difficult to clean. I was scrubbing like there's no tomorrow, as fast as I could before Maram finished getting ready. Thankfully, she took longer than usual, so I had a little extra time to scrub a little extra hard, but it wasn't working. I put a ton of the super strong cleaning product, soap...nothing. It wasn't coming off. Finally, Maram was done getting ready and asked what was taking so long. I had to confess. She was pretty understanding, but I was embarrassed.
She told me to leave it, that we'd take care of it after school- but that meant the other roommates would see it and know about my milk burning incident. The worst scenario I was envisioning would have been to come home and find that Mai (who usually gets home earlier than us) scrubbed the whole thing for me. Then, not only would I have been the incompetent one that burnt the milk, but also the incompetent one that couldn't clean it...Fortunately enough, we came back home and Mai wasn't there yet- the pot was there, just like I had left it.
Areej was preparing lunch, and meanwhile, I continued scrubbing the pot. She asked why I was cleaning it so much, so I had to tell her. She said we had something that would make scrubbing easier and not to worry about it.
After three different times trying to scrub the burnt milk off the pot, I finally got it off. I learnt my lesson to pay attention to the milk, and hopefully my housewife reputation wasn't affected too much by this incident.
No comments:
Post a Comment