Mystery Solved?

"We do NOT want to use that machine."

This, my friends, was a very adamant declaration made by one of my roommates yesterday. The details leading up to the statement are a little fuzzy for me, but I have the general gist…

As some of you may know, another former classmate of mine, Lou, is crashing temporarily at the Asian frat house. In all honesty, I love that Lou is here because in a few short days he has managed to bridge some of the cultural barriers I've found myself up against. Reason being, he is an American Taiwanese and has lived in Taiwan for a year or so and speaks broken Mandarin.

Several weeks ago Lou and I had dinner and discussed many of the cultural questions that I have had over the past 2 months; the dishwasher was one of them. He informed me that he saw no reason why they wouldn't use it. When he decided to move in 3 weeks later, he confidently informed me that he would get them to use the dishwasher. I laughed and told him good luck.

So, last night Lou casually brings up the dishwasher and mentions that he went to put dishes in it but saw there were some in it. He asked if they were there's or what the deal was. (Keep in mind that from this point going forward part of the dialogue has been deciphered from the half Mandarin - half English conversation, and the other part was explained to me later by Lou.) They said they weren't there's but that they didn't want to touch them b/c they thought they might be the landlords. Lou then asked why the landlord would leave dishes in the dishwasher. At this point I corrected them and explained that the previous tenants left them (of course I have no idea if this is really the case) and that we could move them if we wanted. The girls then said they didn't feel right throwing them away and that they should just leave them there so the next person who moves in can have them. I say fine, we can put them in a box and store them in the closet until then.

A Chinese dialogue then broke out and I'm not entirely clear on what was said. However, I think they primarily stated that they felt something was dirty--- I'm not sure if it is the dishes or the actual dishwasher they were referring to. (Side note: I find this an extremely interesting statement for them to make considering they leave their clean dishes in front of an open window and not one of them have bothered to clean the bathroom in the 2 ½ months I've lived here.) Anyways, I guess Lou tried to explain that if you put soap in it and run it once, then they/it won't be dirty. I caught this part and said that I have soap waiting underneath the sink. The Chinese part continued and got a little more heated. By this point I was glad that I couldn't understand what was going on.

Then, Jo simply says "We do NOT want to use that machine." And that was pretty much the end of the conversation. Fiona followed up the statement by saying they would wash the dishes if he didn't want to and Lou said that he had no problem washing them; he was just wondering if the dishwasher worked.

Once the girls left Lou and I discussed the whole thing and I had a good laugh at his expense. He said he didn't believe me about them not wanting to use it and couldn't believe how defensive and adamant they were about the whole thing. So, there you have it. The dishwasher mystery is not solved, but I believe it is dead. I think this one will just have to forever remain a mystery.