As much as I enjoy the repetition of the daily tasks like cleaning the onsens, scrubbing the toilets, and lint rolling the stairs, I do sometimes crave a little variety. Now imagine my delight when I was told I would be doing “special cleaning” today.
Special cleaning, it turns out, is code for way more cleaning than normal. Special cleaning found me taking the mattresses and supports off of bunk beds in order to dust every nook and cranny of their frames. Once the frames were clean, I had to vacuum and scrub the tatami floor underneath. Finally, once the frame was dusted and the tatami floor clean, I could put the bed all back together again and move on to the next bunk bed.
Luckily I was working alone, because I brewed up an ungodly atmosphere of swears that I’m sure is still wafting around those rooms. Those bunks hadn’t seen a cleaning since the dawn age, understandably too, because who is going to check and see if the hidden tatami and bunk supports are properly dusted? Musing over this, I became unreasonably upset with the bunk beds, so I took a minute to cool off. What was I really mad about? I reminded myself that I am wholly responsible for my current occupation. I could blame the boss, but what do I gain from silently cursing him out? Resentment only, it seems. My anger at these bunk beds is totally my own, I thought. They will bother me only as much as I let them.
I congratulated myself on my noble sentiment and got right back to work, and, after only a few short moments, right back to swearing, too.
From the Occasional Chair 
Wow! I want to stay at that hostel! There were some little bugs enjoying the bathroom where I am in Grenada and I’ll bet they wouldn’t be there if you were cleaning. Are they taking advantage of your hard working personality to ask you to do these more involved projects?
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I wonder how many other Workawayers have been assigned the “special cleaning” and just lay low for the estimated amount of time it would take to disassemble, thoroughly clean, and reassemble all those bunk beds. Hard not to work up a towering rage at the innocent bunk beds that maybe haven’t really been cleaned in years. But I admire your honest work ethic. I feel like you learned that when I wouldn’t let you quit the soccer team when you were five. 🙂
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