TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013
Not much “excitement” today. Judy heads out for her 2nd day of school. No problem with taxis today. One of the Chinese language teachers at BISS taught her how to tell the taxi driver how to get to school & get home in Mandarin Chinese. (as opposed to giving the driver a piece of paper with the written directions). It worked, and she is feeling pretty cocky about her language skills.
I spend the day working in “iPhoto”. It’s been a while since I messed with it much. Lots of re-labeling to do, and creating of new “albums”, etc. Overall, a pretty boring day, by our past standards.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2013
Our “Ayi” comes today. Ayi is the word for maid. Most all the teachers at BISS have someone. We’ve decided we came to China to experience the culture and sights, not scrub the floors, so we’re going to enlist some help.
Lillie arrives around 9:15. I show her around the apartment, describing what we need her to do, and then negotiate a price. We settle on $50 a week (two days @ $25 per visit). She tells me she’s ready to start, and heads for the kitchen. After 3 hours in the kitchen, it’s beginning to sparkle. I’m figuring she’s going to finish things up on her next visit. I was wrong. She’s going to hit everything today. She doesn’t leave until 3:30. She scrubbed walls, baseboards, and pretty much everything else. The apartment looks great. We’ve got everything she needs, except for a small upright vacuum. I’ll have one before her next visit.