Ayi and me

I meant to take a picture of Daisy while she was here on Saturday - but hopefully once she starts, she'll let me grab an "action" shot - you know while I'm timing how long it takes her to clean the toilet (that was for you Jenny - I'm not REALLY going to do that - yet). She was a bundle of energy and talks fast - whew - I didn't get everything, but we had a good time chatting. She was going to come Tues/Thurs/Sat, but I thought I don't need that , lets start with 2 days, but not really sure if her priced changed and I'm not sure if I really nailed down how long she will be here each day. She charges 400RMB/month ($50) coming 2x a week for probably a minimum of 2 hours each day. If I calculate that out, it is really kind of expensive (ie "tie *gway* la) - for what the actual going rate is. But when I REALLY stop to think about it is still only $3US an hour - good grief. She is trying to put her 17 year old through school and it costs her $2000 US dollars a year (which is pretty expensive). I think I can splurge to help her with that. It is a fine line - the Chinese like to negotiate, so they start high, but, I don't want to get ripped off, but I don't want to be cheap either. The balancing act stresses me out.

She is going to help me pay the bills, she is going to clean one day and lightly clean the other and then will help me cook a meal. So I give her all the ingredients and she will go buy the stuff and give me the receipt. She was telling me I was spending too much money on stuff. So hopefully the money I save will cover her "higher wages." I think just having her as a resource will be valuable. It was interesting trying to explain vegetarian though - but hopefully in a few months I'll be a wiz with fried rice and be making a few sauces too! Thanks Mom for the great cookbook you gave us before we left - we have found some good Chinese recipes that we are going to try. She also said she would help me with my Chinese lessons which start at Berlitz on October 10th. I go 2x a week for 2.5 hours each time. I'm soooo excited about that. Then I can come back to talk to Daisy in Mandarin, well at least try anyway.

I'm off on a walking adventure to meet up with a few Tai Tai's for lunch - camera in hand - maybe I'll find tomorrow's picture. :)