One of the great things about living in China is that I can afford to do things that I could not back home. Cost of living here is lower, and labor is cheap (hence most everything is made here). I have never really been a messy person, but really have appreciated having a house cleaner. Last year my Ayi (house cleaner in Chinese, direct translation is Auntie) was fantastic, her name is Huang Qing. I absolutely loved her, she organized my clothes in ways I did not know was possible. She did cute things, like putting my eye covers over my stuffed animal's eyes, re-organized my books, re-organized my kitchen, my bathroom... ok so not all the things were cute in the traditional way, but they are if you love organization.
This past fall I moved into the French concession, and I love my neighborhood, unfortunately my Ayi did not want to make the commute. I felt so abandoned by her and lost. I got a replacement but I found that she did not get everything done that my other ayi was able to accomplish. She did not organize things for me, I had to re-organize and always felt like I was disorientated looking for my clothes. I felt a void that was left by Huang Qing. I stuck with the new ayi, despite the washing a leather skirt, throwing away pictures, and not doing the ironing. However this past weekend I had to let her go.
On Friday I came home and she was still mopping so I just popped in and went out, noticing that my math books were in a bag, but I had left them on the floor so did not think more of it and went to happy hour to meet a friend. When I came back she was gone. In the morning I wanted to get some work done before going to the literary festival. So I looked for my math books.... no where to be found... I looked in the hall in all my shelves, piles of things, and nothing. I had to have a friend call my ayi to see where they were. I was fearing that she took them or that she threw them away. While i am used to student wanting to deface math books, I am not used to my house cleaner feeling so strongly about taking my math books. It was not so much that it was math books, though that is a strange thing to take for a cleaner that does not speak English, but that she took anything.
It turns out she thought I did not want them and took them without asking. Who knew she was a Good Will Hunting in the works? Unfortunately I had to let her go as I did not feel comfortable with her taking my things, even if it is spreading math around. If she would have asked I would have gotten her proper books, not books on how to use the TI83 in an algebra 2 class.
