When I first heard about ayi's, I had ambivalent feelings about having one. An ayi is a maid/nanny, and I don't have little children at home. I don't have a job. I don't have a church calling as yet. I have a an apartment that is half of what our house used to be. I don't have a yard to take care of. Why do I need an ayi? But it seems to be expected that families such as ours have an ayi, and there are billions here who need a job, so we decided to give it a try. With the help of a relocation agent, I interviewed a nice woman. She is 32 years old, and will travel 30 minutes by bicycle to come to work. We will pay $300 a month for 20 hours a week. Now, all I have to do is figure out what to have her do! She has worked here in Warner Garden, for an American family, so she understands some simple English, and I am hoping she can help me a lot with my Chinese. 
The above is the kitchen of our new apartment. The dishwasher is on the other side of the island, next to the sink. The microwave is tiny, as is the oven. Good thing we're cooking for 4 instead of the whole family! The laundry room is through those doors. This is the living room (with furnished sofas, chairs, tables and TV). Ellie already has the remote controls figured out. The furniture is not new, but it is comfortable, and the biggest bonus is that it doesn't smell of cigarette smoke. 
And this is the view out of the patio windows--a portion of the golf course, so we have green space to look at. (And if you can't see all the buildings beyond, because of the smog, you can make believe it isn't a big city...) Also, our balcony is the top balcony, so instead of having a concrete roof, we have a slatted open roof, and we are south-facing, so I'm thinking I should be able to do some great container gardening--some spinach, tomatoes, etc. All I have to do is find a store with the containers, dirt and seeds or seedlings!
We were blessed with an interesting "vase". It's about 4 feet tall--an umbrella stand? for silk flower arrangements? Your ideas? By the way, this door leads to the master bedroom and bathroom.
This is the view from the front door of the apt. I was intrigued that we will have french doors across the room, just like we did in our home in France. Something familiar-feeling. The dining table and chairs were placed here, but I think we'll put them over by the kitchen and move the living room furniture over a bit. And in a bit of "why did they do that???" the table has FIVE chairs, not six. Maybe it is because many families have a set of grandparents, the parents, and ONE child. Maybe that's it. It has been interesting in restaurants seeing the number of tables with three chairs.
And this is the entrance to our apartment building.
And from a bit further back. Our apartment is on the opposite side of the building. But you can see the type of slatted-roof we have on our patio.
Now the only problem is that our shipment hasn't arrived, and we just found out that it didn't even begin the ocean voyage until a couple of days ago (problems with China allowing anything in). It will arrive in port on Sept. 5 and THEN begin the customs process. We are hoping and praying it goes well. And quickly. One fellow here has been waiting for his shipment since mid-April. Another family got theirs in just a few weeks. I just hope we get the right official assigned to our shipment!
I loved the pictures of the apt. It's very nice looking! I like all the trees in front of the apartment building, too... to make up a little for not having any grass, I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe number of chairs is so interesting! I guess you can only have one guest over at a time... :-)
The apartment looks great. Nice and big! When I see the outside of the buildings, though, I get the feeling that you are back in Orleans during that first week in the "John Deere" apartment!
ReplyDeleteRyan