Our Ayi

We hired an Ayi! (pronounced like the English letters “I” “E”, and literally means “aunt”) In reality, she is our part-time home caretaker. Now, you may think this sounds completely ridiculous since I don’t yet have a job, and you’d be right. We got caught up in the idea of an Ayi and, no joking, every single person we know has an Ayi, so when in Rome! Also, I’m still crossing my fingers on actually getting a job. ;)

Our Ayi is You Lan. (pronounced Yo Lan) She is adorable and came as a recommendation from Lauren’s former Ayi. (P.S. Lauren has become our local expert on everything. She’s pretty amazing on knowing the ins and outs of all things Shanghai. More to come later on all her tips.)  You Lan comes 3 times per week for 4 hours each day. She cleans our dishes; cleans our apartment; does our laundry; does our ironing; and runs any errands we need. i.e. checking the mail, waiting for the delivery, paying our bills, etc. It’s pretty amazing. And now I have more time to focus on the job search? 

You Lan speaks very limited English. I’m actually hoping this will be a good thing in forcing me to practice my Mandarin. However, the funniest part is that I was running out to grab a coffee so I practiced how to say, in Mandarin, do you want a coffee” “Ni yao kafei ma?”  She responded in PERFECT English “I do not like coffee. I like green tea.” I stared at her for a couple seconds before I picked my jaw up off the floor and said, “ok, I’ll get you some green tea!” It’s going to go great!

Also, now Matt & I feel more like local Chinese, since our clothes are now hung outside to dry! But on our balcony, so a little less revealing than on the tree branches. Matt hasn't met You Lan yet, but she had already reorganized his entire wardrobe. It's amazing.

So while You Lan has been cleaning and running errands for us, I've been posting wedding photos to Facebook, just like an respectable housewife...

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100844053990846.2655396.1522295&type=1&l=382ee54a54

Our new clothes dryer