When you turn on the sink.....and no water comes out

That's when you remember you're in China, and utilities are run differently.

So I dug out my water card, and tried to find the meter somewhere on my porch. I think I found it, put my card in, and saw that somehow there were like 300 units on my card.....so from my poor understanding of this system, that should mean I still have water?

But I don't. So much for that shower I wanted to take.

So I called my agent, Emily, on both phone numbers she has listed, but there was no answer. I may have gotten a voicemail, but I'm not sure?

So on this paper they left me, they said you can put money on your water card with cash only, in the Management Office, which is apparently located in Room 102, of Unit 3, Building 6. I have NO IDEA where that might be or what that means.

At the moment, the best thing I can think of is to go down to the guard, show him the water card and this piece of paper, and see if he can direct me. Hope this works....running water is a nice amenity.

                                       In the Future....

Starting Wednesday evening, I will be having an Ayi (which kind of means Auntie? Here in China they are the cultural norm, and they clean, do your laundry, pay your bills, do your ironing, some of the will cook, be a nanny to your kids, that kind of thing) come every Wednesday evening for about few hours to do household chores. I will definitely leave her money to pay the bills, so I don't have to worry about all of this stuff. It will be really awesome to have someone clean and do my laundry and ironing once a week, because I really don't like doing laundry. In fact, I've seriously contemplated moving to a nudest colony to avoid laundry. And ironing? I haven't ironed something in like 5 years. Back in Chicago, I had an ironing board...but my iron seems to have gotten lost in one of my many moves....I haven't seen it since before moving to Princeton.....so....

But since I don't have a dryer, and everything line dries, ironing will be more essential. Especially given our "smart" dress code.

I'm off to buy cleaning supplies and a mop for my ayi today. And I'm going to have one of my Chinese friends write out a grocery list in Chinese and hopefully the Ayi can do that too. She doesn't speak English, which is a bummer, because I really wanted to get to know her (I've had this same trouble with all of the cabs....I like to talk to the cab driver while I'm riding....and not being able to do that has felt awkward to me, and kind of elitist, and I don't like that feeling), but that seems like it might be hard. I did ask Emily (who brought her over last Sunday) for her name....but I made the mistake of not writing it down, and I've forgotten it already.

I've never had, what is essentially, a maid before and I'm not really sure how that works. It makes me feel weird- like someone else shouldn't be cleaning up after me. In fact, I've wanted to clean like 4 times already this past week, but I stopped myself because then I realized she wouldn't have anything to do. I don't know....it seems strange. But this is the culture here, and when in Rome.....