06.03.10: Hasta la vista, baby!

To follow up on the ayi situation, I finally was able to get rid of her last weekend. Apparently -- and I found this way funny --she came in on unexpectedly on Friday. Beau was still peacefully sleeping in the buff when she thrust open the bedroom door, began berating him in Chinese for not putting the dirty laundry outside the door as she had requested, and start sweeping the floor. Surprised, he yelled at her in English, "You're not supposed to be here!" She called and said "Ting bu dong!" ("I don't understand!") and set him right off. He called out for our roommate who stumbled blind and groggy out of his bed to chase her out of the house.



Our roommate has impeccable Chinese so I was planning on him being here the day that we fired her, but I ended up being on my own. I originally was going to tell her that my cousin was coming and would take care of the housecleaning for us, but being a little uncertain about how to explain that situation in Chinese, I led with, "My boyfriend is angry at you and you can't come back." That was not a good call, as she started protesting and explaining that everything that had happened was not her fault. She was grabbing my arm and I thought she might cry, but she was shouting. Finally she insisted on calling my co-worker who has employed her for 5 years. I tried explaining to her that 9am on a Sunday was not an appropriate time to call up a foreigner, but she ignored me. Thankfully, he was awake and after chatting with her for a few minutes and then talking to me to find out what was going on, he told her that my mom was coming into town and would be taking care of us from now on. That was completely valid to her. She asked about her salary which I already had in my pocket, but then insisted that I give her more because "is how you do things in China." I was annoyed considering she hadn't been there for two weeks already and we'd just given her a Chinese New Year bonus, but more so because she hadn't done any work at all in the past couple of months and it was just getting silly now. However, I have her the money, let her take the groceries she had brought with her, and closed the door behind her with a mixed sense of guilt and relief. It wasn't a very pleasant situation but I was just happy to see her go.



My friends are now recommending new ayis but I really don't want another stranger in my house. Roommate is also moving out as I type and while it's been a blast, I can't wait to have the spare bedroom to myself as an office. I do try writing but the living room and the dining room are not the most comfortable places for it. Beau has also been using our flat screen TV as a monitor since we moved in which means when I park myself in my favorite spot (seated on a throw pillow behind the coffee table, armed with a pen, a journal, some books, and a cup of coffee) I have to watch whatever TV show he is watching or whatever computer/video game he is playing or, for a real treat, I get to watch him fiddle with the computer and try to improve the connection speed. He can actually look at the torrents streaming for prolonged lengths of time. It brings him joy. It makes me nuts.

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