Interruptions Continued: Adventures with Ayi

Ok, ok...so I still haven't caught up with my trip report. Honestly, it's because I HATE organizing pictures (and I'm kind of hoping to get Luke's so I have some better pics to choose from). I promise I'll keep working on it. We take off on our next trip in less than a week and if I'm not caught up on the last one (and the intervening weekend in Seoul) I may have to give this up as a lost cause.

In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy our latest adventures with ayi. Zhang Ayi is a marvel and I can't imagine what we'd do without her!

Every evening when we get home we have a delicious (well, with a few exceptions...more to come), nutritious dinner on the table. A typical meal consists of a sauteed vegetable (eggplant, squash, or something), a braised green vegetable (usually of Chinese varieties totally unfamiliar to us, but sort of spinach-like), soup (usually a light chicken broth with some kind of vegetable and either a little egg or a little tofu), a meat dish (she makes particularly yummy ribs!) and, of course, a bowl of rice. By the time we've left the dining room, ayi has a giant plate of watermelon cut into bite-sized pieces waiting for us (with toothpicks for eating...well...actually, those pre-strung disposable dental floss things...don't ask me...).

In addition to the ribs, some of my favorite dishes are the cold cucmber salad with garlic and a bit of vinegar, sliced tomatoes which ayi peels (and let me tell you, peeling tomatoes is a real pain!) sprinkled lightly with sugar (yes, it sounds a little odd, but it turns out to be delicious), sauteed eggplant, and, of course, jiaozi (Beijing's native style of boiled dumplings) which ayi makes entirely from scratch (she rolls the skins at home, then brings them over and fills, seals and cooks the dumplings here).

Ayi makes everything from scratch and she shops each day for fresh foods. She informs us that food must be made and eaten fresh. Store-bought dumplings (or even the skins) are no good (in fact, are unhealthy). We aren't even allowed to save leftovers (which we always have) for lunch the next day (not healthy ayi insists). Last time I went to the store with her (before I started work, obviously) happened to be a fish night. I KNOW that fish was fresh because I watched the lady in the fish section scoop it alive an flopping out of tank, whack it dead, clean it and hand it over. An hour later that fish was on our table (and it was definitely good...although I don't want to think too hard about what might have been in the water it lived its life in...).

Jiaozi are usually a Friday night treat. This past Friday dinner looked like this:


I believe jiaozi are usually a meal by themselves, but ayi didn't want us to feel that the meal was insufficient, so she gave us plenty of other dishes as well. Yes, the pale things are just what you think they are...chicken feet (aka phoenix claws)...here's a close up so you can tell for sure:


We dutifully tried them but told ayi that in the future chicken feet could, perhaps, be left out of our diet.

Ayi believes it is her job to keep us healthy. In fact, shortly after she started working for us, she told us that if we got sick she would feel she failed at her job (boy I hope my immune system is up to whatever germs hang around in Beijing that I haven't been exposed to at home or I'll feel awfully guilty!). To keep us healthy, ayi has started us on a new regime: mung bean soup at bedtime. Mung bean soup is a mildly sweet dish of mushy mong beans in the liquid they were cooked in. It is eaten cold. Ayi makes it fresh each day and we're under strict orders not to heat it, eat any day other than the day it was made or to eat it in any season other than summer. The texture of the mung beans is not horrible, but neither is it particularly nice. Other than being slightly sweet, the soup doesn't actually taste like much. It is even mildly refreshing, so we've been dutifully eating a bowl at bedtime as ordered.

Ayi has a remarkable work ethic. Although we told her when we hired her that she needn't come in for a full day when we're out of town, just stop by to feed the cats. She insists on working her whole schedule anyway (plus coming in to feed the cats on the weekends). I don't know if she actually does, or what she does when she's here, but I suspect she really does come full time and really finds work to do. This week three things happened that demonstrated the difference between her idea of what her work required of her and our idea.

First, we will be traveling for three weeks starting on Saturday. We can arrange for pet-sitting services through our building. Ayi's daughter (who lives in ayi's hometown in Anhui province which isn't exactly just around the corner) has a birthday this month. We thought, since ayi has been doing such good work for us, that we'd use the building's pet-sitting service for a week and, as a bonus, buy ayi a train ticket home so she could visit her daughter (and, of course, the week at home would be paid time as usual). We thought we were offering her a very nice bonus. She thought we wanted to fire her. Oops! After much reassurance that we are very happy with her work and don't know what we'd do without her, ayi is not going home. She's working as usual.

Second, on Wednesday or Thursday I had a meeting scheduled to last until six. I like to leave the office by 5:30 at the latest so I have time to get home and eat in time for ayi to clean up and leave pretty close to when she's supposed to get off at 7. When it became apparent that the meeting was not going to end at 6 (it ended sometime slightly after 7:30), I texted Ben to let him know I would be a while. He tried to send ayi home, but she refused. It's her job to serve us dinner, even if dinner is very late. It was close to 8:30 by the time I finally made it home. I was pretty surprised to see ayi still there. She finally agreed to go home as soon as dinner was on the table and leave the dishes until the next day (but under no circumstances were we to touch them, not even clear the table, let alone wash up!). I felt terrible keeping her two hours after she was supposed to get off, but she refused any overtime pay or offer of equivalent time off the next day.

Third, as she was leaving Friday night, she suddenly became very concerned about what we would eat over the weekend. She tried to insist that she would come in on Saturday and Sunday to at least cook our dinner. That we managed to head off. We managed to reassure her that we could fend for ourselves over the weekend - we had plans to go out on Saturday anyway. The Chinese kitchen may exactly be familiar to me, but I actually love to cook and can probably manage eggs and toast if nothing else (or there's always the restaurant in the basement or several restaurants at the club in our complex). If she insists on staying late when I get stuck at work and working her full schedule even if we're out of town, the least we can do is make sure she doesn't work weekends when we're here!

It's a bit of an adjustment having more-or-less full-time help, but I confess it's kind of nice. I think I'll be pretty spoiled returning to the US where someone who shops, cooks, cleans, does laundry and pretty much anything else we can think up for her is definitely unaffordable!

Another Interruption: An Update on Life as Usual

So, what with going to work and all, we're actually starting to settle into a routine (at least I am...Ben's out of class at the moment so he's taking it easy).

I stumble groggily out of bed WAY too early (6:15-ish if I can manage it). Ben usually stays in bed until I get out of the shower (although that may change when his classes start again). Then he gets up to make sure I've grabbed a banana or something for breakfast (which I sometimes even eat :P ). I stagger out of the house around 7:15 and make my way to the subway.

It's about a 4-5 minute walk to the subway if I remember to take the shortcut through the apartment complex behind us, or a little longer if I forget and go around. Either way, I consistently dodge just barely in time to avoid losing an eye to the weird bit of rusty metal sticking out of the gate to the construction site by the subway. I go north on the number 5 subway line for 3 stops. It's generally not crowded. I often even get a seat. The trick I've noticed (shhh...I don't want everyone to find out!) is to head for the entry lanes furthest from where the steps to the platform come out. Most stations have entries/exits at either end of the platform and naturally people tend to bunch close to where they arrive on the platform. If you get on the subway elsewhere on the platform you've got a better chance at reduced crowding. This isn't so important early in the morning on the 5 going north, but when I change to the westbound 13 it becomes critical. West on 13 is rush hour in the morning and it's crowded...no, it's CROWDED. I still have a bruise on my ankle where from when it got caught between the platform and the train as I was shoved forward by the mob of people trying to pack into the car. Moving to the middle of the platform is ESSENTIAL for health and well being when getting on that train in that direction at that station in rush hour! So, no more getting trampled, but the train's still crowded. I've yet to get a seat on the 13. Standing isn't so bad, though, at least not for the first stop or two. I go 4 stops total on the 13. Starting at about the 2nd stop things get crazy. Looking out the window, you can see the line which runs off the platform, down the stairs, through the station, down to the street and through a series of switchbacks on the street. I don't even want to think about how long it would take to get on the subway at that stop or the next. Crowding becomes uncomfortable at the second stop and almost unbearable at the third. Thank goodness I get off after that. It's really pretty manageable so long as the air conditioning works. The day the air conditioning was off was...well...let's just say we all might as well have swum to work. A quick walk through a parking lot (look out for cars!), up a little flagstone path, a game of Frogger crossing the street and I come to my building where I settle in for the day (see my last post for more about work).

Most days I get to work around 8 and pull myself away between 5 and 5:30 (generally closer to 5:30). I repeat the train operation in reverse (although it's not usually quite as crowded on the 13...I think I leave just a bit early for the worst of the traffic) and come through the door around 6:15. As I walk in the door I hear the sizzle as ayi heats the wok up in the kitchen to prepare whichever dish has to be seared at the last minute. A few minutes later we sit down to dinner.

We try to finish up by 6:45 since ayi always stays until we're done so she can wash up before she goes home. She's supposed to get off at 7, although I fear I've tended to keep her a bit late since I've started work.

Relax for a bit (or call up to read to Zoe), to the gym for a long swim and a cleansing sit in the steam room, sauna or hot tub (unless I'm too tired to drag myself over there or the weather outside is too miserable), a little reading or part of a movie, a little Chinese TV just for the extra exposure to the language and I'm usually asleep by 10.

Thus pass the days...

Interruption: Off and Running at Work

I know you're all waiting to hear about the rest of the trip and see more pictures. I hope I'll get there soon (maybe even at least part way there today!). In the meantime, though, I thought I'd give you an update on my new job.

I started work a week and a half ago at Ethos Technologies. The people I work with are awesome! In eight days at work, I have yet to be left on my own for lunch or even to be allowed to pay for my own lunch (until I finally insisted on picking up the tab late in the week). Lunch is usually ordered in from one of the many nearby Chinese take-out places (which certainly beat American Chinese take-out!). Although I haven't really done it myself yet, as far as I can tell, those of us that can't read Chinese menus or place food orders in Chinese have only to go to one of our friendly Chinese colleagues who will obligingly order for us (and even select for us if we're flexible about what we eat). We eat together in a cozy lunch room - generally family style.

Team lunches, dinners and other social activities seem to be frequent and there are weekend basketball, football (that's soccer to you Americans ;)) and badminton clubs. Ben and I joined a number of my colleagues for badminton yesterday. I hadn't played since high school, but it came back to me pretty quickly and my colleagues were patient and friendly about my gaffes. In addition to sports, there are English clubs for the Chinese students to practice their English (I think we need a Chinese club for us non-Chinese to practice our Chinese, too - maybe I'll get that started). I also think I'll look into founding some other non-sports options. I've got lots of people in my group who are looking for ways to practice their English, so I think maybe an English-language book club would be fun. The trick will be to find books that are fun and accessible for everyone. I also really enjoyed Toastmasters when I belonged at Seagate. It would be a great forum to help people with their spoken English. When I get back from my next trip I'll see if there's sufficient interest and do some research on how to found a new chapter. Another great thing about the people at work is their diversity. The non-Chinese come from all over, but truly, so do the Chinese. Nearly every province in China is represented. Since food is one of my personal passions (I know you haven't seen a lot about food yet, but count on it...so long as I can manage to keep up you'll probably be treated to more than you ever wanted to know!) I'd love to see if I can drum up interest in a food club...the idea, I think, would be that for each meeting we'd select a different cuisine (ideally led each time by a member for whom that cuisine is native) and eat together at a restaurant specializing in that cuisine. I think it would be a great way to get to know each other and to get a taste of different parts of China and the world all without leaving Beijing. Contrary to everything I'd heard, Beijing does not seem to lack for restaurants serving food from around the world.

So...that's for the social fabric of work. It's not all fun and games though (well...actually, so far it is all fun, but definitely not all games). I have 35 people reporting to me at the moment (with 6 new people joining my group tomorrow, more at the end of July and still more at the end of August). The group structure is brand new to Ethos so everyone is still learning/figuring out how the new organization will work. I am not only struggling to get to know everyone in my group (it's hard to get to know 35 people practically overnight...especially, I confess, when they have names that are totally unfamiliar, which I can't even pronounce, and sometimes can't distinguish given name from surname), but trying to grasp the projects we are responsible for, pick up enough about the technology (which is brand new to me) to make sense of them, and find out what's in the pipeline so I have work for all those new people to do, not to mention learning a whole set of new IT systems, corporate policies, etc. At any rate, it's hard work, but fun. I love a new challenge and this is certainly that. The names, systems, policies, etc. will sort themselves out over time (hopefully less time rather than more!)...most important, I like the people I work with and know that every day will bring new friends, new learning and fun. After two years back in school, it's an adjustment getting up every morning to get to the office, but for the first time in a long time, I'm enjoying myself enough that it's also hard to tear myself away at the end of the day to go home. That's the way work should be.