So American---apparently
Our apartment is for sale, which we knew even before we rented it. Of course, we underestimated how this would impact us.
This past Saturday afternoon our doorbell rang. There was a realtor ready to show the apartment to a 30-something Chinese couple. No one had called us beforehand, which was our agreement. However, we couldn't refuse them.
From Thursday until Sunday we were very busy with church, Easter preparations, and everything else. I hadn't had much time to do much cleaning/putting away other than some bare minimum maintainance work. I started to explain this to the people (in Chinese) looking at the apartment. They interrupted my halting excuses, "You can speak English to us. We're from Dallas."
This Chinese-American couple was looking into what made better sense for their family, to live in Shenzhen so the husband could commute daily to Hong Kong, or to live in Hong Kong. I know what I would choose, but I didn't share that with them.
The wife however, was very amused at the state of our house. As I was mid-laundry-folding when they arrived, she had apparently told her husband as soon as they walked in the entry-way, "You can tell immediately that she has no nanny or maid." And the second thing she noticed, "This apartment looks like any American home. It looks like our home in back in Dallas." I asked about that and she said, "Oh, you know, the toys in the living room (Myles was playing trains), the toys stacked on the shelves in your son's room. Chinese people don't live like that."
Of course, she had to remind me that maids can be had "so cheap" here, and I really had to bite my tongue about cheap being both relative and non-sustainable, and never a good reason to have something if it doesn't fit your lifestyle.
However, at least we are normal Americans....if we stayed in America.
This past Saturday afternoon our doorbell rang. There was a realtor ready to show the apartment to a 30-something Chinese couple. No one had called us beforehand, which was our agreement. However, we couldn't refuse them.
From Thursday until Sunday we were very busy with church, Easter preparations, and everything else. I hadn't had much time to do much cleaning/putting away other than some bare minimum maintainance work. I started to explain this to the people (in Chinese) looking at the apartment. They interrupted my halting excuses, "You can speak English to us. We're from Dallas."
This Chinese-American couple was looking into what made better sense for their family, to live in Shenzhen so the husband could commute daily to Hong Kong, or to live in Hong Kong. I know what I would choose, but I didn't share that with them.
The wife however, was very amused at the state of our house. As I was mid-laundry-folding when they arrived, she had apparently told her husband as soon as they walked in the entry-way, "You can tell immediately that she has no nanny or maid." And the second thing she noticed, "This apartment looks like any American home. It looks like our home in back in Dallas." I asked about that and she said, "Oh, you know, the toys in the living room (Myles was playing trains), the toys stacked on the shelves in your son's room. Chinese people don't live like that."
Of course, she had to remind me that maids can be had "so cheap" here, and I really had to bite my tongue about cheap being both relative and non-sustainable, and never a good reason to have something if it doesn't fit your lifestyle.
However, at least we are normal Americans....if we stayed in America.
Comments
Just curious...