Moving day, accumulating owed favors

We moved in today. It didn't take too long, but the cleaning process has only just begun.

SY wants to clean everything; I want to rearrange everything. We did a little of both as things went along, but as soon as we got the sofa into the living room and set up a dining room table, I lost my enthusiasm.

Given that maids are only about 12 yuan an hour (about $1.50), so we decided that we weren't going to bother with the floor -- we're going to join the rest of America and outsource this task.

In asking around for how to find one, our friend Ryan (the minister of our church here) said he'd ask our building manager for some agencies nearby and let us know. He did one better -- he even called a pair of agencies and arranged for some to stop by. (We promptly added him to the list of people we owe big time.)

So we'll see how that goes -- both SY and I would much rather pay to have our house cleaned than do it ourselves, especially in this case where we didn't even make the mess.

In reflecting on Monday and Tuesday, SY and I thought Seven did a real service for us, and we decided that tomorrow when she and the agent stop by to supervise the installation of the refrigerator and new air conditioner, we're going to give her the bottle of pineapple wine we brought with us from Hawaii. SY even said that if we had brought a second one, thinking there'd be another occasion to show lots of gratitiude, she'd have given that one to Seven as well.

We're really starting to owe a lot of favors.