Simple Chores Made Difficult

I have three main chores I have to take care of here. One is the dishes, one is laundry, and the other is grocery shopping. Sounds easy enough.

Dishes aren't too bad--we just don't have a dish washer or two sinks anymore. So, I have to do them all by hand using one sink. It isn't too hard other than the limited space in the kitchen and no drying rack. The good news is I can't let them get stacked too high, because we only have four bowls, four plates, four forks, four spoons, four chopsticks, two pots, two frying pans, one spatula, one wire whisk... you get the idea. Sometimes I feel like Old Mother Hubbard.



Laundry can be a little more challenging. It is not the washing and folding that is hard; it is the dragging the heavy bags of dirty clothes around the corner with a baby in tow that can be tricky.

Once the laundry starts to stack up, I have to load it into bags and get it to the laundry store. Sometimes I slide it into the little basket under the stroller, put Jadyn in, and go (works well with one bag of laundry). Sometimes I stick her in the front pack and carry a bag of laundry in each hand (works well if the bags aren't too heavy). And other times when the laundry is too heavy, I push Jadyn in the stroller and lug a suitcase full of dirties (as seen here) behind me.

The best was when I took the laundry in the morning and loads of people were headed toward me on the cross walk on their way to work. I had to plow through the mass of people with a huge stroller in front of me and a huge suitcase behind me. To top it off, the people weren't expecting a person taking up the space of a minivan to be headed toward them, so they had their heads down as they came across the street. I just tried to walk slowly and say, "excuse me, excuse me," (which who knows if they understood) in hopes of not having a head-on collision with any of them.


Once I make it across the street, I maneuver my way on the narrow sidewalk, dodging pedestrians and dripping air conditioners, until I arrive at the laundry store. Once there, they take the bags, weigh them, and ask "when want to pick up? Tomorrow? Okay, tomorrow. Come tomorrow afternoon." I'm not sure if that is all the English they know, but it is the same each time, and it is fine with me, because I can understand that. I pay, say thank you, and head back home.

The next afternoon I drop by with Jadyn in the stroller. They have the laundry washed, dried, and folded in plastic bags. I throw one under the stroller in the basket and balance the other on top of the handle as I push them back home.

Grocery shopping is probably the hardest of the three chores. Now, I have never liked grocery shopping; honestly, I think it has always been my least favorite chore. But now it is an entirely different experience. I have to take Jadyn in the front pack because no grocery store here is big enough for a stroller. Some of the stores even have metal posts at the entrance to block people from taking the carts.

Shopping takes two days. The first day I go to the Wellcome and buy whatever I can find that is on my list. I walk slowly up and down each aisle as not to miss any American item. I know just how full I can get my basket to be sure I only have four or five bags of groceries; I want to ensure I'm going to be able to carry them home.

The second day I go to Jusco for anything I wasn't able to find at the Wellcome (the Wellcome is less expensive--that is why I start there, plus I can only carry four or five bags at a time). To do this, I have to hop on the subway.




Jusco is awesome because it has quite a variety of American foods. I even found lunch meat and cheese! Wahoo! You pay for it though.

Once I have purchased my groceries, I walk across the street to the taxi stand and hop in a taxi. The groceries are too heavy to carry through the subway, onto the train, and back home. I show the driver the address on my key card (they have it in Chinese and English) and then I hold on for dear life. Once we have made it safely back to the hotel, I pay the man and breathe a sigh of relief. Now I can relax as the bell boy opens the taxi doors, grabs out the groceries, and follows me up to the apartment to drop them off. By this time, it is worth the couple dollar tip to have the help. Once he leaves and the door closes behind him, I hug my baby and thank her for being such a good girl through all this madness.