Oct 10 How the Other Half Lives.

Holly and Olivia went to the local farmer’s market with Sergio and his family while I had a nice lazy morning sleeping in and catching up on my writing.  They returned just in time for us to take an Uber to Sam’s house.  His house was on the other side of town up a hill in an exclusive gated community.  We had to stop at the gate and check in and once inside it was like we were in a high end gated community in the US surrounded by fancy modern houses, impeccably mowed lawn, cute little parks with play areas, nice cars on the road and nobody on the sidewalks.  The house numbering scheme was a little strange but we were able to eventually to find their house.

It was a white large modern house with four large bedrooms four and a half baths, office and even a small maid quarters, probably 3,500 square feet.  Later Sam told us that this was one of the smallest houses in the community and would rent for about USD$2,500 a month plus a $500 a month HOA fee.  However Sam’s company paid for the house and utilities.  Sam’s wife Maggie had a large hot pot feast spread out for us and had invited the other two ladies over again along with the kids, husband and boyfriend.  We arrived at 12:30 pm and as typical of Chinese parties we started eating the hot pot, then some Chinese kabobs, then snacks then more hot pot until we left at 10 pm.  Of course it was not just eating, it was chatting at lunch, then some more chatting for kabobs and then a bit of a break for chatting over snacks and tea then finally dinner.  Meanwhile the five Chinese kids had fun eating and playing for the day.  It was a really good chance for Holly and Olivia to talk in Chinese.  It can be tiring always trying to communicate in a foreign language and it is nice to sometimes be able to talk in your native language.  When I was China it was easy to make quick friends with other Americans since there was an instant bond of being foreigners together and it was the same with Holly and the Chinese ladies.

All the other people were high ranking employees sent from China or Korea.  It is really a great life.  They all had high salaries and on top of that free rent and utilities, and free company cars.  Basically they got high pay and low expenses since most of their biggest expenses were paid by the company.  It is a good job if you can get it.

Eventually though it was time to take our leave and we headed back to Rover for the night.