I am leaving Montenegro on Tuesday and need to move out of my apartment. When I moved in at the end of June, the apartment was what I would call tidy but certainly not clean. That is to say that everything was in place, but when you looked closer there was dust on the furniture and in the corners. The throw rugs were not what I would describe as clean but neatly arranged on the floor, and all the dishes were put away. I spent the first night scrubbing the toilet, bathtub, and sinks before I could take a shower or brush my teeth.

Yesterday my office coordinated with my landlady to arrange the details for turning the apartment back over to her. She asked that we pay someone to clean the place when I move out. Under ordinary circumstances this would be a fair request. However, given that the apartment was not clean when I moved in, I said that we should refuse. My reticence is due to the fact that she has not been the best landlady (I waited almost six weeks for my bathroom heater and kitchen hot water heater to be fixed among other things). I told my colleague to tell her had every intention of returning the apartment to her in the same condition that it was when I moved in. This immediately satisfied my landlady and for a while I couldn’t figure out why. Then I realized that my version of clean is not the same as her version as clean. Thinking back, I have always wondered why after the cleaning woman comes to our office it appears as though she has tidied up and not cleaned… So maybe there is something being lost in translation? To me clean means scrubbed, dusted, disinfected—like new.