Life here is never boring…

Life here is never boring…

Less than a week ago, John and I started looking at apartments again. You see, our lease requires three months’ notice. So, since the lease ends in June, we’re supposed to give notice in March on whether we’ll want to renew or leave in June. Well after seeing a bunch of places nearby, we came across THE place. A new community with serious grassy area, a huge patio, cathedral ceilings, an awesome floorplan, a water heater for the bathroom (scalding hot showers!!), and UNFILTERED internet (I can access Washpost and NY Times!). At first we were really bummed because the place was available immediately, but we couldn’t move in until June… But in China, anything can happen. Our realtor, seeing how much we loved the place, started putting the wheels in motion. Three days later, they said they could get us out of our current lease for a nominal penalty, they got the new place to come down in rent by almost 10 percent, AND they would halve their commission. So needless to say, we bit on the offer. By week’s end, we had packed up all our stuff, ended the old lease, signed a new lease, processed our address change, and moved in.

And there are no regrets. Our new place rocks!! And it’s even a little cheaper than the other. The dogs are already reversing their slow path towards retardation… it’s wonderful here. Someone please come visit just so we can have witnesses! 🙂 And down the street, we discovered an open-air produce market. So fresh and cheap. Now we just need to work on learning to cook Chinese food!

In other news, I did a week of teaching earlier this month. Was fun to get back into things… but the experience made me decide to start my own tutoring/freelance writing business. I got a bite last week… a petrochemical company called and asked me to do corporate business English training. So now I’m doing research to put together a course outline and proposal. It’s so much work– I’ve already spent like 5 hours in the bookstore looking for a coursebook, but I’m very excited. I like the sound of working for myself. 🙂 John’s been helping me design my business cards and brochures. Wish me luck!

Comments are closed.