Looking for New Apartment

As they say, it doesn't rain, it pours.

Last week was a perfect storm, if you will, of a bunch of things all happening at once in a chaotic sort of way. If you've ever lived in China for any length of time, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

After a relative period of stability and things running smoothly, a bunch of urgent things will happen all at once and you have to deal with it on the spot. Then, once you've put out the fires, things get back to normal again. This is what the perfect storm of last week looked like:

1. Term marks were due and needed to be inputed for the report cards, with glitches in the computer system.
2. One of my students got kicked out of school and raised a ruckus with his parents. The homeroom teacher may be fired.
3. Gr 12 students were taken out of two of my classes this week for the math contest and their English provincial exams. As a result, my teaching schedule is out of sync, and it was very hard to keep focus!
4. Drivers license needed to replaced and that didn't work out
5. The host and a co-leader of a group I lead on weekends had an emotional confrontation, and we had to pull the group out of that person's house at the last minute, thus needing a quick change of location
6. My secretary talked to my landlord, and they confirmed the rent is going up to 6000 RMB for next year, starting in June. This is well beyond the allowance given by the school, and so I'm going to move out.

Regarding the last point, I got so upset I texted my secretary right away and told her forget it, I won't be signing any rental contracts next year for that price. She didn't flinch on that point, but it did get the school to raise the allowance. Even so, I still plan to move out of the downtown areas and start looking for a place in the "midburbs" for lack of a better word. Basically something near the outer ring road, preferably in Minhang District, for around 4000-4500 RMB a month, in an established high quality apartment complex.

The downtown place I'm now has been *excellent* all around, but there are two concerns and reasons why a move to the midburbs may end up being the best bet.

One is that I'm aiming to get legal motorcycle plates, and the HU C suburban plates are the cheaper deal at around 5000 RMB. But in order to use them, the registered address has to be a suburban one - outside the ring road. Staying in the downtown area would make those plates not possible. Downtown plates, to my knowledge, are either unavailable or else they float with the prices of the car plates which are approaching 50,000 RMB. Not exactly attractive.

Secondly, they have revitalized a construction project next door after the EXPO finished up, and the noise has been a real problem. The site goes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I now sleep in the guestroom which is quieter, but pity for any guest who would now sleep in the room facing the construction site. Then again, downtown Shanghai is famous for being noisy. If it weren't for the construction, the constant rumbling of the subway trains down below is another issue.

Going for a semi-suburban location in an established complex would cut down on the noise factor big time.

The time to start looking is now, basically, and the goal is to get something arranged for mid June. Given that my current contract for the apartment ends on June 21, this leaves a week or two to move things over.

A key issue here is that the school's housing allowance does not extend into the summer months. If they jack up the rent to 6000 RMB, that would take immediate effect in June, and I'd be hosed for two months when I'm not even planning to live there and not getting compensated!! Of course, the same thing would apply in a cheaper location in the midburbs which I'm aiming for, but perhaps a deal could be struck with the landlord. To my knowledge, there are no businesses in Shanghai that offer storage lockers.

Even if storage is not an option, I'd rather get a house lease arranged in June as opposed to September. This has always been my way of doing things over the last few years, simply because the lease ends in June along with the school year. So then as the year wraps up, you can then decide if you want to change jobs or change locations with a minimum of hassle. If your house lease is from Sept - Sept, you lose out if you decide you're not happy with the current employer, or where you live, or both of these. In some cases, you forfeit the 2-month rental deposit as most Chinese landlords are sticklers for doing a 12 month contract, and following it to the letter.

More updates on this one as they happen.