Moving along

Today we are back in the office again. Still the weekend and still far too much to get done. This coming Wednesday we have our semester plans due. Each course requires a binder with a full course description, layout of lessons, units, PLOs, resources, activities, and assessment methods. The binders will also include sample lesson plans, and other things of the sort. It is a little stressful, to say the least, that our year must be planned in so much detail this far in advance, although it is also nice to know that once it is done it is done.
We are also in the process of looking for a new home. Ours has been nice, yes, but there are some long-term reasons we feel it is better to look for someplace new. So yesterday we trekked around town with a real estate agent who showed us 8-10 little apartments of quite the varied mix. Some were quite ornately decorated in traditional Chinese style, others were a strange mix of west and east meeting in a sortof stomach churning mulch, and still others were more modern, closer to a more western style. These newly finished and furnished western style apartments are very often designed and kept aside in hopes that foreigners will want to rent them since the living styles (cooking and cleaning to be specific) of Chinese and foreigners, tend to differ. So we are hoping this also helps us for lowering rent since we are waiting to find out if we are desirable tenants for the one we particularly like. Its located about 5 min away (by bike) from the school, on the 9th floor of an apartment highrise. There is a park below, seen from the many large glass windows, that holds kids playground areas along with dog walking friendly spaces. The apartment itself is spacious, two bedroom, living room, study, bathroom and kitchen and the colors are fairly neutral, not counting the lovely red couch that kisses the living room space quite nicely. So, we put in a rent price proposal, which we will find out about today. Unfortunately sometimes this process takes a bit of waiting and game playing, like who can hold out the longest:) So we'll see. Otherwise, until then, we are continuing work at the office and bike for time away to relax. The weather is still quite sweltering and we look forward to coolness sometime in October. I finally took my camera out yesterday when we went to the cloth market, so pictures will be posted soon:)