The hunt is on...

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Two weeks ago while I was on MSN chatting to my mom, an old student of mine logged in. Her name is Grace, and she worked at Citroen - a car company that I did some contract teaching at 4 years ago. We've been chatting quite often now. Grace no longer works at Citroen - she spent 2 years living in Shanghai, and is now living in Wuhan again, managing her own little shop on Wan Song Yuan Lu (for those of you that know where that is).

Last week Jean and I were walking down Wan Song Yuan Lu (it's on the same road as our dvd shop), and we found her shop. It's the first time I had seen her in four years, and I found that she hasn't changed much outwardly. But she is more outgoing, talks more, and seems more at peace somehow. Anyways, I happened to mention that Jean and I are looking for a new apartment, and would love to live on Wan Song Yuan Lu. It's such a beautiful street - completely tree-lined, quiet, full of unique little shops and restaurants, and close to everything important to us in Wuhan. She asked a couple questions, like what our price range was, how many bedrooms, then she said she'd let us know if she heard of anything.

Last night my phone rang, and it was Grace! She said that she's found at least 4 apartments, and was wondering if we could look at them today. So as soon as our classes are done, we're heading off to meet up with Grace and tour these apartments. We've decided that a Chinese apartment is fine by us (meaning that we're ok with a Chinese toilet at home, no guard at the gate, and a little less reliable electricity) - we want the full experience of living like a local. Plus we get more room for a cheaper price - these two and three bedrooms apartments cost the same or less then what we are paying now for one big room. Crazy!!!

As you probably remember, Chris will be coming to Wuhan to teach at our school in January. We've all decided to share an apartment, plus we're having many visitors next year, so we need more bedrooms. Wan Song Yuan Lu is about the same distance to school as where we live right now, just in the other direction. Plus it's closer to all of the places we often go.

So keep your fingers crossed, that one of these places will work out. I'll put some photos up here soon!

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