It's official. We're moving out of our apartment in the downtown area to be closer to Matthew's school. He's going to be transferred from the Pudong campus to the Puxi campus effective August. The poor kid has had to endure a three hour commute (on a good day) for almost a year. We've had him on the transfer list since the day he started school. The school offered a seat to him in January. I decided it would be horrible to pull him out of the environment where he's made friends and adjusted. The school agreed to keep him on the transfer list. In March, we received official notification that he'll be transferred to the Puxi campus for the Fall semester.So, though the school's on the same side of town where we live, the commute going to the Puxi campus can be just as bad. At a minimum, it will be an hour and a half each day. Tony thought it would be better if we moved further into the Puxi area to be closer to the school. We looked around and found an apartment at the Shanghai Racquet Club. The school is literally 10 minutes away by foot, 5 minutes by bus. Now, when Matthew wants to participate in the after school activities, he'll be home at a reasonable hour. Currently, he's participating in after school soccer. He doesn't get off the bus that drops off at a central location until 7pm. Take into account the commute back to home, dinner, homework and any studying for exams into the equation and you have a pretty good idea what a bad night it can turn into.
Matthew's very excited about the move. Compared to where we currently live, the new place is like Disney for kids. It's a full service compound with outdoor pool, tennis courts, basketball courts and tons of kids. Did I say kids? Yes. Where we currently live, is a small apartment building. Fifteen apartments in total. No kids. Well, there aren't any kids Matthew's age. The ones that are here are either toddlers or teenagers. When we were out on the house hunting trip, the minute we drove into the compound, we saw tons of kids all over the place. Matthew said "Ok- we're moving here." Wait a minute, we didn't even see the place yet. Nope. He was emphatic. All it took was to see the kids swarming by the tennis courts, basketball courts and the community club house. The community club house is a popular destination for the kids because there's a snack bar. We were told all the kids go to the snack bar after school to chat with their friends and hang out before they go home. It was nice to see the ammenities offered and it was a done deal for Matthew.
Every apartment we looked at, he automatically picked out his new room. Ok- let me clarify that. When we were looking at the apartments, he would claim the Master bedroom as his new room. We had to bring him back to Earth and tell him the Master Bedroom is off limits. He's lucky he's getting his own room (just kidding).
The new place is WAY OUT in the suburbs. It's in a newly developed area called the Minhang District. The Minhang District doesn't have a whole heck of a lot to offer. In fact, there is hardly anything there. The only selling point is it's very close to the American, British, Singapore, French, German and Korean schools. That's the only reason you find families out there. Other than that, you need to go into the downtown area for anything else. The new apartment offers a hourly shuttle bus service that goes into the downtown area. I can hop the shuttle bus into the downtown area and make my way around by foot, subway or taxi. It all depends on where I have to be and how much time I'd have before Matthew gets home from school. Tony's commute to the office will be much longer. As a parent, you do what's best for your children.
So, I got the call from Tony's company that the lease has been signed off. The movers will come over tomorrow afternoon to assess the packing needs and we'll be moving in less than three weeks. Things are falling into place.
We'll be moving into our new home on Thursday, May 17th. Matthew will have less than three weeks of commuting left. Which means, I'll have that much time to get the place settled before we leave for our trip back to the States.
