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For three years, I have been in China teaching Swing Dancing. Now I'm wandering yet again...
2005-01-29
Changes
So the magazine cover is out. I thought that they would put four of us on the front cover of the magazine. As it turns out, it's just me and Kellian! A good picture, too, she says. It's been three days and I'm yet to find a copy of it, but I will soon.
So this boost is combined with finding a new dance studio in which we can hold classes. I'm going to start holding two or three new lesson nights per week, beginning immediately after Chinese New Year. The CNY is a week-long holiday, and pretty much everything grinds to a halt during this time. People travel back to see their families and such. For me, I'm going to stay right here and plan out my little dance school.
On the home front, there's a bit of a change too. One I'm not too happy with at the moment. My roommate's been a pretty decent guy overall. There's always things to deal with with anyone you see frequently, but up to this time I'd pretty much felt like it was all pretty OK. Well, he's just got a job, and a couple of days ago he said he may be moving to live closer to that job. That's fine, of course. I said this worked for me, so long as we could find a replacement roommate. Then he asked if I would put my name on the lease (instead of his), and I said this also was fine.
So yesterday I got a new message completely. He said he wanted to even out the rent portions that each of us pay. This I thought was also acceptable, since his portion is disproportionately large. And then he said, in passing, that he'd just checked the old responses from his personal ad and he found a lot more people were interested in the ad than he had realized. And many of those were willing to pay a lot more.
So this did not sit at all well with me. This made me think he's not so much on the level as I'd thought. And I came to wonder about other doubts I had been having and not paying attention to. So I see some future possibilties, most of which I do not like. It is possible that he could just move out and I would sign the lease. This is acceptable. I'd have to find a new roommate but I think I could do alright since I'd get to pick the person.
The other possibilities are not so keen in my view. I see a reasonable likelihood of him staying and asking for a more even split of rent. I used to feel OK with this but now I'm doubting. The next possibility is that he'll want to move out AND still keep the lease in his name, renting out his half of the apartment to someone else who's willing to pay more for it. That is not cool with me. I would essentially be the responsible tenant while he's collecting a margin off a roommate who I do not have the power to select or evict.
So I'm not feeling at ease. Moving is a major hassle. And just for the last month or so I was saying I'm finally happy with my apartment location and finances. I've set up my work locations to be on the subway line which runs close by my house. But now I'm thinking I'd better prepare. I'd better get an option for a single-room place of my own. There are problems living alone, lonliness and day-to-day hassles chief among them. But things are actually going pretty well in my 'work' life. I really can't relax so long as the house situation is in limbo. It takes probably five full work days to plan and execute a house move. Time to look at personal ads, look at houses, negotiate the lease, then to do the final moving. Then, once you do move in there's another time loss. It takes months to settle into a place; find out who lives nearby, where to get good, cheap food...
Well, he's just walked in the door. We'll have a chat and see what happens.
-J
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