China - Week 49 (8/3): Apartment Epilogue & Updates

So, to let everyone know what happened with the apartments, I have been in talks with the landlord of the highrise building (I’m going to refer to it as “999″ from now on, since that is the address of the complex) and we’ve come to an agreement and will be signing the contract tonight.

Originally the landlord wanted to circumvent the real estate agent and sign a contract directly with me, but after thinking about it this just didn’t seem like the right thing to do.  Without the real estate agent I would not know about the apartment or have been in contact with the landlord, so I offered to pay for both mine and the landlord’s real estate fees so that we could sign the contract through the real estate agent.  It only works out to 70% of the first month’s rent (35% each) which is 2010 RMB ($250 ish), which I have no problem paying in order to keep a clear conscience.

Tonight we will meet, sign the contract and I move in on the 19th.  Woot!

So, here is a list of things (mostly for myself) that I need to do in the next couple weeks before moving:

1. Finish up my parent’s website project.  For the most part it’s coming along well, but have run into a few snags with the flash movie file.  I think I can work it out without too many problems. (Aug 3 - 12)

2. Pack all my things (Aug 15 - 18)

3. Get passport visa renewed (Aug 4 - 12)

4. Pay my initial rent (by Aug 17)

5. Jisue’s visit (Aug 19 - 23)

6. Begin intensive Chinese studies (Aug 23 -> (after my move))

7. Begin regular wushu training (Aug 15 ->)

Ah … life is busy when you stop working … lol.

I also have some plans for my websites … mainly narom.net.  The first is to integrate all the wushu video and media content on to jetli.com’s wushu section.  But I’m still trying to figure out what is going to happen to the jetli.com server come October when the contract is up so I’m holding off on that for a bit.

I WAS going to use wordpress for narom.net (along with a few other programs), but darn it all, Brandon went and used wordpress for jiayo.com and now I’m going to look like a total biter if I do the same thing.

Ah well .. maybe I’ll do it anyway.  But if anyone asks, I came up with the idea independently.  (The phrase “great minds think alike” comes to mind.)  I also recently picked up a bunch of URLs that I might do something with in the future, but only time permitting.