I spent a couple of weeks commuting into the centre from Tongzhou, and it’s proved to be completely impractical. Getting up at 6.50, eating my breakfast on the bus and not getting home until 7.40pm is at best an occasional deal, and doing it every day was only bearable because it was a temporary measure until an alternative had come up.
We’d planned to hire out a weekday place near to my office, a room in a shared house or something, but our investigations didn’t really get anywhere, and we’re both beyond tired of searching websites, visiting festering, overpriced apartments and dealing with Chinese estate agents (who make their British counterparts look like saints). Then, a couple of weeks ago, someone had the idea that I slept in the classroom.
This is nowhere near as ridiculous as it sounds. Our school has recently had to rent an apartment around the corner to turn into an extra classroom. Right now there aren’t very many students, so it doesn’t get used more than once or twice a week, usually at the weekend when I’m in Tongzhou anyway. It still pretty much looks like an apartment, has drinking water and a bed. It’ll do for weekdays, at least for the 10 weeks left in this year. After that, we’ll just have to see.
My work on Sundays is also finished or finishing, so I’m getting a weekend of sorts.