Movin' On Up

Reader Mark asks in a comment on yesterday's post whether the upcoming move will be an improvement; I figure now is as good a time as any for more details.

The good: The new place will have an oven and a bathtub, two luxuries we lack at our current abode. Also, the new place is in a building much closer to the school (take 15 minutes off the daily commute each way) where a handful of other teachers live, and right across the street from a subway station on a much more useful line than ours (you can get downtown from there with no transfers).

The bad: The new neighborhood will have fewer options for dining and shopping, especially for grocery shopping, so we'll have to take a weekly trip back to the old neighborhood for groceries. Also, the crowded, narrow streets there will make it a bit harder to walk the dog.

The ugly: Though we asked to move a while ago, so we don't really mind, we no longer have a choice--our landlords are planning to sell our apartment. Apparently, prices in our neighborhood have gone up. Also, the timing of the move will be rough: we've got 2 days between the end of school and our departure for China, and then another 2-3 days before our return from China and our departure for Canada. So June will be a bit wild.