Moving on up

So, I've moved all my life. I've never lived in one place (meaning: city) for more than 4 years.... until now. Here's a quick breakdown:
--0-5 years old: California... ok: so that's the only time...
--1 year: Albertville, France
--3 years: Orleans, France
--1 year: California
--1 month: Juvenile Detention Center (Oakland, CA)*
--4 years: Grenoble, France
--1 year: California (different from before)
--3 years: Kandern, Germany
--2 weeks: Candyland*
--4 years: Michigan
--3 years: New York
--3 years: New Jersey (city #1)
--2 years: New Jersey (yes, technically we moved to city #2)... and I'm starting to freak out. It's an inexplicable desire for change. Maybe I should see a therapist. I'm currently living my 5th year in the same state, and we'll be here next year as well... which amounts to 6 years. SIX. (scary music).

However, I put in a request to move to a bigger place. Obviously, this one bedroom space has been tight for us since the beginning, but we've made it work. And we're thankful to have housing. But, the worst part isn't the space, but the privacy. Okay, there's little privacy when you live in a dorm full of teenagers, but any time anyone knocks on our door (whether it's an adult or a student, boy or girl), I automatically do a quick check around the livingroom to determine if it's safe. It never is. So I end up opening up the door about 8 inches, wide enough to stick my head out to see what's the matter. If I opened it up normally, the person would see our entire livingroom, into the bedroom and into the kitchen. Some apartments have an office that becomes the buffer space between dorm and home. I just have my 8 inches and my body that blocks the view to inside.

So back to housing. We were offered an apartment inside a different dorm, not the bigger apartment on the ground floor or this dorm, which is what I was expecting. My colleague's place has 2 bedrooms, 2 baths, a buffer office, a wood fireplace, a sun room, and it's an add-on to the dorm. I was already super excited about her space. It's a really beautiful set up and very home-y. The one we're offered is inside the dorm, so there are bedrooms next to yours and above the whole place, there's no fireplace, no sun room, but there are 4 bedrooms and 2 baths, and that buffer office. Hmm. So, now I have to talk it over with Matt and see what he thinks. I have to remember that my real needs are not the fireplace and the sun room, but more space, and the 4 bedroom place is just that, even if it's more "apartment-y". The couple who lives there say it's a concrete structure, so there's no hanging anything on the walls. Bummer! That's the problem with our place now. Oh well. It's housing and we're thankful.

Either way, if we accept this new place, I'll become dorm supe(rvisor) which means a lot of things:
--managing the prefects (3 student leaders in my dorm)
--managing the adults who do duty in the dorm with me
--being the point person for 25 girls' parents: communication, communication, communication!
--managing the budget
--dorm decorations
--1 less class to teach (3 instead of 4)
--2 nights of duty every term (30 weeks instead of 10)
--If there's an odd number of Saturdays in the term, I get the extra Saturday night duties.
--room assignments, conflict resolution, being the first one in the dorm and the last one to leave because of checking kids in and out around school breaks.
--emergency situations: hospital and transportation issues to/from train stations and airports
--dorm bonding activities throughout the year: 3 big events per year, then small weekly get togethers (who has that many ideas?!?!?!)

I think that's it. I'm exhausted already just thinking about the time involved. But, there are 14 dorms here, so 14 people do this, not just me. If they can do it (and some of them have families), so can I.

*Thank you, Matthew, for messing with this blog post.