Cost of Living Adjustment

As I begin making plan for my relocation to Fargo I am once again amazed at the difference in cost of living from one state to another. Given the Fun Fargo Facts previously posted I suppose the low cost of living in ND should not be a surprise.

With my return to the US I have a few main items to address immediately:
· Find a place in Fargo to live
· Buy a car

I am following advice from my brother and opting to move into a rental apartment. Figure with the economy and all I should wait till I get settled into my job before diving into a home purchase. (Tim - thanks for the advice!) When I was in ND in November I looked at a few apartment complexes and found two that I really liked. I called back to the one I liked best and found out that the unit I had looked at was still available – YEAH.

I have found it very difficult to do personal when you are 7000 miles away and you are on the other side of the international dateline. For example, if I need to call my bank I have to wait until 10pm my time to call as that is 8am in MN. You’ve gotta love the 14 hr time difference. Thankfully my sister has been willing to help me with some of this. Case in point she will be sending in a deposit for my new apartment since I won’t be getting back until next week. (Thanks Kris!).

Aside from finding an apartment I also have to purchase a car. I had to return my company car when I moved to Shanghai and unfortunately my new role doesn’t come with a car – darn! Thankfully I’ve been able to do a lot of searching online. I’m leaning towards a Ford Edge. Figure the least I could do is support the US auto industry. J Plus with all the incentives and rebates out there it’s hard to say no!

If you want to check out my new apartment visit: http://www.ppm1875.com/p/book/oldorc.shtml

Although I am starting to make plans for my return you can rest assured that a few adventures will still be had in Shanghai including at least one more trip to the fabric market, a massage at dragonfly, dinner on Hongmei Lu, a night boat cruise, etc… I’ll be sure to post updates on these as soon as possible.