And then something happens. Yesterday I had an interview here at Huamao with a couple of representatives from the company that owns the school. At the end of that I was offered the position of Dean, effectively head teacher, of a school they bought earlier in the year that teaches the children of expats here in Ningbo. The school is currently located downtown but is being moved to the campus here for the new school year. It's more money, more responsibility and, hopefully, more interesting work although it looks like I'll have to forego my long holiday in order to oversee the move as well as market the school to prospective parents. It's currently very small with only 20-odd students and and my progress will be judged by increasing the number of pupils. To be honest it came as a bit of a shock. I know someone else was being put into the position but he had to pull out for personal reasons. I didn't expect the job to be offered to me. I went to visit the school today and met the current principal and many of the teachers there at the moment. It looks like a nice place although it is a bit unnerving to think about what it all means. I guess I'll just have to see how it all goes. I am still planning on going to Xinjiang, however, as I really don't think I could stand to lose all my plans (such as they were) for the next few months. You can see the school's website at http://www.internationalschoolningbo.com/