New House & Talat Warorot

It's been a big weekend. Yesterday I moved into my new rental house, which involved hiring a truck to take me, Sadie, & our stuff from the hotel to the house, dropping off everything, then the truck dropping me off at a scooter rental place a few kilometers away. Then remembering how to ride a scooter, which I haven't done since February (the last time I was in Thailand), and going to Tesco Lotus to load up on a few necessary items.

I lucked out with my landlord, fortunately. He's a nice man who doesn't charge for internet and had the inside walls of the house painted before I moved in. Then again, his mother comes into my garden every morning to pray at the spirit house, so I guess it's all even. I also ended up renting my scooter from a really cool guy, an English bloke named Robin. In addition to renting scooters, he's also an EFL teacher, and lives nearby with his Thai wife and their child. When I had trouble starting the scooter after I brought it home, I called him and he came right over to my place and fixed it - turns out the fuse had blown. Yay for good people!

Today I opened a bank account, then rode the scooter into town to the Talat Warorot, which is a massive day market in the Northeastern corner of the city that has everything you can imagine (and some things you can't). There I loaded up on kitchen and laundry items as well as a sweet pair of rubber slipon shoes ($3) and super comfortable Thai pants ($2.50). Pretty awesome.

All in all, it's been pretty exhausting. I'm not sure if you've ever been in a situation where almost nobody can understand you, or they understand very little, and therefore getting anything done is time-consuming and exhausting. It's been very humbling, that's for sure. And as soon as I'm done with my CELTA course, I'm definitely enrolling in Thai lessons!

Another thing I've noticed a lot, and that I find extremely frustrating, is how most of the Thais react to me. If I'm in the tourist sector it doesn't happen, but when I'm out & about grocery shopping, riding my scooter, and doing the things one does when they aren't just a tourist, I get stared at by people. All the time. OK, no big deal. But then lots of times I'm trying something for the first time, and naturally I do it wrong. And then people LAUGH at me!!! And it doesn't sound like nice laughter either, it seems rather mean-spirited. I think that's pretty fucked up, honestly. When I see a foreigner in the States, I don't stare and laugh at them! Seriously, What The Fuck. Maybe I eventually will get used to it, and will probably stop screwing up so much as I learn how to live here. I hope.

Tomorrow afternoon is orientation for my course, then we jump right into it on Monday morning at 9:00 a.m.! (I think that's Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. for you West coasters, since I hear you're changing your clocks). I'm nervous for the course to start, because I know it'll be tough, but also it will be nice to have something to do every day. I can't go shopping at the market all the time, after all!



More pictures here.

Thailand: The Arrival

Arrived in Thailand a week ago. Sorry for the lack of updates; a few days spent visiting a traditional Thai family coupled with a totally traumatized world-traveling dog makes for a very stressed-out girl. Most of my communications have been in the form of angst-ridden skype sessions with my family, or short cheerful-sounding blurbs on Twitter and Facebook.

Sadie made it one piece, but she still hasn't recovered emotionally. Since we got to the hotel we've been spending a great deal of time in our room where she seems most comfortable. She doesn't like me to leave her alone and barks her head off when I try to leave, which complicates things each day! Luckily I've found a local animal hospital who not only groomed her for $3 USD, but they also babysat her free of charge for a few hours today while I signed the lease on my rental house. When we go on our walks she growls and barks at everyone we see, though at least she now seems to recognize the people we see everyday and doesn't bark at them so much. I feel like a real asshole for putting her on a plane and dragging her to the other side of the world - it's not like she asked to come! And we still have one more change of scenery ahead of us, to our rental house in North Chiang Mai. I think that we'll both be more comfortable there and can finally begin to relax.

And yes, I rented a house! I got a six-month lease on a tiny furnished Thai-style 2 bedroom 1 bathroom at the somewhat extravagant price of 7,500 baht, or about $227 USD/month. I think it cost more because I'm farang and will be taken advantage of everywhere I go, and also because it's furnished. And because I rented it for six months instead of one year. At least by US standards it's freakin cheap. There is a big walled-in yard (the Thais call it a garden), air conditioning in the bedroom, and internet is included. It's in a quiet neighborhood a few kilometers from my school, and close to some restaurants and a Tesco Lotus. I will be getting a scooter soon, and I'm pretty excited about that!

Stress levels are beginning to abate now that I'm nearly done with my odyssey. Phew! My stress coping skills have been over-used to the point of being worn threadbare, where the slightest new problem I confronted brought on tears and/or anxiety. Of course school starts on Monday, but I can't imagine that'll be more stressful than the journey I've already been through!

If selling off your life and moving around the world is difficult, doing it with a dog is at least ten times more difficult. If I can do this, I can do anything. And now you all have someone to come visit in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at least for the next six months!



More pictures here.

The Journey

I'm posting this from my iPhone before it becomes an iBrick, so it'll be short n sweet! Sort of. In case you want to follow along from home:

Tonight I'll go to SeaTac Airport to check Sadie and myself in for our flight that leaves at 2:00 a.m.(!) Wednesday. The first leg of the flight, to Taiwan, is almost fourteen hours (I plan to spend as long of that as possible in an over-the-counter drug-induced slumber). Then a three-hour layover in Taipae, Taiwan. During that time I'll be trying to find out Sadie is doing, and posting general updates on Twitter and thereabouts. Then, a 3.5 hour flight to Bangkok where I'll collect my luggage and my dog and my friend Ashley will pick us up. We'll spend three days with Ash and her family where they live a couple hours southeast of Bangkok, then on Sunday it's back to the airport to fly to Chiang Mai. We stay in a hotel for five days, October 25-30, while looking for an apartment near school. Then school starts the next Monday November 2nd. Phew!

It'll be a busy couple of weeks, but I look forward to taking my mind off this crazy journey I'm taking ;) I'll check in frequently and keep you posted on my progress!

T Minus 7 Days - Check!

Eep.

What I've done:

• Repriced and relisted my china cabinet, dresser, and computer desk
• Taken carloads of stuff to Goodwill
• Set up the car donation
• Gave bookshelves and lots of kitchenwares to cousin Matty
• Sold my bed
• Took my bike and snowboard and related gear to my dad's house for storage
  
• Packed up my backpacking gear and 2 plastic tubs with things I want to keep for my mom to take home with her
• Received mypassport with travel visa from the Thai embassy in DC!

What I still need to do:

• Sell those final three pieces of furniture
• Final goodwill trips
• Cancel car, home, health insurance
  
• Cancel gym membership
• Jailbreak iPhone & break AT&T contract
• Take Sadie's vet paperwork to Olympia for endorsement by the USDA (yes, really)
• Figure out if all these clothes and things I plan to take with me will fit in my backpack
  
• Probably something else that I'm totally forgetting

Looking at this list I actually can't believe I've gotten so much done, because I feel like I've doing really well at procrastinating and completely ignoring the problem. Actually, I do still have quite a bit to do, given that I only have 7 days, and only 5 business days, left. Eek! Fortunately my mom and sister are coming on Sunday and Monday to help me finish the job, and to provide moral support - yay! My next 7 days are meticulously planned out. I'm even working at the farmers markets on Thursday and Sunday. I'd rather not, but the $$ always helps. I wish I had time to go to the zoo one last time, but I don't think I'll have time :(

Needless to say, I've gotten rid of all the boys. Who has time for such things during a time like this? Not me. For the next couple months I'll be traveling, resting, traveling, looking for an apartment, going through a pretty intense certificate program for 5 weeks, then looking for a job. And them moving again and starting a new job, sometime in December or January, or whenever I get hired. All of this while trying to be the constant for my high-strung dog who is about to have her world and her routine turned upside down. Crikey! I quail with fear at the prospect, especially given that I haven't done shit in the last 9 months. What if I've lost my edge? What if I forgot how to go to work at a regular job? (Not that this will be a regular job, really.) And, oh god, the big one - WHAT IF I HATE TEACHING??? I never saw myself as a teacher. I do think I'll be good at teaching the English language, but will I enjoy it? Time will tell.

Wish me luck...