Of the expat women that I have met, probably around 10 or so I have actually had conversations with, all of them have said that when they had first arrived in Bangkok they cried all the time for months and months. I am sure it is because of the shock of being away from family, the culture, the noise, the city, and much more. I am proud to report being here 2 weeks today I have not cried once. I know this move was meant to be and I feel in my heart that this is home. It’s weird to say that but even when we are here in our temporary housing (which really is just a nice hotel) I still fell like I am at home. I guess that is because all I need to make it feel like “home” is being with my boys.
My head might explode —-by: Chris
Work can be maddening. It’s not so much the stress of the job nor the people involved, far from that in fact. It is understood that when you take a foreign assignment, there will be a step change in your responsibilities. Which in order to get to that point, you are already putting in your best effort where you currently are. So to bridge this gap in the short term, the only equalizer that you have is more time to dedicate to work until your capabilities and knowledge of the environment progress and your time spent can diminish, but more likely your responsibilities will continue to grow with your capability and your time remains the same. But this is the essence of career progression in the American sense I think… This part that is maddening, which to no fault of anyone here, except for me for imposing it on myself, is language and comprehension.
Update on our living situation
We are currently living in a service apartment, which is our halfway house, until we find our permanent home. It is a nice place with a nice view, as you have seen from some of the pictures. Today we went apartment hunting again and we found the place that we will call home for our time here in Bangkok! Our new home will not be available until February 15th but it is worth the wait. It is bigger than our home in Greenville with 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathrooms, and a balcony overlooking the city. The view is from the 8th floor, we would have liked to have been higher up but the great part about this location is a huge home was just built right in front of the building, which means there is no way a skyscraper is going to block our perfect view, in addition we get to see a beautiful house on the ground floor instead of the slums.
Play dates aren’t just for our kids
I’m learning making friends in Bangkok isn’t so hard. I have always been outgoing, never to shy, and genuinely enjoy talking to others. This is a skill that has been honed and I believe made better from my time campaigning and I am very grateful for that skill. The other day I was looking on the moms group website and I found another (soon to be) mom on the website that said she was new to the area so I decided I would throw myself out there and I gave her my number and said if she wanted to get together to just give me a call! Not 30 minutes later she did! Later she told me she was telling her husband that she a worried she was to “keen” calling so soon! Come to find out, we expat moms who are home while our husbands are working, are all in the same boat!
What’s going on with Chris?
Chris is working on the 15th floor of the Michelin building, which is a 25 minute commute by cattle car (BTS). When he takes the BTS in the morning it is packed and he has to force himself into the car but he says once he is on his way everyone plays on their iPhones. After a few stops the crowd dwindles on the train and he continues his journey to work. Once at work he is greeted by the maid with a hot black coffee and a water, this continues throughout the day, one after lunch and one in the afternoon at some point. He works with a group of very friendly Thais, they are welcoming, show him around, and include him in their going out to lunch everyday. Chris gets to go out to eat everyday at lunch because it only costs about $1 US, this is cheaper than the cost of PB&J!
Mission Impossible?
(Insert mission impossible theme music)
Becky your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to go out and make a friend.
Today we got up and I was determined to find my playgroup of this moms group that I have joined. I find where it is and have written out my directions to give to the cab driver and then I think I will call to confirm that there is a meeting at the preschool before I make the trip. First I email, no response, then I call the coordinator of the play group, no response, I then call the preschool and she says she never heard from the group coordinator to know if they were meeting there or not… Great… To be honest I was a little upset. I was really looking forward to doing something today on our own. Then I decide we are going to the park!
So much to do so much to see
Yesterday was great! I got to see my friend and Thai teacher Nuch! She came over to visit and brought her sweet nephew and we all went to the aquarium! To get to the aquarium we took the BTS, which again is super convenient once you make it up the stairs and luckily Nuch and her Nephew were there to help! We get off at Siam station, which has 3 or maybe 4 malls at this one stop! They basically have everything you could imagine, the food court is nothing like the US, or what I know of the US food courts in the mall, it takes up an entire floor of the mall, which is probably 9 or 10 floors total. We had thai for lunch and Killian chowed down on some pad thai! It was delish! In the malls they have every designer name you could think of in high end fashion, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Prada, Hermes, Cartier, Channel, I could go on and on. Then I discover its not only high end fashion in the malls but also the most expensive car dealerships! WHAT?! I’m talking every high end car you can imagine all on one floor. And then on the bottom, or at least I think it was the bottom, floor is the aquarium that honestly was awesome. I couldn’t believe how great it was!! Nuch was able to get us tickets from one of her friends so we got to enjoy the aquarium for free!
Below are some pictures of the mall and aquarium!
True love isn’t made with jewelry and flowers (but it doesn’t hurt either)
Yesterday was a hard day for me. Not so much because I was lonely but because Killian is having a hard time adjusting to sleep. He is beyond clingy and whinny and I understand that he is frustrated but at the same time after a while I (as any mom can relate) get worn out with the crying, it just drains me. After an entire day of upset baby, we decide we will meet Chris off of the BTS to go have dinner. Chris didn’t get to us until around 6 and that is prime Killian bath and bed time so he was already in a mood. We try and go to dinner and have to leave as soon as we sit down because Killian can’t handle it. By this time I am tired, emotionally drained, and starving. We decide to go back to the condo to try and give Killian something for dinner but he refuses and we then put him to bed. I finally have a moment to myself and Chris has to run out to get dishwasher soap for me. So he knows I am in a mood and hungry and wants to do something thoughtful.
Overwhelmed
Yesterday was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even write about it when I got home.
The night before I try to do laundry in the washer dryer combo machine that really can only hold about 3 pieces of clothing at a time and boy that was an adventure in and of itself. First I run one load of clothes and I don’t know how to work the machine so no soap gets to the clothes to actually wash them. I ask Chris to get me the manual to figure it out and he shouts from the kitchen “would you like the Thai or Japanese version”. Awesome. So then Chris takes a crack at it and finally there is soap in the mix now. Now it’s time to dry the clothes, who knew how long this would take! It took all night of the machine beeping and then I took some clothes out to make it dry faster and nope that didn’t work… So I just took all the clothes out and hung them up around the condo. Blah. I miss my washing machine and dryer and especially them being 2 separate machines…
No sleep…
“People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one. ”
~Leo J. Burke
To say that Killian is adjusting to bedtime would be a lie. My son is so confused on his days and nights he took a 4 hour nap last night to where we thought it was bed time and decided to party until 1 am and then he slept until 4 am when we started our day (trying to keep your baby to sleep without a crib is ridiculous)! I have been running on 3 hours of sleep a day for 3 days now and I’m starting to have a hard time seeing straight. Today we tried to keep him to his normal nap time and bedtime and boy was he pissed when we woke him up at 1 pm (which would be like me waking him up in the states at 1 am). He cried and screamed and had his eyes rolling back in his head for about an hour and then he stopped and just looked like a zombie. In addition to not sleeping he hasn’t been eating but finally today he ate some pork on a stick, a hot dog and corn. (Insert sigh of relief)
From Palmetto Pride to Pad Thai 