Tag Archives: adjusting

Bangkok to Momma’s

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I am so thankful for the internet and apple radio. I love to listen to the top 50 country station. When we moved from the States, I thought I would miss the music from back home but luckily I get to stay up with the latest.

I enjoy all genres of music but sometimes there is a song that tugs on my heart. Music has a way of helping us to relive memories from our past or take us back to a scene in a distant memory we can barely remember. I believe, this is one of the best things music does for us really; helps us to remember.

The big city is so busy and sometimes I just wish I could slow down and take a deep breath of fresh air. I think that is why I switched to country music years ago. I love rock & roll and I love punk but there was a point when I just needed to slow down. Country helps me to remember where I come from and where I ultimately want to raise my son. There is a new Tim McGraw song called “back at mama’s” and when it comes on it makes my heart sing.

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One House to Clean

Last week our nanny soap opera (get it like One Life to Live?!) concluded… well sort of.  Last Friday, Pai came in to talk to Chris before he headed to work.  We explained we could keep her until a new maid/nanny arrives for 1 day a week and we would pay her the same hourly rate as before.  She didn’t really seem to like this although it was her idea.  She asked me on the day that she quit if she could come work for 1 day a week until we found another helper, we said yes but now she is saying no I want more.  She says “I wants part time!” I say “We only need you for one day, I can do everything around the house and take care of Killian.”  (I just can’t iron…I’m the worst!) She doesn’t seem to really understand.  Chris explains to her when she works for 1 day what her pay would be at the end of the day.  She says well “I need more money.  I don’t know if I work here or not.”  I say “Ok you need to make up your mind.  Either you work here for one day a week or you don’t, either is fine with me but I am not going to wait around and see if you come into work or not.”  Not sure if the language barrier is there but she just shakes her head in agreeance.  She then says she will go to Krabi with us to help with Killian if we don’t have a helper.  She says “I go to Krabi.  You pay salary?”  “ummmm no.  If you go to Krabi you can go on vacation, we will pay for everything, and you will watch Killian when he naps but no salary since you do not work for us anymore.  It’s your choice.”  The only reason I have offered this to her is because she quit her job with no way to pay her bills.  She didn’t think one step ahead and just up and quit.  Is that my problem?  No!!! But I’m a nice person and will help anyway.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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…

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Adapt or die…

“Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.”
Marcus Aurelius

We land, go through customs, and make it out of the airport and as soon as we walk out of the door we are hit by a wall of heat! I am literally outside at 2 am and I am sweating! Ahhhh I’m just going to sweat for the next 4 years but that is ok I guess…. My cousin asked me today “o so this is summer there?” I say “nope winter and in the summer it gets to 150 degrees, I figure this is what hell would feel like” and Chris corrects me and says “I think hell has a dry heat not so humid”. Blah…

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Update: Flying around the world

Update: 10:15 pm EST: We made it through Korea pretty easily. The only real hassle with all of this travel is the security check point at each airport. I don’t really understand it if I have been checked and cleared and only stay in the airport that has approved items why do we heave to be checked again. Don’t mind me I’m just a little cranky.

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