Sunday, February 18, 2007

Only 10 more days until I return to the homeland. I got a great deal on my ticket, only about $150 more for a roundtrip ticket than I paid for my one way ticket to Thailand. I'm just coming home to visit for about a month and then returning to Thailand to teach again. I honestly love it in Thailand and could get used to living here. Everyone is always asking when I'm going to go home and I honestly don't have a good answer for that. I guess I'll just know when it's time to go home. I do miss my family, friends and of course my cat but I also don't want to deal with looking for a job or applying for grad school. Life in the U.S. just seems so much more stressful. Just the thought of not having health insurance when I go home is enough to make me not want to stay. And what about cheap massages? I don't know any place in the U.S. where you can get a good massage for under $10.

In preparation for going home I've been shopping like crazy for gifts. It's fun to actually have the money to do this and to browse through the enormity of goods that are available in Bangkok for cheap. It makes me realize to that the quality of life in Thailand is actually probably a lot better than in the States. Even though I only make a little more than $1,000 every month, I have no bills and can live a pretty extravagant lifestyle off of $500 a month allowing me to save $500 which is better than most people in the States I would venture to say. It's not mind blowing or anything but if you factor in things like the fact that I don't have a commute then its not too shabby.

And I think I might have finally straightened things out with the crazy nun. I think we have reached an understanding that if she just leaves me alone I'll do my job. But then again, you can't really predict what crazy people will do so we'll just have to wait and see. I love my kids and I'll have the same ones next year so I won't have to relearn how to manipulate the group dynamics to my advantage; I've already got them right where I want them (evil laugh).

Unfortunately, I won't be able to be home in April to see Bjork but I will be able to eat some carne asada fries, sweet corn tamales, tofu mushroom burgers etc etc. Although strangely enough I'm starting to develop new food fetishes for Thailand, i.e. salad in a bag, chicken satee with spicy peanut sauce. Food in a bag isn't nearly as weird as I used to think it was. They even drink soda out of a plastic bag, just a plain old little plastic bag with handles and everything. Not strange to me anymore but strangely efficient. I am afraid of the reverse culture shock that I'll experience. For example, will I freak out at home clean everything is? Or how orderly? Most likely I'll freeze. I'll be wearing mittens and scarves while other Californians are wearing tank tops and flip flops. I don't know but we'll find out in 10 days!

11 comments:

Bailey said...

I'm interested to hear your view on the US now that you have been away for a while.

I'm afraid that you will have some reverse culture shock, and that you will really see some of the ugly parts of the US.

Unknown said...

Hey! Congratulations! Your Debt Defyer blog got mentioned on the NY Times! Check it out!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/us/18debt.html?_r=4&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

DEBTective said...

Dollface, just wanted to drop a line and say I'm big-time proud of you for working to deep-six your debt and connect with your cash. You did great, kid. Just goes to show that the way you keep your dough is to have no payments. Let's get the debt-free word out! www.debtective.com

Sophia said...

Hi,

I stumbled across your blog after googling Thailand. :) I'm thinking of spending the summer as a legal intern in Bangkok, and wanted to read about others' experiences living there. Your stories about your work are hilarious, and I love the many pictures you have posted of your travels. Do you mind if I contact you if I have any questions about living in Thailand?

Thanks!
~Sophie (Santa Clara, CA)
(sdavies@scu.edu)

Sophia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dave said...

Hey, you were mentioned again on NPR!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7565583

Little Sunshine said...

Congratulation for being debt free! If you live in Bangkok, I don’t think you should have that much of a culture shock, but I bet you will have jet lack. There are so many Asians in CA anyway. How much did you spend for straight flight from Thailand and which airline? I missed Thailand again already! Have a safe trip!

Anonymous said...

It's Debt Hater and catching up on your Thai doings. Like Bailey, I would love to read about your ruminations on the US once you get back. It's fascinating to me how everything looks so different when you visit other places. I've had that experience and I've only been a short time tourist in a handful of very Westernized places! Have a blessed trip home!

Admin said...

Nice blog! I've lived in Thailand for a couple years and yeah, I'm amazed that once making money it isn't hard to save some. I'm not a club goer or do much of anything else that requires a lot of cash to be spent every month. Thailand is easy living and easy savings. One of the coolest things is, that just based on cost of living, one could live in Thailand doing stuff online that one couldn't live somewhere else doing - USA for example. I'm working on that now... I have a Living in Thailand blog too, please have a look if you have time. If you want to link together on the blogroll we can do that. Thanks, and keep up the strong posting and photos... Vern

Julie said...

This is a great blog. My husband and I are considering moving to Thailand and reading every bit of info and anecdote we can get our hands on. I have a slight advantage, as my mother is Thai, so I'm well accustomed to the bluntness of Thais (your post about the Thai teacher turning to you to say "She say you fat" was so brilliantly funny, because I can completely relate).

Anyway, I'll be reading along to keep up with your adventures!

Julie said...

By the way, after reading your blog, I decided to call my mother (who was long overdue a phone call) and ask her to say "New wood doesn't burn, does it?" She just started laughing, obviously knowing what I was up to, and gamely repeated "Maai mai mai mai", cackling the entire time. We then moved on to near and far. So the bulk of our conversation went, "Maai mai mai mai, gaai gai."

We're so easily amused, my mom and me.