A Win

After so many days of heat, exhaustion, walking, being frugal, and trying desperately to keep our hopes up on this get a phone/get a job/find a place to live journey, this is what Julia and I listened to when we finally had a win:

(As well as this No Doubt vs. Eminem Mashup uncensored version, but that might be less appropro for here)


I will tell you what that win is at the end of this entry just to keep you reading.

Many things are more difficult here than they would be in America. That may seem like an obvious statement, but it's not because of the reasons you think; it's the heat. It's so hot and so humid that just walking to get lunch is an extensive endeavor that makes us feel like we just spent the whole day at Disneyland. At one time, while we were walking in the heat to get somewhere that people would normally use a tuk-tuk or taxi for, Julia referenced the debated topic of how much money is necessary for happiness. And we decided we agree with parts of the theory. If we weren't trying to be frugal, we would probably take more taxis rather than walking, which would save us time and energy. We wouldn't have to be sweating with swollen feet when we get to every destination. And with food, we walk further to find something cheaper and we try to buy fewer snacks. With our accommodations, we go for cheaper guest houses with no AC. If we had more money to spend at the moment? No walking in the heat, AC all day errday, and nawms galore. You get the point.

Other than this, applying for jobs has been stressful because what isn't stressful about being unemployed with no income? Add to that the lack of an immediate support network (thank you internet for allowing us to communicate with loved ones, how would we ever have survived in the 70s, oh wait that's what my parents did) and the previous issues with weather and money and you've got our stressed selves.

Since we were going to live here for a year and not just study abroad, we wanted to see if we could use our iPhones instead of buying a cheapy phone here. That whole process turned out to be more nightmarish and expensive than we ever would have imagined. I'll spare you the long-winded story, but suffice it to say that unlocking our phones and getting the right SIM and plan while communicating in broken English (and reading handy pamphlets that are only written in Thai) was an adventure. I say adventure and not a terror only because it's over! We have successfully unlocked our iphones and gotten a phone plan with unlimited 3G and Wi-fi. Which also means we can make our phone a hot spot. Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Still searching for a job, but we're hoping apartment hunting will be fun.

Thanks for checking in and maybe next time I can squeeze another entry out of Jules.

Oh and I almost forgot!:

Ariel: +66 909 183 214

Julia: +66 909 183 215

It won't cost us any money if you call, but it'll cost you, so if you have a smartphone, stick to Whatsapp or Wechat. And if you don't know what apps I'm talking about, download them now so we can text each other!

Holding on to hope for a job and a place to live,

JujuAire

The end of one, the beginning of another

Julia put it perfectly when she said that, in many ways, America felt like a vacation and now we're back to figuring out the life we want to live. Hard to describe the feeling that you belong in a place you have never really been to and don't quite know yet. I'm excited to start trying to learn the language, though it's definitely going to be difficult. It took 1 hour of being in Thailand to learn that, despite my best efforts to not get tan, I look Thai and therefore blend right in. And it has taken a short 4 days to have that fact confirmed and reiterated. So now me not knowing Thai makes me look worse than Julia not knowing Thai. And me learning Thai would just make me look like a stupid Thai person, as I wouldn't be able to say very much anyway. Alas, none of this should come as a surprise.

For our second and third day in Bangkok, we went to Chinatown and Old Bangkok. We experienced our first thunderstorm as we were leaving the Grand Palace and got drenched in the pouring rain, but it wasn't so bad because it was still nice and warm out. 

Currently jumbled and at a loss for words, so for once I'll let the pictures do the talking and maybe Julia can pick up where we left off in a later blog entry.

Bangkok Chinatown. One of my favorite pics.

A wild rootbeer has appeared! With some tongue and intestines in the background to give it a nice "we're not in America" feel. Another favorite picture.

So green and so beautiful. A park we stopped by in central Bangkok to catch our breath and take in the scenery.

Part of the Grand Palace in Bangkok, where the royalty used to live. Super shiny and interesting Asian-western hybrid architecture

More of the Grand Palace. Demons on a pillar.

A temporary exhibit as part of the textile museum where we got to try on some traditional Thai clothing. Had a mini professional photoshoot :)

Upon closer inspection, this guard looked like he was about to pass out. Tough job in the heat and humidity. Still, swanky clothes and an important position.

Where are you mailing your letter? You have two options: Bangkok. Other places.

Pose and clothes making us look Greco-Roman rather than Thai

Favorite picture of Julia, also looking Greco-Roman

Stopped by a mall with a Harry Potter-esque bathroom

Tried to capture the essence of the traffic in Bangkok. Providing a taste of everyday life and not just the touristy stuff.

Beautiful quilt mural in the Hua Lamphong train station in Bangkok

Our first Pad Thai! Came in adorable omelette fashion.

Trains with bedding, pillows, blankets and curtains (not to mention AC). Julia's face says it all.

Welcomed with a snazzy sign and we're home :)

Off to get SIM cards and a map. Then we need to do some research about nearby schools and such. Unfortunately, we probably won't have the funds to do any sort of vacation and so we'll have to jump right in to the job search. Wish us luck!

First Impressions

Omg Thailand. Is totally livable.

I guess, most recently coming from a life in Delhi, that we were sort of expecting the worst. While India gets some things brilliantly right, Delhi is not one of them, and instead left us constantly in need of a vacation.  

First impressions – no staring! It is an inexplicable relief to enter the outside world and not immediately become a curiosity. I can cross a street, eat a meal, even look at a map without receiving all the negatives of stardom and none of the benefits. This instantly makes Thailand infinitely more livable. As we continued to walk around, we also noticed that cars were operating quite amicably without the need for blaring horns. Fancy that! Being able to hear each other, not to mention our own thoughts, isn’t really a luxury I guess most people would notice. So thanks, Delhi, for making us appreciate every other overpopulated over-polluted city so much more, if only for being slightly less disgusting than you.  

Really, though, Bangkok doesn’t seem to be as bad as everyone says it is. For one, I guess the heat is bearable. It’s kinda like stepping into one of those butterfly atriums except someone turned the temperature up too high and killed all the butterflies. Second, the food scene is amazing! In India there were pretty much only a couple street food items per region, and the only ones that were really viable for hearty consumption in Delhi were momos (which stood us in good stead!). Here food options abound. Noodle soup, meat soup, assorted Asian-style as-yet undefinable dishes…most of it looks great, and all of it is under a dollar or two. Supermarkets have marked up kraft mac and cheese, vegetables, floss, coronas, tequila, boneless meat, kiwis, and avocados, just to name a few - all missed horribly whilst in India! Today for lunch, we picked out a delicious soup composed of broth, greens, and assorted pig organs. Ariel said the duodenum was the most flavorful while I myself found the soft kidneys more delightful to eat. For dinner we meandered around Chinatown, turning our noses up at the competition until we found what was to be our epic choice – which, sorry, is indescribable. It sort of had…well, no. Okay it had little tiny prawns and what may have been either noodles or strips of…seafood, as well as tofu and crispy fishy tasting things. Yup. You’ll have to just see the picture. Anyway, it was delicious, and the sit-down-on-the-street meal came with iced tea and totaled about 80 cents for the both of us. Needless to say, so far we’ve been pretty good at sticking to our budget.  

It has been incredibly strange to stay in a real hotel with wifi in the lobby that we can just link up our little iPhones too. There’s even wifi in the ubiquitous (ps if you think Starbucks are the definition of ubiquitous you will need to reconsider) 7-11s, although we haven’t figured out how that works yet.  So far, a very different experience from our usual. Hopefully this will have the intended effect, i.e. will not result in a 4 month long sickness, the loss of 20 pounds, or the loss of contact with the outside world. Also, 7-11s are amazing. After finding reeses, milk not in a bag, big gulps (which are like 6 ounces) that you can fill with milk tea, bobby pins, sandwiches, microwaveable burgers, and quite frankly far more items than should be in a store of that size, I think we realized that living here will be okay. And, quite possibly, a little bit fun.

-Julia

Julia waiting for the SkyTrain

They have Spam! For a ridiculous amount of money (like $6). Isn't the point of Spam the fact that it's cheap?

Julia with the tiniest cake in the world

First meal in Thailand! Composing of pig parts. Yum!

Dinner for the day. Julia's indescribable deliciousness from above.

Instead of Slurpees, they have instant green tea and thai tea! We'll have to try these and see how they compare with the genuine street tea.

Escalator to nowhere

Wanted to get a pic of us for the day! We look ridiculously happy.

A wai-ing Ronald McDonald

Some goodies we found in the nearest 7/11. Which comes as a surprise when you're expecting India-availability on items!

I think the fact that we can get Reese's says it all

 Spending habits:

It's ridiculous that ATMs give out a default of 1,000 baht (about $35) because we could barely manage to spend 1/3rd of that between the two of us in a day. Not to mention during our first day in Thailand, when we're excited to buy everything.

For instance, today we spent 132 baht on transportation and 188 baht on food. We splurged on buying two huge thai beers for 112 baht, our biggest purchase of the day. Making our total expenditure since we've been here 612 baht (and those too lazy to calculate, about $20).

Bangkok Bound

I'm typing this with my thumbs on my iPhone so bear with me.

As some of you may have seen from the Facebook check-ins, we made it to our beautiful grand Marriott hotel (a parting gift from Julia's dad, Ray). The whole process was almost a little too smooth as we hopped off the plane, immediately found our luggage (right next to each other on the carousel, arriving as we walked up in a movie-like fashion), grabbed some money from an ATM, and quickly found and boarded the SkyTrain. Despite getting enormously ripped off by a taxi taking us from the SkyTrain to our hotel (which we stomached because we did after all have two 60+ pound bags and it was midnight), we've been sailing along.

The Ukulele Incident:
Thankfully short-lived, but stressful all the same. We get off the plane after our 10-hour flight and walk to the security checkpoint for international flights. As we're about to put our stuff on the X-ray belt I realize I'm missing something as I blurt out to Julia, "my ukulele, I left my ukulele, I left my ukulele on the plane." To which she responds with "gogogo." I turn around and start fast-walking back to the gate (running is out of the question with this 30-pound turtle shell on my back, also known as my backpack), which is already closed. So I try to find a security guard who speaks a little English who takes me to a woman that asks me what it looks like, takes my ticket and runs off. I thought about how silly it was that they wouldn't just let me get it myself but it felt awfully nice to have someone care so much. As usual, my emotions are fighting with my brain, with a natural inclination to break down and cry and a rational voice saying, "the worst thing that'll happen is that you lost it, okay, not the worst thing you could lose. Second worst thing is that you have to have it shipped, also not a big deal. It's going to be okay. Hold out for hope."  And as you have already figured out, she came running back with it over her shoulder. Sigh.

Julia says she's bad at adding to what I've already typed, so we'll stop here.
No real plans for today except to roam and have fun!

Typing from Thailand,
JujuAire

Packing

Packing for this trip has probably been the single most terrifying, stressful, exhaustive packing experience I've ever had. Or maybe I just think that because of the recency effect. But still...stressful.

Both Jules and I started packing a week ago so that we could collaborate, make sure we don't bring two of things we only need one of, and take our time in thinking about how many shoes we want to bring (okay the shoe thing is probably just my problem [also for the record, I'm bringing 8 pairs of shoes, which I think is pretty good considering I'm planning on living abroad for a minimum of a year which includes professional wear, traveling, and everyday wear]).

I'd say besides the fact that we are essentially packing for the beginning of the rest of our lives, what makes this so stressful is the weight limit. Upon extensive research on the United Airlines website, I've realized just how arbitrary the weight limits are. For this particular airline, we can check one 50-pound bag for both domestic and international travel. BUT if you're a premium elite whosey-whatsit member, then you can check TWO bags weighing 70 pounds each. And WAIT, there's MORE! If you're a member of the military, then you get to check 70-pound bags as well! What if the whole flight was filled with military personnel? What if I was 10 miles away from being an elite member? How is this not arbitrary? And if I'm not special and I do have to pay a fee, where exactly does that money go? To the person who had to actually carry that bag from point A to point B? Let's be real.

Rant aside, Julia and I had multiple approaches in this situation: I started with the idea that I want this suitcase to be the stepping stone for everything else I own in life. I don't want it to be a suitcase that I bring with me for a year of travel, I want it to be my life suitcase. You know, like when your great grandma came to America and all she had was a couple dollars in her pocket and whatever was in her suitcase?
Needless to say, that became a bit overwhelming, so I molded into a more practical approach like Julia. Anything we didn't wear during the summer here, we definitely weren't going to wear in 100-degree weather there. Similar to India, we had to be aware of a different type of modesty. While Thailand is more progressive than most of India in many ways, we have no idea how we will be perceived in shorts. We also have to keep in mind the fact that we'll be touring and exploring where we're working and living.

So by the end of the packing, weighing, repacking, sweating, repacking, weighing debacle, I was defeated when I could get my bag down to 52 pounds at best. My parents' support was what kept me from lying on the floor and weeping (dramatic I know just let me have this one) stating, "You did what you could, 50 is an arbitrary stupid number anyway, if it's not in fact 70 pounds we'll just pay the fee."

I try to remind myself that this is the trip of a lifetime and all the packing and stress about leaving won't matter in a year (or even in a month), but I am allowing us to freak out a little. Because I not only need to remember to pack my tweezers, I also need to remember that I'm leaving my comfy cozy support group that I've built over a lifetime in order to venture into the unknown (albeit with my best friend).



Note: Please ignore any sentences ending in prepositions, split infinitives, or English language errors that are important when it comes to teaching English, but not important when it comes to everyday speech and blogging. So lighten up okay.




For those of you *ahem, Sam* that are curious about what shoes I'm bringing because of the shoes comment:
1. Tevas--because Julia convinced me they are the most versatile, practical shoe I can wear both everyday and while hiking and also because I was able to find a relatively cute pair.
2. Toms
3. Oxfords
4. Black heels
5. Nude heels
6. Brown wedges--short wedges for teacher-wear (see picture of teacher outfits in previous entry)
7. Black flats
8. Shower shoes/flip flops

Pretty good right?

Things are Getting Official

Both Julia and I received our official 100-hour certificates in the mail! Mine is pictured below.

Oxford Seminars TESOL/TESL/TEFL Certificate

BUT more importantly, Julia has received a much more significant document in the mail. Super proud of this girl! And definitely very jealous as I have yet to receive mine and probably won't get it before we leave in 22 days.

Julia's Superawesomeomg Diploma from UCSD!

Julia thinks this blog is boring, but I think it's the most interesting one I've ever had! What do you think?

Thanks for being interested in our lives!

A Few Things Off Our Checklist

Thought I'd update with a check-in on our Road to Thailand. We got our Visas at the Thai Embassy in Hollywood which was actually fairly empty and in an almost-sketchy part of town. It took 45 minutes to drive there, LA traffic being what it is, but about 10 minutes to apply for a Visa. Problem was, Julia had to come back alone the next day to pick them up because I had work. And again, a 1.5 hour round-trip drive for 5 minutes of actually retrieving our Passports.

Still, the previous day was fun because we decided to bounce around Hollywood and act like tourists so we went to the Guinness World Record, Ripley's Believe it or Not, and Wax Museum. As well as the famous Chinese Theater with all the cement foot/hand prints.

We took the photos at home instead of going to get them taken because I'm a professional photographer with a fancy camera. Not really though, it's just that it's actually quite simple to take them on your own and I'd done it before. All you really need is a white wall, some photo paper, and Google. Now we can print as many as we want to have while applying for jobs and such. Woohoo saving money! Something that's becoming increasingly difficult to do as we realize the things we need or want to get (such as my new Kindle!) in preparation for Touchdown Thailand in T-minus 33 days and counting.

Thailand Visa

Passport Photo: Ariel

Passport Photo: Julia