how I got here, part one

I remembered a few days ago that it was in February of last year that we decided that we'd move to Thailand. I don't think that I ever managed to blog about that.

Chris had been interested in taking one of his company's international postings even before we moved to Newfoundland. For at least six months before he was offered this job in Bangkok, he'd call me from his office on the St. John's waterfront, and try to sell me on the locations of the new international job postings (usually, what I imagine is deepest darkest Africa, if memory serves). 

When Chris's offer came through for a job in Bangkok, it was fairly easy to say yes. Neither of us were really attached to Calgary, though I felt a strong need to live in our house for a few months before moving on again. And after all, I was half expecting to be sent to Angola (where his company's website warned employees and their families about stepping outside the really high fence around their houses) or to the Kuwait desert (where there is no school, so children spend two hours per day commuting into Kuwait City).  Bangkok sounded pretty comfortable in comparison.

We read the information booklets that Chris's company gave him on living in Bangkok. We researched international schools on the internet. We talked about what we imagined our life in Thailand looking like, and also what us moving back to Calgary permanently would look like. Some things about living in Canada were very hard for me to give up. It's really hard to be so very far away from all of the important people in my life, excepting the two that I moved here with. I feel rather rotten that my daughter won't be growing up with her grandparents, that way that I was lucky enough to. On the other hand, the opportunity to live in SE Asia offered us a couple of years of adventure and cultural enrichment. In the end, Chris and I together drew out a plan for living in Thailand for the next 3-4 years that was acceptable to both of us, and there we were ...

Comments

[jesser]

It is such a fascinating idea to live in such a different place for that sort of duration. I don't know if I could do it ... I do love to visit, but I get so homesick for the USofA ... maybe being gone longer would help that?

[jesser]

It is such a fascinating idea to live in such a different place for that sort of duration. I don't know if I could do it ... I do love to visit, but I get so homesick for the USofA ... maybe being gone longer would help that?

[Julie Morrison]

COME BACK SOON

[chronicler]

I applaud your decision. It is difficult to leave home and hearth especially for the reasons you list; but what wonderful opportunities you will have had when you do return home. I always say, it is better to go forth and return than to wish you had.