Help and Progress

What. A. Week.

Mom and Dad came down to visit us and got to partake of the craziness that is our life right now. Their visit was incredibly helpful and proved, once again, how great it is to have family around to help out.

Mom and Dad did an untold amount of painting, cleaning, organizing, sorting, pep talks, and hugs. There nothing like having loved ones close by during large life events. Thanks Mom and Dad.

I think you really feel loved when you see those around you sacrifice their time and energy on your behalf. I came home from a crazy day at work and was delighted (and humbled) to find the garage door and trim entirely repainted, the front door trim painted, the back door and trim all painted, the floor boards cleaned, and on and on and on. None of it was asked to be done, but was just done. Thanks Mom and Dad.

We chose our realtor this week and she gave us marching orders on staging the house (hence the painting, cleaning, moving "surplus" house stuff to temporary storage, etc). We plan on listing once Candace and I return from a brief trip later this week.

We got our passports for the kids! Woohoo. That was pleasantly faster than we expected.

Kids got their vaccinations - rabies, typhoid, and TB skin tests. They did great...better than I expected. Perhaps the promise of DQ if they behaved helped a bit...

The kids all got accepted to their new school this week! Woohoo! One more thing to check off the never ending list.

To top off the week, the 2 youngest kids got the stomach bug. One lasted about 2-3 days, but the other's seems to keep going and going and going. When our realtor was here, he treated her to a special episode. Lovely.

Onward, ever onward.



We got our passports!



Moving a bunch of stuff to storage so we can show the house



Donating a ton of stuff



Mom and Dad were angels!

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Stretched Thin

The last week or so have been pretty tough on the family.  I debated about whether I should post this or not, but when I started this blog, I wanted to be sure to capture both the great and tough times we went through on this adventure of ours…

There’s a LOT going on.  Much more than both Candace and I thought would fill our plates.  The following list is an attempt to capture a chunk of what we’re trying to juggle right now:

• Housing in Bangkok – working rental finalization
• Visa applications
• Work permit
• Passport for children
• Medical clearance for everyone
• Vaccinations for everyone
• Prepping the house for sale (painting, storing, cleaning, fixing, etc)
• Line item inventory of EVERYTHING for shipping/storage insurance purposes
• Setting up temporary local storage for staging the house for sale
• Sorting out auto purchases in Thailand
• Banking setup/wiring instructions with notaries
• Brazilian visa (for my upcoming work trip)
• International drivers licenses
• US address resolution (PO service or family)
• VOIP porting for calling from Thailand
• Reimbursement paperwork
• Booking family travel with stopover in NW (and associated exception)
• Interim living arrangements
• Cancelling subscriptions
• Changing address EVERYWHERE
• Applying to International School of Bangkok for all 4 kids
• Getting medical and academic records for all kids
• On and on and on

The list seriously goes on and on.  Every night the last week, Candace and I collapse in bed and stare at each other and often wonder what we got ourselves into. 

In addition, I recently transitioned into a new role at work and it’s been the most difficult transition of my career.  There are several issues that were pretty much dumped on me and I’m working hard to resolve.  That’s taken a lot of energy and doesn’t leave a lot left for working the points above.

On top of all of this, our kids have come down with a long-lasting stomach bug…so we’re not getting much sleep at night.  I think it’s fair to say we’re stretched to the limit right now.  We both know things will ease up as time goes on, but for now, we’re pretty exhausted.

A week in Bangkok

Today completes my first full week in Bangkok. What a week it has been...

I spent the entirety of last Saturday searching for houses in the downtown area with the company provided assistance broker. They were great. My broker's nam is Pat and she did a great job of showing me tons of apartments, penthouses, and homes in the downtown area. They were all great, but I couldn't really see my family living in the hustle and bustle of the city. Besides looking at tons of homes, I was blown away by driving in downtown. Ever been on Mr. Toad's wild ride at Disneyland? Yea, something like that.







On Sunday I caught a taxi and made it to our local congregation of church. It was nice to meet a bunch of folks from around the world and take a little break from the exhaustion of Saturday. By this time, my jet lag had full hold on me and I was really tired. I think I averaged about 4-5 hours of broken sleep a night during the whole of the week. Ugh.

The traffic. Wow. The rumors are true! I've never, ever seen consistent, bumper-to-bumper traffic like here. Funny thing is, you rarely ever hear a horn honk. I think the moped drivers all have a death wish.




On Monday, Pat picked me up and we toured a downtown school (NIST) and then headed up North about 15 miles to another school, ISB. It's in the middle of an expat community, Nichada Thani. Wow. Nothing compares. It's an amazing school and the community feels much more like one my family would enjoy. The kids can ride their bikes around, it's much quieter, and lots of families from around the world to play with. I was sold within 5 minutes. I'm told if I leave earlier (~6am), the drive to downtown is about 40 minutes. That's actually about the same commute time as several of the homes in downtown.














Lucky for us, one of the families we've been communicating with from my company over here will be moving about the time we arrive. I toured a bunch of homes up in Nichada, but I really liked theirs and Pat said we could likely get it for the same rent the other family is paying. That would be wonderful and really simplify things for us. We may even be able to buy their car from them. Several families have told me that their maid is one of the best in all of Nichada, so we're going to see if she'd be willing to stay on as our family's helper.











So happy day! I think we found a house, school, car, and help. Woohoo! By the end of Monday, I was really, really tired.

The rest of the week was meeting my local team at the office, doing all day meetings, working late into the night to solve work problems, and doing FaceTime with the family to communicate how great Bangkok is. The week was the most exhausting of my life.




I took today, Saturday, off from craziness. I caught a taxi up to the weekend market, Chatuchak. Wow! The world's largest outdoor weekend market. Kilometer after kilometer of small stalls of everything you could possibly imagine. Seriously, I don't think there's anything they don't sell there. After a few hours of shopping for the family, I decided to brave the subway and skytrain back into town. It was surprisingly easy and really, really clean. The Thai's have a great public transit -- only wish it were more widespread.




I wrapped up the day at an indoor market, MBK. I grabbed a few more things and then took the skytrain back to my hotel's neighborhood. I did a quick dip in the pool and can't wait for a good night's sleep.

The weather is indeed hot and humid, but I've found that light clothing and the breeze make it entirely doable.

So it's been a good first week in Bangkok and I was able to get a lot of what I had hoped done. I know my family will love living here. The people are wonderful and Bangkok is a great city, with smells, colors, and more smiles than I've ever seen before. Sawadeekrap!



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Bangkok - first impressions

It's 3am local time and I can't sleep...so here's a quick summary of the last 2 days:

It's been a long 30 hours! It started with catching a taxi at my house at 6:30am to the Houston airport. I held a virtual meeting in the United Lounge with a team, and then boarded my flight to Tokyo around 11:30am.

The flight went well. I didn't sleep nearly as much as I had hoped though. Following the sun made it kinda hard. I watched a couple of movies and did nap for about 2 hours. We landed in Narita about 14.5 hours after leaving Houston.

I grabbed some free WiFi in the United Lounge in Tokyo and caught up on email and did some quick posts. I was intrigued to see my brother online, so I IM'd him and we did Facetime. The quality was pretty good. Gotta love technology -- I mean, I do this stuff for a living and I still get a kick at face-to-face video...for free!

Here's a quick photo of me in Tokyo after doing FaceTime with my brother.




The flight to Bangkok was actually nicer than the one to Tokyo. The electronics were quite a bit newer and I was able to sleep some more.

Arriving in Bangkok airport was delightful. It's a fully modern airport with some beautiful architecture. It's quite a long walk from the int'l terminal to customs, but it felt good to move after sitting all day.

A couple of first impressions of Bangkok (well, airport to hotel), unfiltered:

- There are a LOT of people here. Wow. I mean, wow.
- People are indeed friendly. A simple hello or thank you is almost always greeted with a friendly smile.
- 5 seconds after stepping outside of the airport, I remembered what REAL humidity feels like. Houston seems like a desert compared to here. Seriously folks, Houston is not humid in comparison.
- Driving from the airport to town had a fair amount of traffic considering it was at 1am.
- Beautiful hotel here for a reasonable price...now if I could just fall asleep. :-)










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Trip to Bangkok

It's been another crazy week at our home. Looking forward to when all of the doctor appointments and paperwork are behind us...it's definitely been a bit stressful as of late.

I've been really blessed to have a business trip planned to go to Bangkok in advance of us moving there. Looking forward to feeling out the city, meeting my local staff, and finding some schooling and housing. That should also settle some of the anxiety we're feeling as we look at all we have to do in the next 2 months.

We made the decision this week to not hold onto the house (we were playing with the idea of letting family stay here). I think it'll be easier to sell it and have one less thing to manage from the other side of the world.

More to come...from Bangkok!


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Paperwork, Passport Photos, Physicians, and Prepping the yard

This week has been one of continuous prepping.  We spent Monday evening getting about 30 passport photos for the kids’ passports, all of our visas photos (6 each), school applications, etc.  It was pretty hilarious watching our youngest trying to act all grown up as he got his picture.

We also had dentist and other doctor appointments to check everything. We have more to do, but we’re getting there…

We’ve been filling out paperwork like it’s nobody’s business.  I think we’ve gone to the notary 3 times this week alone!

Finally, we spent ALL of today prepping our yard.  We’re not sure if we’re going to sell or rent, but regardless, we want the house looking in tip-top shape.  Here’s the list of crazy yard work from today:

• Dethatching
• Edging
• Weeding, wedding, weeding
• Trimming hedges
• Transplanting bushes
• Mulching
• Power washing the sidewalk, fence, and pavestones
• Fertilizing
• Planting flowers
• Gardening

I wish I would have done before pictures so you can appreciate the craziness of what it looked like before, but these after ones will have to do:

Panorama of the back yard

Shots, Sales, So-Longs and Sickness…oh my!

It’s been a whirlwind of a week!

I flew up to Denver last weekend to visit my Brother’s family and say good-bye before we leave.  It was a great visit – complete with hiking, great food, and a blizzard!  It was a wonderful trip and reminded me how much I enjoy my brother and his family.  I know our kids would be best friends if we lived closer together.

   

We received our initial exPat paperwork this week and spoke to a half dozen co-workers, their spouses, and people we know who have lived in Bangkok. It’s been great getting their perspectives, advice, and support. It’s amazing how we feel like we’ve been adopted into this exPat family. Everyone is so supportive and helpful. It’s been soothing as things continue to ramp up.

As I’m going to Bangkok in less than 2 weeks for a business trip, I got my immunizations updated this week.  I don’t mind the shots, but my immune system decided to really hammer me the next 2 days.  Blah.  Oh well, better than getting Typhoid fever…

We’ve been going through ALL of our stuff and had a huge garage sale/give away yesterday and today.  We had a bunch of friends come over and take a lot of kid clothes, jars, and books.  We sold a good amount of stuff during the garage sale, and donated the rest at Goodwill.