Decisions, decisions…

After 14 long months, I am finally free!  Without question, this last year has been the busiest time of my life, as I completed 16 classes (15 plus a CLEP exam, actually) all while teaching full time.  It’s been three days now since I finished my final class, and I still can’t quite understand this feeling of not having any books to read or papers to write – what will I do with all this free time?

Unfortunately, not all is well.  When I last posted I had just learned that I would need a gum graft.  Well, it is now 12 days after my first (and hopefully last!) gum graft, and things are still rather frightening.  The procedure itself was not so nightmarish, aside from having to keep my mouth wide open for about three hours.  It’s the recovery that has been horrible; for the first week, I lived off of juice, soup and over-cooked pasta.  I had a follow-up visit after 7 days, and at that point everything looked fine.  But, we won’t actually know until three weeks if the graft has taken, and since that visit the pain has been almost unbearable.  Two teeth were grafted; one is fine, but for the other, it kind of feels like someone is digging a hook around under my gums and tugging at the root of my tooth.  It is a horrible sensation, and I can’t stop thinking that the graft has failed – why would I still be feeling so much pain after nearly two weeks?  I will know for certain next Friday.

Now that I have finished my studies, however, I am looking at the next step of finding a new job.  I had settled on a job with King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.  It would be a rough place to live, but the contract is only 10 months and the benefits would be excellent – free housing, tax-free salary, free airfare.  Matters are slightly complicated because I’ve just been offered another job in Kuwait.  The salary is lower, but the contract length is negotiable (3 months and up), and Kuwait is undoubtedly a more comfortable place to live.  So, should I go for cash or comfort?  Any suggestions will be appreciated!

And now I leave you with pictures of a deserted beach that Nok and I rode to several weeks ago – it’s about 30 miles south of Songkhla.

The view from a rocky outcrop. The beach stretched for miles and was lined with nothing but trees.

An old pagoda sat at the top of the hill, overlooking a little island.

A shot towards Songkhla. The furthest hills in the distance are in Songkhla city -- you can see just how far we rode that day!

Scroggins makes a bed in the sand.

We grabbed a tasty lunch of oysters and papaya salad before heading home.

This Blog Isn’t Dead Yet…

But it’s almost there.  Having made the move to Songkhla in the south of Thailand in late December, I’ve found myself swamped with the million little things that accompany moving to a new country, starting a new job and entering a new semester of online studies.  Add to this the fact that I have been unable to obtain an internet connection in my apartment, and the blog becomes something that is easily ignored.  So for now, think of it as being in hibernation.  Until I finish my degree in four month’s time, there will likely be very few posts here.

But until then, here’s how things have gone so far.  The move to Thailand went without a hitch.  Nok, Scroggins, Hagatha and I arrived in Bangkok late on December 20, where we met my cousin Kenny at the airport.  After two nights in Bangkok we rented a pickup truck and made the 20+ hour drive south to Songkhla, though we took three days to make the trip.  In some ways Songkhla is exactly what I expected, but in some ways it is very different.  Songkhla is a peninsula, which means it is lined with miles and miles of beaches.  South of the city, the beaches continue as far as the eye can see, and north of the peninsula (if you take the quick ferry ride), the beaches also go on and on.

The city is also surrounded by beautiful rolling hills/mountains (hilltains? mountills?), and there are at least a few nice hiking trails in the area.  No photos now, but by apartment is overlooking the water on the inland side of the peninsula; across the bay, there is a range of beautiful hills that we have climbed several times.  So, Songkhla is a beautiful place, but there are some things that are not so great.  It is is surprisingly crowded — the city has roughly the same population as Portland, ME, but it’s condensed into a much smaller area.  The beautiful view outside my window is often filled with fishing boats and their noisy, boisterous crews.  The beaches can get a little crowded on weekends, and some of the hiking trails get their share of visitors on the weekends.

My job is okay but nothing I’d want to stick with long term.  I have to be at school from 8am-4pm everyday, but much of that time is just spent sitting in the office.  It’s good for me at the moment because I have so much homework to do, but after I graduate such time would be wholly unnecessary.  As a result, I’m looking to move somewhere new (and hopefully find a new line of work altogether) when I receive my degree in August.  UAE, Japan and even Singapore and the USA are on my list, but it all depends on where I get the best job.

Nok and I did have a chance to visit the ‘rents in Singapore for a week over New Year.  It was a superb trip, and I’m looking forward to going back when I have a month off in April.  I will also probably be spending a few days in the Philippines, as I’ll need to take a CLEP exam and Manila is the nearest test site.

Guess that’s it.  Sorry there are no photos, but it’s the result of life without an internet connection at home.  I may post again periodically, but expect very little until August, when my freedom returns.

Not my photo, but a view of Songkhla peninsula from the hills across the bay. I can see this old temple from my apartment!

It’s Official…

A deserted beach in Songkhla, Thailand

Nok and I will be returning to Thailand some time next month.  This time we’ll be far away from the grit and grime of smoggy Bangkok:  We’ll be living the good life in tiny Songkhla in the far south of Thailand, where miles and miles of deserted, beautiful beaches await.  I’ll be earning half of what I earned in Bangkok and here in Taiwan, but the low cost of living and laid back way of life will more than make up for the lost income.  I’m really just looking for a place to hang out as I finish the final eight classes towards my Bachelor’s degree, which I should have by July/August.

Things were looking grim for a while; I had applied for a dozen jobs in the south of Thailand but had heard nothing back.  On Sunday, after I had all but given up, I sent out a few more resumes and now, one week later, the deal is sealed.  Songkhla is just an hour or so from the Malaysian border, making long-weekend trips to visit the ‘rents in Singapore just one more perk of living in the South.  Ahhhh…. I can’t wait.

A trip to Northern Thailand

Well, I guess I’m going about this backwards. But seeing as I’ve just started this lovely little blog and wasn’t able to write about it when it happened, I have no choice but to talk about it now.

The weekend before I came to Taiwan, Nok and I made a trip to the north of Thailand to drop off our rascal of a cat at her aunt’s house. We could have left the little punk with her parents in Bangkok, but I thought the fields and forests of the north would be much better for old Jeebo than the exhaust fumes and rabid dogs of the city. So with a mere two days to spare before we needed to pack everything up and hop on a plane to Taiwan, we boarded a night train to the north and spent a day and a half in the beautiful rolling mountains of Lamphun, in Northern Thailand.

Riding on the train with Jeebo. My hair is looking a little rank after a night on the train.

A beautiful lake surrounded by rolling hills is just a quick moped ride away from Nok’s aunt’s house. Not a house to be seen! We couldn’t even get a phone signal out here.

These little huts were actually part of a restaurant. The food was carried out to the hut, and we relaxed on the floor overlooking the lake. We were the only customers.

Nok walks towards the water during a beautiful sunset. Her cousin’s beast of a motorbike can be seen on the right.

Just for Micah. What are the odds of that?

Saying goodbye to the beast. Jeebo had some trouble adjusting to the other cat at first, and the two dozen scratches on my hands and arms were the consequences.