Day 172

Our apartment! There's a sliding door behind Jacob that opens onto a balcony. We're on the second floor. The door you see open towards the back is our bedroom, that also has a sliding door to a second balcony. The blue door to the left of our bedroom (in the picture) is the bathroom, we also have a door to it from our bedroom. The door to the right of our bedroom is a second bedroom, it's pretty small and has windows looking onto the balcony, but no sliding door. In the left corner of the picture you can see our refrigerator. I'm taller than it! and next to the fridge, across from the table is our kitchen. Lots of counter space and cabinets, a sink, a microwave, but no stove or burners.

We love it here! :-)

Day 171

The view from the 9th floor of the school. It was extra smoggy this morning, it was more clear yesterday. That's downtown Bangkok over there! And they're doing a lot of construction on campus right now.

Day 170

Our cellphones, the keys to our apartment, and our bank "Savings Account Passbook" -- there are no checking accounts here, and checks don't exist. Everything is done through bank transfers or cash. Jacob's phone is the nokia on the left, mine is on the right. It kind of looks like a blackberry, but it's not, and Jacob's is definitely a better phone. I got it because it had a keyboard and I figured we would text a lot here, but it's just not a very good phone. Oh well, I'll get used to it! We are still staying in the guest house one more night because our apartment doesn't have internet yet. We'll probably move in and start staying there tomorrow, and hope to have internet there by Thursday.

Day 169

We were checking out what the walk will be like for me between our new apartment and the school, and found this park, Suan Thonburirom! The walk to work is nice and really easy, about 10-15 minutes, and this park is between our apartment and the school. It's pretty big, has lots of water and cool little bridges, a jogging trail, exercise equipment, gazebos, cool birds, all kinds of cool stuff!

Day 168

This is our room in the Guest House. We're on the fifth floor, but they're building a new parking structure right outside the window so it's kind of loud and if we open the blinds we just see guys working. That's okay though, it's nice enough, the beds are comfy enough, and there's plenty of water pressure and warm water for showers so no complaints. Besides, we found an apartment today! We won't move in for a few more days, someone just moved out so they have to clean and we want internet set up before we move in. It has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, 2 patios, 3 air conditioners, and we're looking forward to moving in soon!

Day 167 2.0 (I messed up, because we gained a day when we flew to Bangkok from SF!)

First meal in Thailand! This was Jacob's breakfast, it was tasty. We ate breakfast and lunch at the cafeteria of one of the women's dorms on campus (the school I'll be working at and the guest house we're staying in until we find an apartment is on a university campus). The total cost of breakfast and lunch for the 2 of us (including drinks) was the equivalent of $3.83. Very good food, and sooo cheap! Dinner was also very good, we went with two of the staff members from school to a little outdoor restaurant/street vendor right down the street from campus and had soup (shrimp, mushroom, coconut milk were the flavors I could taste), papaya salad (spicy!), mango salad, a ground pork dish, and chicken skewers and sticky rice we bought from an outdoor market. It was all so good!!

Day 167

We're here! And it's about 2:30am here, and we're both exhausted. But, WE'RE HERE! :-)

Day 166

We're at the airport! This morning was a little crazy, the apartment is empty, keys and rent turned in, one last trip to the post office, and running to the train (that ended up being 16 minutes late anyway) carrying about 200 lbs combined -- and we made it! We board in about an hour, then have an 11 hour flight to Beijing, a few hours layover there, then a 5 hour flight to Bangkok. We arrive around 11:30pm local time Thursday night, which is about 9:30am Thursday morning in the California.

Next post in Bangkok! Or possibly Beijing...

:-)

Day 165

Our last night in California! (for awhile at least...)

We've been running around like crazy people the last couple days mailing boxes to our parents, packing our suitcases, selling things on craigslist, and taking things to the local donation center. After our last two big pieces of furniture got picked up tonight, we went to watch The Help then get our last In-N-Out meal for a year! The movie was good (I just finished the book last night, which I also really enjoyed) and the food was tasty, a great last night.

Day 164

Our set-up with only 2 nights left in our apartment. This is pretty much all the furniture we have left. There is nothing in the living room to sit on.

Almost there!!!!

Day 163

Almost there! Only two big things (very nice futon sofa, and our bed frame and headboard) left that we're trying to sell, and someone's coming to see the futon tomorrow. Other than that, our apartment is just piles of stuff on the floor everywhere.

I decided to check what weather will be like when we get there, and it's exactly what it is every time I've checked over the past month -- about 90 degrees, humid, and stormy. Yay!

Day 162

Last cousin dinner before Jacob and I head out to Thailand! Reena and Ahmad, thanks for hosting !
(L-R: Cristal, Jacob, Jed, Kendra, Alex, Rachel, Julia, Reena, James, Ahmad)

Day 161

Got to hang out with Michelle tonight! She brought fresh corn with her from her drive up from LA and we made a tasty veggie pasta with bell peppers, zucchini, corn, garlic, tomatoes, onions, and mushroom. It was great, and so good to see Michelle again before we leave!

Day 160

The Strive family hosted a wonderful engagement/farewell party tonight! Thanks!!

Day 159

The Downtown Redwood City library, our hang out spot after dinner tonight. Don't ask me why, but we already had 9 books checked out, and picked up 5 more today. We move out of the country in one week.

Day 158

Elizabeth, Jacob and I are cracking up because Lier forgot to "cheers!" before drinking. :-)

Day 157

Walking around Central Park, somewhere near the Upper West Side.

Day 156

Rainy day! View of the Hudson River and a bit of Riverside Park from Joe and Anya's place.

Day 155

Jed and Kendra are married!!!!!

Day 154

Walking around Riverside Park this morning. We then took a bus all the way up to The Cloisters and walked around there awhile. It was a beautiful day and we saw lots of beautiful things, and ended with a great family dinner of Niçoise salad, so delicious. It was hard to pick a picture today!

Day 153

6 states in less than 10 hours today! We took a train from Portland, Maine to Boston, then another from Boston to NYC. This was taken on our hour walk around Boston before catching the second train.

Day 152

Maine lobstah! I had my first, and veeery delicious Maine lobstah today at Joe's Boathouse in South Portland. Mmmmmm...

Day 151

I downloaded a free World Nomads "Learn Thai" iPhone app, and thought this was hilarious. Under the "Travel Safety" category, some of the phrases they chose to include are "Don't shoot!" and "Those drugs aren't mine!" -- so I'm covered in case I get into those situations.

Day 150

Sitting at home missing Copper, no plates for dinner, but at least some tasty food.

Day 149

Bye Copper, have fun in Texas!

Day 148

Thai Visas!

Day 147

Engagement party at Reena's place. Fun night, great steak, 2 tia's drove up from SoCal, 1 set of parents from San Diego and 1 set is driving back to Texas with our dog tomorrow. It's been a busy week, but an exciting one!

Day 146

Family! Everyone's in town to help us pack and ship us off to Thailand! :-)

Day 145

Went to eat pupusas tonight for dinner, my parents are here! This was an El Salvador table, I climbed that volcano!

Day 144

Copper's reading our new kindle!

Day 143

Old small laptop, new big laptop!