Moving to Thailand

I was laid off my job a few months back. I would have liked to continue working a couple more years to fund my 401k a while longer, but that's not going to happen. Unemployment checks have been rolling in but I suppose I'd prefer to be working.  Hiring is scarce for what I do anymore, I seem to be a dinosaur. So! On to something else.

I've thought about teaching English for a long time. It would be a drastic departure from what I've done for decades, and I think it will be generally a welcome change. I've always liked learning about the origins of words, I enjoy helping people learn, and it was pointed out to me the other day by a friend that I am too nice to be a business entrepreneur. I think it would be good for me to be on my feet more. I can see myself getting excited, jumping around and talking all day, trying to make learning fun. Do I sound like Principal Skinner? I did a little research and decided to go to Bangkok to attend a TEFL course. It was a surprisingly easy decision to move away from my home country for the first time. Is this better or worse than the CELTA or the others? I don't know, I didn't research it that much. There's a huge amount written about such things on a number of blogs, forums and websites, but frankly, I just picked this one because it's near the center of things and is the only one that does not take things at a breakneck pace. I hate to be stressed. This one seems to do an adequate amount of work getting you prepared, and it takes 6 weeks to do it rather than the 3 or 4 weeks every other places require. The price didn't seem out of line. There were enough good reviews about the course (and few enough bad ones), it's been in business long enough, so it seemed about as good as any. It may seem a rather lackadaisical approach to choosing a course, but there's a ton of them out there and after a while I simply got tired of shopping. The school seems to know what Thai employers want, they helped me to get a visa, so it's away we go. Bought a one-way airfare (!) and got an international drivers license, trying to get my ducks in a row. I'll probably stay at a furnished apartment called the Poonchock Mansion, or PMansion. It's not expensive, is close to the TEFL course, and does not require a long lease. No pool, but supposed to have a self-contained kitchen which I will probably make use of. 

I've looked at a lot of possible places to teach English. There are openings worldwide thanks to English being the language of commerce and diplomacy, so I expect the only hindrance might be my age. I'm definitely too old for some places. According to most accounts, Thailand is at the bottom of the pay scale, but is the most pleasant place to live. I have been there twice, so it's not totally new. It all added up to probably being the best option for me to get my footing living and working on a new continent. I'm a bit apprehensive about the whole thing and I'm looking for a smooth, easy transition into a new lifestyle that won't be too difficult. I'll take the course there, look for a job on the outskirts of Bangkok, and give it a year or so. The course will finish up towards the end of October, perhaps  that's about the time the second term for most schools will begin, and I'll be able to walk into some sort of position fairly easily. I really have no idea about what age group I'd like to teach. I tend to think I would not be so good around children, but I really don't know. I hope I get a chance to student-teach several age groups during the course, and I've thought about just showing up to observe courses in schools to see what it's like. I don't even have a clear idea if I will like doing this work. I will try to approach it seriously and with the intention of being the best I can at the job, and try to find satisfaction and fulfillment in the experience. 

It's just waiting now. Not too bad, hanging out here at my place in Vancouver, Washington, biding my time. Actually it's less than a month away now. I've paid my last month's rent on this place, and am quite far along in the process of liquidating most everything I own. I really want to have the minimum amount of things to take with me, no sense in taking much. Things are cheap to buy again over there as I need them. I've decided to take two musical instruments with me, I hope I won't regret that. Otherwise, just my laptop bag and a couple of suitcases. I've had about 100 ads up on craigslist for 4 or 5 months now, trying to sell everything from my old pickup truck to miscellaneous small items for $1, $2, $5 or so. I hate yard sales, I truly do. This hasn't been too annoying, just have to keep renewing the ads, make appointments when people are interested in individual items and meet them at the door to sell it. It's what I imagine having a store is like. Now I don't have any living room furniture, sold my dinette, got rid of my bed, miscellaneous small appliances, etc. Really just a mattress on the floor, a folding chair and a pile of things that I don't care about anymore. People still call about this and that, but I have only 2 big-ticket items left, my pickup and a 2 year old front-loading washing machine. The rest of the stuff can go to the Goodwill as far as I care. I've almost tired of playing shop keeper. It's sometimes an odd feeling selling everything I own. I never had really very expensive things, but many are things I've had for decades. Less than a month, time to begin drastically reducing prices!

This is what I got it down to. The boxes were about $25 apiece at FedEx, and they were great.
I think this amount of excess luggage was $175 or thereabouts.

1. 2010 Vacation - Bangkok and Cebu

This is my first trip to southeast Asia - Philippines and Thailand, January and February, 2010. It was at first supposed to be to Cambodia and Thailand but I skipped Cambodia this time. Instead I flew into Bangkok first, spent little more than a day, then went to the Philippines to visit 3 cities in 8 days, and then back to Thailand to spend the rest of my time there. I decided to visit the Philippines because I had met some people who had either lived there in the past or were living there now, liked it and recommended that I should try to see it. I wanted to see if it's a place I could feel comfortable and happy.

I'm not spending much time this trip log with my first destination, Bangkok. I'd really rather forget about my experience there actually, nothing went right. My very first day in Bangkok I went to get a Thai massage at Wat Pho, a very famous Thai monastery that includes a huge reclining Buddha statue, and a famous Thai massage school. On this my very first experience with Thai massage, I hurt one of my ribs. It wasn't the massage guy's fault, I have kind of a messed up rib cage, and I just turned over the wrong way, and bam my rib dislocated. It hurt like hell, and continued to hurt for the remainder of this vacation. Wow what a bummer it was, but I tried to make the best of it. That, and sleep being messed up from the flight, and numerous sleep disruptions from roosters in various places I stayed at (oh, don't get me started on them, how I hate them now!) I was not in a touristy mood, but here's a few pics. I'm looking at the date stamps, and I've got them messed up somehow, some of these first ones are from after I returned to Bangkok from the Philippines....here we go anyway.

I was really struck by this upon arrival at the airport: orchids growing everywhere.

Arriving in Bangkok from the airport in a cab, under a massive Skytrain station.

I stayed at the Prince Palace, a humongous hotel popular
with many different nationalities of travelers. 

It was all kind of luxurious. I think I'd stay some place else next time.

Wat Pho

Here's where my ill-fated massage took place, the School of Massage's building, open to the public.

I didn't get out a lot, but I managed to get lost in China town.

I thought it was just one day in Bangkok. It must have been two days. I can't remember, I'm writing this post way after the fact. Anyway, soon I left for Cebu, via Manila.

I'd read a lot about the Philippines and how English is spoken there. I must say that was a big plus in my thinking of where I might feel comfortable. Two nights in Cebu City was my first stop.

Their were so many of these trikes, all basically the same design,
little cartoon copies of automobiles, all different colors.

Here's the guy who drove me around my first day.

Just some street scenes I shot while riding around in his trike.

Street scene. I took a lot of pics of just regular people hanging out.

This is a market in Talisay, a town just south of Cebu City.

Many people posed like this, with the hand beneath the chin
in this manner. For the longest time I wondered why.
I finally found out it's the trademark of a well-known celebrity.

Honestly, a quarter of them used this pose. Here's a little girl
who doesn't quite have it right, but she knows it's the thing to do

Across the street from the little market. Everybody out and about buying dinner.

I'm sure this crazy guy was hooking up illegally. 

I spent a lot of time just walking around, or taking cabs or trikes

A couple times I hopped on one of the jeepneys. I think it cost about 10 pesos (about 20 cents).
They used to be made from surplus WWII jeeps, but now they are just built to look like them
a little from the front. Rough ride, but cheap.

It being only the first few days of my first experience in Asia, I was rather disoriented, and my rib was in constant pain. I slept a lot and felt kind of dazed most of the time because of the heat and the time difference, and just how different everything was. Two days was really not enough to experience Cebu City, on the island of Cebu. I'll have to go back again some day and spend two weeks instead of two days, and see more the island as well. Recently a friend did some searches on  tours of the islands of Palawan, the furthest western island system of the Philippines. That is a great looking place to visit too.