it turns out big ears are believed to be good luck here. we had been told that and it has now been confirmed. oh, and we have also learned that it really isn't rude to call someone fat here, either. the man, was stopped by a man on the sidewalk who grabbed his earlobe, gave it a good rub and then commented - oh, how lucky he must be and this same lovely gentleman asked where we were from and when we said colorado, he said, "oh, big mountain must be good place for big man" and then gestured very widely with his arms. and as good and funny as that is - when he commented on me - it.was.not.funny. at all. so, now added to my to do list - is lose weight. okay, so maybe it's always been on my to do list, but now it's priority a #1. right now i'm thinking that might be easy to do, because it is just too hot to eat - but i know that won't last forever.

so today we saw another house. it was a perfectly fine house, maybe not as big as we would like and it was on the far other side of town as the school, so not the house for us. we also did a bit of window shopping. checking the prices on things to get an idea of what it will cost to set up house - this was very encouraging. next we need to prioritize what we will need first. tv or pots and pans. can you guess which one of us is rooting for what?

house hunting and the night market

first house hunting. we didn't get off to a great start. i think possibly our realtor had some misconceptions about what we might be looking for because we're americans. but these were small, cookie cutter houses. they felt like something you might find in any city, anywhere. sort of plain, non-descript, not what we had imagined. then she took us to see two that we liked. big enough for our family, every one can have there own bedroom - well, each of the kids can, i still have to share with bh. a nice kitchen and trees. plenty of shade from trees. i miss trees. we meet with the school on monday and will hopefully be able to come up with a time line after that.

the night market is huge. we saw just a fraction of it. i couldn't go anymore - i think the no-sleep situation has caught up with me. but we will go back another evening this week. there is tons of stuff. lots of it is traders village-y, but we did find a few places where things seemed to be made here.

today was a nice day, tomorrow we have nothing planned until after lunch. so i can sleep in.

hong kong airport: 8:12 pm here – 5:13 am at home.

it has been over 24 hours since i was dropped off at the colorado springs airport and over 23 hours since i boarded the first plane on this journey. i am thrilled that i found free wifi here – especially since i have to blog everyday, darn those holidailies. i’m tired and disoriented – that’s not just a statement, it’s also a disclaimer – it might show in this post.

i have already added a few things i’ve learned to my things i’ve learned about international travel list (did you catch that mom? i said list, and not just list, my list).

• when the stewardess says they are empty rows in the back of the plane, don’t be bashful. jump up and claim one – it’s much easier to sleep across 2 seats than it is cramped into one – especially when you’re on an impossibly tiny plane.
• middle seats are bad. even when you’re on a plane that might be bigger than the nina, the pinta and the santa maria all together. a window seat would be good. a row seat isn’t too bad – unless you have to constantly let people out. but the best would be a seat at the front of a section. leg room galore.
• some asians are american citizens. and some caucasions are not american citizens. imagine. this could be a sign of the sheltered life i’ve lead. and before you ask, yes, i have had many friends who are asian and american. but when waiting in line to board a flight for hong kong, one (okay, I) might have assumed that all the asian people who were waiting in line were citizens of one asian country or another. and brace yourself for this – right here in the hong kong airport, i have come across several caucasions, knew we shared that special we’re american bond, we didn’t even have to say anything it was just there. and then i heard them speak, either in another language or with a heavy accent.

i’m sure this is a list that will keep on growing… hopefully.

so, we left the springs at 6am. as you might have guessed there were some empty rows at the back of the plane – the stewardess offered them up, but being the thoughtful gal that i am, i figured there was some other poor deserving soul who should be allowed the comfort of spreading out. that won’t happen again. no way. get to lax, have to switch airlines and while checking in am offered an amazing deal. $400 cash to wait for the next plane, because the one i was booked on was overweight. i’m willing, but can’t. they can’t get me connected to my flight from bangkok to chiang mai. and i’d already imagined the amazing christmas presents i was going to buy in thailand with an extra $400 – rats. so, i get on the flight from lax to hong kong. i’m tired, hungry (didn’t realize that there would be nowhere to eat once i went through security at lax) and cramped. i have a bad middle seat. the window seat girl could lean towards the window to sleep. the aisle guy could fudge a little over into the aisle. the middle seat girl, me, had to contend with the elbows of the other two. i slept maybe a total of 2 hours. got no knitting done – no room to knit in the middle seat, but did watch 3 in flight movies.

so, here i sit, waiting for my connection to bangkok. hoping there is free wifi at the hotel so i can come back and update. and while i’m sitting here there is a nice group of people sitting next to me talking about me. and while i can’t understand them, i know i’m not being paranoid. they keep pointing at me and motioning to my short sleeves and jacket sitting next to me. because it’s 70 degrees here and humid. and i’m hot. they are not hot, they are wearing coats. and several layers. i tried to explain it was in the teens where i left from yesterday – they didn’t understand. they just keep motioning for me to put my jacket on. they have yet to notice the sweat beads on my forehead.

UPDATE:

spent my one night in bangkok. took forever to get through immigration – and then had to do it all again. discovered that they have a very, very limited use of english here. top of my list is now language school for me. then i narrowly escaped death, even had to yell out to warn the bus driver that we were getting ready to die – then i was kindly, and i’m not saying that sarcastically, informed that these folks drive on the wrong side of the road. and the person i was giving my helpful hints to wasn’t driving, she was a passenger. so, get to the hotel. have no electricity. head down to the front desk, they inform me of the special way you get electricity to work – put your room key card into the slot in the wall and viola – i have electricity. and then i have to go down to the front desk again because the phone isn’t working. or perhaps i just need help hanging it up. then i spend 4 hours sleeping. get up and head back to the airport and only a one hour flight to chiang mai – a window seat, yep, for one hour.

i get off the plane in chiang mai and realize the man and i made no firm plans about how to meet up. and my seat mates on the plane are very worried that i have no idea of what hotel or how to even begin to contact him. but he shows. and we take a very scary, life threatening ride to the hotel. the man says it wasn’t scary, but it was. so i’m here. now i’m gonna take a nap. and then we’re meeting with a realtor.

...begins impossibly early in the morning.

...begins without a watch.

...begins in an airport, in the u.s. - where the threat level is orange.

...begins on an empty stomach, because i'm too nervous to eat.

...begins without caffeine. (no, really, it does. i wouldn't have thought so, either.)

...begins on a very, very, impossibly small plane (i can see it out the window right now. it's tiny. maybe not, private jet tiny, more of 4 seats to a row tiny.)

...begins right now.

i'm doin' it. i'm sitting here in an airport waiting for a plane. waiting for a plane that will take me to los angeles - where i'll wait for another plane. a plane that will take me to hong kong. where i'll wait again - for a plane that will take me to bangkok. where i thought bh would be meeting me. but, he won't. instead i'll be spending...

wait for it...

it's worth it...

one night in bangkok.

yep. and, of course, i had to look up the lyrics. i'm hoping that maybe this one will be my lyric - "one night in bangkok and the world's your oyster". and not this one - "one night in bangkok makes a hard man humble" - or this one - "one night in bangkok and the tough guys tumble". you know, i sing the song, or rather i hum most of it and then belt out the one night in bangkok part (until just a few moments ago those were the only words i knew. ) it's a fun song to hum/sing. the tune made me think bangkok might be fun. but the lyrics - they scare me. anyway, after my one night in bangkok, it's back to the airport and off to chiang mai. that's where bh will meet me. we have an interview at the kids school. i feel like i should have every moment planned. know what we're doing each day - have something to accomplish. but i don't. wait, i mean we do have plenty to accomplish, it's just i don't know how we go about doing it.

so, now i sit here. in the colorado springs airport. very aware that this is a big moment. change is in the air. and i don't even know how to describe it other than to say it feels big, huge, momentous. not so unlike the night before my scheduled c-sections. you know somewhat scary - but in a good way, scary in an i can't wait to get going kind of way, but know i can't even begin to fathom how my life will change. and it's not just my life. it is the life of 5 of us. what happens to a kid when you pick them up and transplant them to a completely different culture? i can't help but believe they'll be better for it, i'm sure we'll all be better for it.

and so the journey begins. and for those who might be curious - it's not a journey of a thousand miles. it's a journey of eight thousand eighty one miles. wow.

overwhelmed from move

much to do in little time

she has come undone

i'm pretty sure those egg innards don't just represent my brain. right now it feels like it is pretty much all of me pouring leaking out of that shell.

it is official - we are moving to thailand in january. that means lots to do and not much time, but i'm confident it will happen. at least something will happen.

i told the kids last night. i would have liked to have waited until bh was home, but so many other people know and i want them to hear it from us. it was hard. they were sad, confused, angry. probably all the same emotions i would be feeling if i hadn't learned some coping mechanisms, the good kind and the bad. plus, we had a bit of a practice move. we moved from texas to colorado. i know that's nowhere near the same thing as moving to a new country, but it was a bit of a teensy-weensy baby step. we moved away from family and friends. we made new friends. we learned that some relationships could be maintained from a distance and that others couldn't. and i don't have to be told that the cultural differences, the changes to our every day lives were really minimal - especially when compared to what lies ahead. when we made this move our kids were smaller, tb was the most effected - he had to leave his best friend and it was hard. the other two, lb & ff, well they just didn't have those kind of connections, yet. now, they all do. and i'm having difficulty comforting them with any kind of confidence - and because they are kids, they intuitively just know that. they seem to think i'll have all the answers to their questions. they ask, "how often will we get to see our friends here?" i answer, "i don't know." they ask, "where will we live there?" i answer, "i don't know." they ask, "will people come visit us?" and while i probably do know the answer to that one - i still answer, "i don't know." how scary that must be for them, making it all the more difficult to process. the person who should know, the expert in their lives, seems to have absolutely no idea of anything. and it's frustrating for me. because i just want to find the instruction book. the one that has the step by step descriptions of what needs to get done and just how to do it.

i think to many people this seems just so half-baked. we must be off our rocker to pick up our family and move literally 1/2 way around the world. i think there was a part of me that took comfort in the fact that it was still 7 months out - anything can happen in 7 months. don't get me wrong, i was completely committed to moving come july, just that it's alot of time; things change. but now, 7 weeks out, we really do have to start making progress. figuring out how all of this works. getting stuff done.

but underlying all of this - the confusion, the complete and utter sense of inadequacy, the at times overwhelming sadness at what we're leaving behind - there really is a peace. i have absolutely no doubt that this is what we are supposed to be doing. that this is where God wants us. He doesn't always ask us to do easy things and i have a choice to make. i can go through this whole experience kicking and screaming and possibly miss some (or maybe all) of the blessings He has for me. or i can participate, i can say let's do this thing - let's pack up and go 1/2 way around the world - let's see what God has planned. because i believe we can choose to participate in God's plan or not. either way, it's going to happen and when it's all done we can either say, "look what God did in spite of me" or "look what God allowed me to participate in."