Must rinse with hot water to kill the germs!

Now that I am safely out of the country (USA), I can freely admit this.....  I have never rinsed my dishes with hot water when washing them.  Though my loving mother continually preached that when I was washing dishes as a kid I had to use the hottest water I could handle.  

Well for me, that was nearly all the way too cold.  Who wants to burn there hands on something as beautiful as water? 

I was always pretty sure that having to rinse with hot water to avoid germs was bullshit but now I feel wholly certain that it is.  For the past 5 months I have been washing our dishes in cold water.  Using tap water that you most certainly cannot drink to do all of this.  We have not been sick once.  

One of the most amazing things about being in Thailand is to see the carefree spirit that resides here.  They pretty much live exact opposite of how Americans live, and probably most people from the west.  Though they do love their western medicine over here that may be the only similarity.  In fact I think it is more popular here.  Walk into any pharmacy for an ibprofen and you are likely to walk out with a pain killer, an allergy med, viagra/cialis, and a menstrual drug of sorts.  Yep, man or woman this is likely what will be in your hand.  Use discretion and google your meds.  

What it comes down to is that they just don't seem to worry the way we do.  Parents out there, can you imagine your infant child resting in your left arm while you right arm steered your motorbike and had your spouse on back... all helmet-less?  Well, Thai's cannot imagine tucking their kids into a big SUV in a chair that cost them almost $200 and strapping them down, all to go 5 blocks to the store.  After all, death is a part of life and every time we wake up we are at risk of dying.  

I have a million stories that could express this point over and over again.  Ultimately I think we spend a lot of time worrying over things that are one day inevitable, like sickness and death, and many other cultures celebrate and may even welcome this.  

The truth is that we cannot ward death off forever.  It will come, so we may as well make peace with it now. It is the same with sickness.  Instead I hope we begin to shift our concerns from rinsing our dishes and laundry with hot water to giving a shit that the whole world has drinkable water.  That we may stop the consumerism of what is now referred to as "necessity" and use good judgement. 

Somewhere in between the $200 child seat in the $37,000 suv and dangling your child off the handle bars of your motorbike lies a balance.  A place where we ALL can enjoy life with our basic needs being met and we all can accept death.  

Being conscious of these possibilities and of our actions in the world we can release the desperate need for control that comes along with purell hand sanitizer, endless vaccinations, giant cars, and hot water for dishes.  We can begin to care about the things that really matter.  Like talking to your neighbor, connecting with the families and kids around you, inquiring if others are feeling ok or if someone might need anything.  We certainly have become backwards in our priorities.  Jobs are coming before health.  Money is taking a lead and we are failing the communities around us.  We are not asking people with obvious warning signs if they need help or if they are okay.  We are forgetting that we are all a family and we are all in this together.  

We are all guilty of not paying enough attention to the world around us, quite honestly most of us could probably not handle what is really going on out there, but if we faced it we could work through it, give a little more, take a little less, lend a hand, open up a conversation, save a life, etc.  

Germs are not evil.  Our SUV's that suck the resources of the land, the mind, the wallet so that we can maybe save our own life if we are in an accident might be closer to that evil than we think.  I am not trying to be an asshole here. I promise.  I am trying to find the balance in the world that will actually make it a better place for the generations to follow.  

We are all in this together.  All guilty and innocent of the same thing.  All trying to figure it out.  But, like the Buddha says....

Peace comes from within.  

Something about the space

There is something about having the space in your life to move as you need to that settles the soul.  One year ago I felt restricted, slightly tied down, anxious for the next adventure, and unsure about friendships and relationships in my life.  And now at the end of the year I really feel like I took 2012, kicked its ass into submission and started owning my life.

In leaving Colorado, the home that I have known for 29 years and moving across the world with a man I love in a way that cannot be described

I seem to have answered the questions of uncertainty.  However, to be honest that was not my intention.  You see, regardless of the fact that I have spent my years in my hometown, I am a runner.  When challenged I usually bail ship.

This commitment to leave probably could not have been done with out the unbelievable support of so many people.  And now in the last remaining hours of 2012 I can reflect on the changes and know that I am going into a new year pretty excited.
All the question of friendship that I had prior to my departure have been clearly answered.  Bonds have grown stronger, even those I never expected to even grow.
My relationship with brother has become awesome.
I really appreciate the "parenting" part of my parents now.
I have my sisters, who are dear friends that I speak with regularly.
I have acquired a sister that is like family, she kinda took me by surprise and we have had our moments together but now being so far apart I really delight in the moments I get to share with her.  She is my boyfriends brothers girlfriend and she is spectacular.
I have begun to feel like family to Jeremie's family and appreciate that sense of support.
In addition my family has never been so supportive of my relationship.  All things that were probably there before but really show up when you can no longer take the small things for granted.
When I left Colorado I was ready to take a break from yoga and teaching and step away.  I was tired of the lululemon, the "rules" of yoga, the flowy talk, the injuries, the blame, so on and so forth.  But by leaving I realized that I believe in yoga!

It all seems so much more defined for me, I am not struggling with inspiration or connection in any of these areas.  My heart feels open, to sound quite cliche, but WTF it really does.  And I also recognize that according to murphy's law now that I have written this something is bound to humble me.  Look forward to that post!!!  :)  

I am going in to this next year with a passion to create the person I want to be, with clarity on who I love, what I love, and why I love.  It's all about love!  And, now recognizing I sound like a hippy it is probably time to bring this message to a close.  I hope you all have an incredible new year!  It is not the time change or the new year that matters but the choices that we make to become our best self.

PS.  I really do believe that love is what it takes, no matter how hippy it sounds.

When traveling to foreign land....

I have recently come home from an afternoon at the beach followed by my usual trip to the Thursday market for corn, pineapple, chicken on a stick, and watermelon.  Life is rough here, you can pity my life later, first enjoy this post.

While standing in line with pineapple in hand and watermelon a short distance away from my hungry paw I am patiently waiting to pay when a lovely(?) woman pushes her way in front of me and grabs a pineapple.  I stare in disbelief and slight amusement, as I often do when this situation happens.  I laugh and think "how are you so oblivious?".  But instead of pushing my way through I figure I will see what other antics this woman has in store.  This proved to be a fruitful decision.  No pun intended.

She grabs her pineapple and shoves it at the guy taking money, all while he is clearly involved with another customer.  He gives a glance and smile, she pushes the fruit closer to him and yells, in Russian.  By her gestures and she has told him she "Wants the freaking pineapple now!  And cut it for me would you?"

He calmly finishes up what he is doing and makes a gesture to her about her wanting the stem broken off and she nods.  So he does as indicated puts it in about 3 plastic bags because that is how they roll here in Thailand and hands it back to her.

She then raises her voice yet again and demands more.....  then points at the woman sitting a few feet away carving away at pineapples in this beautiful spiral.  Seriously, it is gorgeous the way that they cut pineapple here, making it perfectly edible.  Anyways.  The woman carving the pineapple is clearly belonging to another sort of business and her pineapples are different.

Naturally the kind Thai guy indicates not the same, by saying, on English "not the same", and then hands her her bag again.

She proceeds by raising her voice another 3 octaves and spewing out even more Russian, which is clearly not  language often used by Thai's and then stands there and stares at him.  Of course I have a grin on my face as I watch her antics in a foreign country.  I then pass him my fruit and tell him I would also like a watermelon, in Thai.  He laughs at my smile and we share a small moment of enjoyment of this woman's distress over her un-cut pineapple.

This obviously makes her more upset as she begins to yell and demand more, not just to the guy but now to the woman cutting the gorgeous pineapples.  Asking, in English, how much it costs to have that done...... 45 baht the woman answers in English, and the pineapple is 30 baht.  At least we have reached a common language here, though broken, communication is happening!.

I can no longer control myself and I laugh hard, which only causes the fruit guy to laugh and smile and then the woman cutting the pineapple to chuckle.  Not a wise move because now the Russian woman is yelling in Russian, and I think she is saying "I want the pineapple and I want it cut so get it for me now".  The more she yells the harder we all laugh.  And even though I have what I want I cannot simply walk away from this amusement.

To top off the whole scenario, while they (her friends have now joined her at the fruit stand), stand there and stare at the pineapple being delicately and lovingly carved they decide to try some random packaged fruit.  Being that I have eaten this "random" fruit before I recognize it as durian, which quite honestly tastes pretty decent if you can get past the smell, of gym socks, that it is well-known for. They tear into it and before they can realize the smell they shove it in their faces, and low and behold it is time for me to walk away because once in their mouth the smell hits them and they begin to pale slightly in shock, then grab their pineapple and walk off briskly.

Still laughing as I walk away we share another moment of enjoyment in the yelling and impossibility of foreigners.

So, I write this post because I think when you travel to any country you should learn a few words of the language rather than just assuming they will speak your native tongue.  Words like "how much", "please", "thank you", "yes", and "no" will suffice.  Gestures are great and do wonders but words will at least let people know you acknowledge you are no longer in YOUR country and you understand that things might not go your way.  In addition, understanding does not come from raising your voice or speaking slower.  It comes from compromise on both parties behalf.

Language is important and equally important is an understanding of the cultural norms wherever you are traveling.  So buy a lonely planet and read it when you travel, or use the wonderful invention of internet to find out such things like when you yell in Thailand you will either be ignored or laughed at.

PS: please do not come to Thailand and strut your beautiful body around half or fully naked on the beach, most Thais swim with their clothes on and the body is exposed with discretion.

Love!

WHO are you?

Long walks on the beach have proved healing these days and offered my wandering mind with some deeper reflections.

Here is my calculation:  365 days of planning and saving and working and pulling together money to pack up all my things and move.  365 days.  365 days.  365 days.  Then 2 months living out of backpacks and bags in search of our new "home".  Then nearly 2 months doing the settle in thing and getting a place to live and transportation and eating food and swimming in the ocean, (rough life I know).

And almost 4 months later BAM!!!!!!  No sleep, a bit anxious, feeling a little frustrated over silly things.  And I start planning, even daydreaming about what going "home" is to look like.  Start planning to work to save to travel to pack up to blah blah blah.......

Now, from my understanding of habits it takes 28 straight days of very conscious living to break a habit and a very short period of time to create that habit.  From this understanding I have concluded that my habit and love of travel has caused me to miss a lot of moments in Phuket already.  Planning to go back Colorado for a visit consumed me almost as soon as we arrived.  I blame being homesick.  I also blame habit of the last year of planning to pack and leave and go somewhere else.  But those are just excuses.

Shit!  That whole idea of presence, you know that yoga thing I teach just caught up with me and smacked me around a bit.  It is always good to be humbled right.

Rewind back to the beach and the walks.  All of the above commentary came after the real-realization.  Which is as follows.  I simply cannot remember the last time I asked myself WHO I want to be in a year, I only remember the years ticking by with the WHERE do I want to be in a year, this usually regarding my work life and my travels / vacations.

Maybe I figured I was so sturdy in myself that I need not consider this.  I think, though, that if you are solid in yourself then you sleep good, your temper is controlled and you take the time to enjoy the moments in your life.  At least this is how I will gauge my self knowledge in the future.

So, who do I want to be?  The answers came right away, I just needed the right questions.  And in those answers was the space needed to commit to a new life and know that at this moment I am not saving, working or planning on any major moves or trips.  I am working instead on building a life here, whether it be for a year or 40.

In retrospect it seemed so simple, and in the moment I felt like I almost lost my breath when the answer came to me.  Where never really matters.  But, WHO, well that makes the difference.  If you don't know who you are then how can you identify with the world around you?

The Joys of Wandering

 Human beings are amazing!

Keepin' it legal

The official 90 day mark is upon us!  Actually we have passed it as of today!

Time for a visa run.  So while I await the beloved trip to Malaysia to submit my work permit info and apply for my non immigrant b visa I had to make a quick visa run to Myanmar / Burma.

This is actually quite an easy process these days.  I pay a company that actually has the words "Visa Run" in the name and they pretty much take care of it for me.  All I do is tag along for the ride and remember my passport.

So, this is how it goes.  5am pick up!  Shit that sucks, excuse my language but the last thing I want to do is climb out of bed to climb into a car for a 5 hour drive but mai bpen lai it is what has to be done.  They pick me up conveniently at the 7 Eleven near our house and drive me to the minibus.  I climb in with 6 strangers from France and America all on the same mission.  More time in this beautiful country!

To keep us from wasting away they hand us each a little plastic baggy with wasabi peas, water, and juice to tide us over on the drive; and away we go at a speedy 100 km / hour minimum.  I hope I make it to the border!

I am not sure if you have ever been in a minibus / minivan in many foreign countries, but they really haul ass.  I mean you are bouncing all over the place and there is a lack of seatbelts and an abundance of nausea.  You plug your head phones in, curl up with your pillow that you brought to snuggle with and hope to crash out.  As soon as you reach that beloved dream space they naturally slam on the breaks and barrel into another 7 - Eleven to where the driver disappears for a bit and you can relieve your bladder and grab another snack.  Cattle would probably make more noise then we do on one of this journey, we are as quiet as possible and just wander to where we are told to.

Completing the first leg and arriving at our destination an hour prior to expected we file out and file into the immigration building.  They already have our passports as the driver collected them when we first climbed into our seats.  Now they take them and stamp them and sign off on the date, leaving us with an exit stamp and an arrival card for when we come back.

I have to say it was beautiful there on the pier.  Something about the clouds was so definitive and outlined.  The water was an amazing green  and the sun blazed hot.  After walking the 300 yards down the pier we got our passports checked again, and filed onto the boat.  Met with air con and cozy seats we then begin our journey across the sea.

The destination was a hotel / spa / resort that is considered to be Myanmar.  Since we are now in a new country we have to do the immigration thing again, this time they keep our passports and shuffle us up the hill to eat lunch.  "Do not feed on animals" reads a few signs, I have to chuckle because they really mean "Don't feed the monkeys"... but I guess you get the point either way.

As we walk into this beautiful hotel that overlooks a glorious pool I am overwhelmed with the feeling that I am walking through the movie The Shining.  The hotel is immaculate and there is staff walking around here and there but not a single guest anywhere in sight.  Only 1 or 2 gamblers in the casino and the 2 -3 bus loads of Falangs that are doing the visa shuffle.  They feed us lunch, we go to duty free, I buy a bottle of scotch and we do the same thing in reverse order.

A day of moving around like cattle.  I am so glad it is over.  Thank goodness that I have 9 days before my next one!

Quite honestly if this is what it takes to stay in a place this beautiful and delightful to the senses then so be it.

Next stop Malaysia!

The Gauntlet

In retrospect I feel like I have ignored the most obvious things about moving to a new culture, and obviously enough, they are the things that are so simple back home.

In Bangkok I was often slightly shocked by the differences in culture between South east Asia and America. I never really wrapped my head around the difference in having friends here.  Like somehow everyone I met would speak English and we would fall into friend love immediately!  Call me stupid but over the course of one year of prep to move here I NEVER considered this aspect.

It got lonely sometimes, ya know?  I have an amazing dude and we pretty much rock the world together and worked it out fairly well.  But we also came from a big "family" back in Colorado and it was a drastic change to be forever together.

Now in Phuket with jobs where we go separate directions in the morning we are meeting different and new people from all over the world.  I have never realized how much I love to be social, thank god I have a job that deals with people and includes me talking!!!!  Hopefully y'all don't get sick of hearing my voice.  Either way the social aspect is beginning to work itself out quite well.

This leads me to the next thing I never considered in all my time day dreaming about when we settled in.... transportation!  In Bangkok it was easy.... walk, bus, sky train, ferry, express boat, METERED taxi, underground train, tuk tuk, motorbike taxi.....  the list goes on!  No wonder I never really thought about it, if Bangkok has this much transportation then everywhere in Thailand must be that way.  Ha, ignorance is glorious!

So we get to Phuket the first time ever and, I will spare you the lame details, but we find out that there are very few METERED taxis, the Tuk Tuks cost an astronomical amount, and the hills are so steep that getting a push pedal up them might just kill you.  There is a bus type thing called a songtheuw, (songtwo), but they leave from the beaches into Phuket town and then you switch to go to any other beach....  it takes an easy hour to get into town so you are looking at some serious travel time.

You are probably thinking "They should put in a more efficient bus system".  Well, they tried that years ago and the Tuk Tuk drivers blocked the road so they could not get through.   I have heard that they are looking at doing this again but who knows what will happen.  This is Thailand. Period.  Beautiful and with out reason.

When I found a job on one side of the island and that awesome dude of mine found a job on the other side of the island transportation became a problem.  He has rode a motorbike for many years and scooters are abundant here so it was a bit more obvious of a solution.  Me, sheltered little Colorado girl, I have driven a scooter once or twice long long ago.  The first week as I traveled Jeremie would ride me out there and back, again can I say he is awesome?!  Then we decided that I should probably learn to ride one myself....

One day at the beach I decided I would wonder off and take the scooter to 7-11 for a snack and get the feel for it.  I came within inches of a wreck.

Riding a scooter is not such a big deal, it is more the conditions in which you ride.... hence the name the gauntlet.  Between riding on the left side of the road and right turns becoming harder than back home you can throw in some torrential rain every now and then.  Then the surprise appearances of people riding on the wrong side of the road.  The stray dogs that meander all about and in general are quite good at looking both ways before stepping into the street but sometimes they get caught up in their heads and forget.  You just have to honk at them.  The best part is that once in a while an elephant will stroll out into the road, and even if they don't come in the road they are along side it and fascinating to watch eat and play.. "keep your eyes on the road for that dog, you can stop and watch the elephants later" I always have to say to myself.
Now we have the hills that make you feel like you are about to tip over backwards they are so steep and the 10,000 other motorbikes on the road.  (And sometimes they Thai's ride motorbikes 4 deep.  Another fascinating sight!)  This time of year there are so many butterflies out and about flying in your face as you ride...  It really is an incredible place.  And I figure that if I can learn to ride here then I will be a master wherever I go.  Needless to say you have to be on the ball all the time.

When it was time for me to ride a scooter Jeremie rented one and I followed him, for three days we did this until I felt comfortable with the trek myself.  Then one fine day I found myself waking up and climbing on my rented scooter and departing for work.  I made it safe and sound.  So now comes the need to purchase one of the contraptions and we are finding out automatics are a lot more expensive, relatively speaking.  I decided to rent one for a month while I look around for my perfect ride and low and behold the only one the woman had for me to rent was a manual.  And I thought that the hardest part was over just riding an automatic to work.  Wrong again.

I flashed back to years ago when my dad bought me a manual transmission honda, he dropped it off and gave me a few rides around the neighborhood and then took off with my automatic and I was left with the stick shift. I figured I would use this same tact to accomplish the scooter ride.  Had it dropped off and rode in circles and then rode to work.  You can add to the above list of distractions operating a pedal and down shifting... at least there is no clutch, and talk about being present!

Overcoming challenges and being surprised by the challenges that come up, all part of the journey!  I feel stronger every day that I am here.  Everyday my excitement and confidence grows about my life.  Most of the time I want to burst out of my skin with glorious sensations of accomplishments.  It is good, life is good.

The last thing I want to mention is the missing of holidays, it being Thanksgiving and all back home today.  Even though we were never big celebrators of holidays back home I miss the thought.

In celebration these are the things I am grateful for and the things that still sit in my heart:

The bike parades and thanksgivings that we celebrated with our "family" the past couple of years, how I will miss the "roll"  (I know there is another name for it and you ladies know what I am talking about)  Have me there in spirit!

The parents that I have, the mom that would have bought me new clothes to wear and had us celebrate a day later or earlier so that I could spend time with my friends too.

The day my dad dropped of the manual transmission honda, 10 years later that incident still gives me confidence to do new things.

My brother visit at Christmas.  I love you Ehren!

Whiskey!!!! All good things come with whiskey!

Having incredible friends and family that are easy to talk to.

Being able to ride my bike to work everyday for two years and never having to think about it beyond that.

This journey and the people on it with me, the supporters and the contributors, and the companion.

Learning to ride a manual transmission means that most likely one day I will be taking a motorcycle journey with a dear friend of mine, though she doesn't know it yet.

Life is beautiful and glorious everyone, so enjoy the small things, slow down your breath and if you are ever fed up with traffic think about Thailand!  It is pure chaos!