Getting Settled

The entrance to my school. More pictures of inside coming soon.

We arrived in Bangkok late last Friday and have been getting more and more settled everyday. Our first night was spent at the airport hotel, but then we have been in our temporary housing since Saturday afternoon. Besides for only luke warm showers, it has met our needs thus far.

On Sunday we spent a day exploring, including getting some errands run. Greg has a work phone to use, but we bought me one at the large Pantip Complex. It turns out I bought a knock-off iPhone. We are aren't sure if it will be my permanent phone or if I will upgrade and get a not so cheap phone that I can rely on. Whatever the case, I will keep my SIM card and keep my phone number. We also did some grocery shopping and found out that making spaghetti with Prego Sauce will run us about the same as ordering room service for dinner. Tonight we are having street food :-)

Work is going well for both of us. Greg's commute to work is taking longer than expected, while the journey home is about an hour. Right now HTI has arranged a driver for him. He leaves around 6:30 to return around 6pm. It is a long day, but at least he can spend 2+ hours in the car unwinding or continuing to work.

My work is going well. I have been given my curriculum and expectations for teaching. I have met my assistant, Ms. Pu, and begun getting my classroom ready for the school year. Right now I will have only 11 students. I have met my other co-workers Ms. Tracy and Ms. Katie who are respectfully from Britain and New Zealand.

Ok, that's a short update. On Thursday I will try to post more. Both Greg and I have off that day, in honour (practicing my British spelling) of the Queen's Birthday. It is Mother's Day!

Good Bye Hutch

This week as been a blur. We still don't think it's a real deal, but the truth is tomorrow we are leaving the country and moving to Thailand.

We realize that in the past months, weeks, and days we haven't had a chance to see and talk to everyone that reads this blog. We apologize if you are one of those people. While sometimes the world seems small, it also is so big and lives are busy. We hope you understand.

If you've wondered how everything went this week, here's a glimpse....
MONDAY: As the mover's packed we tried not to be in the way. Greg played SimCity on the computer and I read on my Kindle. They packed the couches last.

They made staging area on the deck. It was a hot day out so we provided some Gatorade!

TUESDAY: The cleaning started. The last thing we did was shampoo the carpets. Our friend, Brooke, let us borrow her shampooer!
The final product: One clean apartment!

One final picture. Just as we are leaving town, our friends Brooke and Andy got a new puppy. He's so cute that I had to post a picture. Here is Croix Thrall :-)

The Final Days

Our living room has become more like a storage closet. Along the wall are things from the bookshelf and items that Greg's boss's wife recommend to buy here because they are unavailable in Thailand or really expensive.All of our wall hangings are ready to be packed.

A wonderful breakfast, using up the last of our eggs, salsa, cheese and sour cream.

Just to keep everyone informed, here are what our final days have and will look like.

Thursday: Greg had his last softball game. Our friends Jen and Dave came from the cities and picked up our book shelf.

Last night (Friday)- Took down all pictures and patched nail holes, enjoyed a few beverages as we need to empty our liquor cabinet (no liquids in the shipping container), took down train set, made a list of things still to do!

Today- Ran errands, Greg is train watching, I'm going to go through some school stuff, enjoy some time with friends tonight at a bonfire.

Sunday- Say goodbye to people at church, finish designating air shipment things, take apart TV and stereo cords, pack our suitcases (2 each) for everything we'll take on the plane and use the rest of the week. Finish up our perishable food. This is our last night at 138 Main St. North.

Monday- Movers come and pack (maybe load). We check into a local hotel for the rest of the week, The Best Western Victorian Inn. This is the last day for our cell phones. Monday night we go to the cities to see some of Greg's grad school friends for dinner.

Tuesday- Movers load everything and we start cleaning!

Wednesday- Finish up cleaning, check out with our landlord (hopefully get our deposit back) and possibly do one more round of wash. Wednesday night we are hosting "The Last Supper" at the local VFW for wings and beer.

Thursday- Greg's co-worker Eric will be in town from Eau Claire and will drop us off at the airport on his way home. Our flight leaves at 3:20.

Let the Countdown Begin

In 7 days we will head to the airport with a 1 way ticket to Thailand. Wow, it's hard to believe it's finally this close.

Yesterday we received our visas in the mail that will allow us to enter the country and allow us to both apply for work visas. It was a lot of paperwork to put together, but everything must have looked alright because we were approved. If you come and visit us you don't have to apply for a special visa, you just need your passport!

This past week both my mom and dad made trips here to MN and have helped a lot. We are storing quite a bit of stuff at my moms and my dad just left with our last load. Good-bye winter clothing, hair straightener, microwave, and we almost forgot to include our creme brule torch. (no flammables in the shipping container) Whatever is left we are either moving or still trying to sell. Our last resort for selling things is taking them down to the Pawn Shop below!

We are still in the process of designating what gets put in our shipping container, what should be sent in our air shipment, and what should we try to fit into our suitcases (we are each allowed 2 checked and 1 carry on) This weekend will be spent getting ready for the movers on Monday.

Next Monday-Wednesday we will be staying at a hotel here in town. The movers come Monday and they are planned to be done loading on Tuesday. The cleaning will begin as soon as everything is out and we'll say goodbye to our first home together.

Oh yeah, our phones will be off starting next Tuesday. If you need to get a hold us we are on skype now! Our name is Greg and Mary MacLeod.

A Note from Greg... Last Times

Lots of "this is the last time" events going on in our lives right now (or at least the last time for a while).

We had a good trip to Iowa over the weekend and got to enjoy time with friends and family (including Em and David). This was the last time seeing many people and visiting Marion for a while.

Driving down on Friday was a strange experience and will be a good way to remember Iowa for the next couple of years. With all the rain we've had in the midwest things are very green and there are more wildflowers along the roads than I've ever seen before. The highway ditches are a rainbow of colors. We also paced a large thunderstorm through northern Iowa that made for a great sunset with spectacular cloud formations and lots of lighting. The radio announcer out of Mason City even had a classic Iowa weather weatherman quote. "... this is a very dangerous storm. Besides producing multiple tornadoes there is golf ball size hail, and some very remarkable continuous lightning!" I did see a great many short bursts of electricity all around the storm, but I failed to spot the continuous lighting bolt. I must admit that would be a remarkable sight!

Sunday on our way back to Hutch we intercepted a westbound DME train in Mankato. I have a shot just west of town on railpictures. DME power and six SD40-2s in a single consist are both possible last time events. See the picture above.

At the time I didn't realize it, but this would also be the last train my Saturn would chase. It sold Tuesday night.

Mary's Saturn is hanging around a bit longer. It sold last night as well, but we reduced the price a few hundred $ in order to keep possession of it for 2 more weeks. A family going through hard times due to recent hospital layoffs in Hutch is selling a pair of trucks and acquiring our Saturns in order to save money. Our cars get to stay together.

Last night we had all the Thai engineers over for dinner. I grilled chicken wings for the last time. The grill is now sold.

Today is my last day working with my best friend at work and cubicle neighbor (Jared). He is leaving HTI (probably because I'm moving to Thailand and he'll miss me so much that he just couldn't bare coming to work any more)

There have been many other "last times" lately, but I think that covers the noteworthy ones.

Gittin R Done

Greg said good-bye to his car last night. He has had it since high-school.

With the move date only 15 days away we are busy trying to get everything done. Since we are not sure of the exact size our apartment will be, we are erroring on the side of caution and bringing less furniture than what we originally thought. This we have sold our futon, our filing cabinets, our office chair, a number of textbooks, and our grill.

We have also sold both our cars! Yesterday I guy came over on the recommendation of his boss (whom we know from church) and bought Greg's car. 15 minutes later his wife stopped by and said they wanted mine too! Last night they took Greg's car away and right before we move they will come and take mine. It was a meant to be situation. They had recently suffered a layoff and needed a reliable cheaper car to get around, plus they have a 16 year old who will drive it. It was a sad moment for Greg, but it was fun to get all the cash!



We still have a number of things to do, but our list is getting smaller. Our last few days we may be without a phone, but we will manage. For those of you that may be interested, we now have Skype. Our Skype name is gregandmarymacleod.



Let us know if you are in need of a coffee table and end tables or a TV stand!

Move Date: August 5th

This is us in Lumpini Park.

Greg came home yesterday with some great news, he gets to move with me! Our offical move date is now August 5th. We will both begin work on Monday August 9th. As we get our housing finalized, we'll let you know.

We have a lot to do in the next 3 weeks including: sell 2 cars, take some things to Iowa for storage, say good-bye to some great friends, try to sell some things we're going to get rid of, designate what we want in our air-shipment, get our visas (stuff is the mail) and clean out all of our food!