Moving

Today is moving day. There are a million things to do, but I'm taking a few quiet minutes to mark this place in time. I just sent the schoolchildren off this morning with a long last look, and in less than 3 hours this space will be a jumble of movers. Today marks a move toward simplicity, space, outside play...so many good things. Walking to school after two years of commuting- amazing. We're all excited. It's clearly time. We took a little time last night to do one of our moving traditions- looking back, saying goodbye. With cake. And a sign made by my favorite 5 year old.

This space we've inhabited for two years has been very good to us. We've learned to be Bangkok urbanites, with all of the inherent perks and challenges. Riding elevators, trains, taxis, buses, tuk tuks...all in the regular course of things. Walking to great Japanese noodle shops, the grocery store and the park. Massage or manicure? Down the street. A sweet sewing man just outside our building who stitches anything up with a gentle smile for about three dollars. Guards that work all around our building whom we will truly miss. The couple down the way who makes somtam and always greets us so kindly. A street constantly backed up with exhaust-pumping traffic, often making road travel highly inadvisable. The frustration of knowing we live just over there, but we can't get there in any sort of timely manner because of the thousands of other people who are simultaneously trying to maneuver vehicles in the same direction.

I doubt that we will ever again live within easy walking distance to four 7-11 stores and 3 Starbucks.

This home has seen many, many joyful family times- movie nights, Saturday morning coffee and Scrabble games, birthday parties and wild rumpuses. It's seen tears and frustration. Dinners with old and new friends, meetings and times of worship. We open our hands in thanks for what we have been given, and look with anticipation to what is to come.

saying farewell to home- with the sign that Ju made

current view- we've descended into chaos

A Little Different

I find that after a while I begin to think of our lives here as basically the same as they would be in our home culture, and that is true of a lot of rhythms of home, etc. But then we go back to the U.S. and I see that land with fresh eyes and realize again that the two places are quite distinct.

Here are a couple of recent pictures that stood out to me as illustrative of some of the unique experiences of these three...

Monday mid-mornings usually find Ju and I walking down the street to the big mall, under an umbrella to shield us from the scorching sun. We ride the escalators up to the fifth floor, toting our beloved reusable bags from favorite Atlanta grocery stores, and do our weekly grocery shopping. It's an excellent store (albeit a bit expensive), with an entire aisle of Japanese food products, a hot soup bar and an impressive selection of clothing for pets. When our shopping has been done, Julian has collected his usual samples (baked ham and rice cakes, with the occasional offer of a barley drink or raw salmon), and our cart is loaded, we push it to the elevator, take it to the ground floor and wheel through the fancy make-up section of the upscale department store, to the door where taxis wait. We walk through the door to the salute of the guard that we know well after two years, a kind attendant loads the taxi trunk with our bags, and we take a short ride home. Upon arrival at our building, one of our friendly guards brings a shopping cart from the lobby and loads it with our bags. We then get on to the elevator with our loaded cart, take it to the seventh floor, wheel it into our apartment and straight in to the kitchen, where the groceries are unloaded and put away. Recently Julian has taken to building himself a cozy lunch nest (lunch- sticky rice, grilled pork on a stick, fruit and veggies) before the cart is sent back down on the elevator.

Makes me laugh- sometimes when I stand back, I realize how different so many of their childhood experiences are from my own...

...and in that vein, look at these sweet hill tribe siblings on Thai culture day at school!