Mar 3 2013

Evil Twin

Filled up my memory on the blog. No funds to buy upgrade. Keep following me at

http://followingachangingmind.blogspot.com/

Please and thank you.

Feb 28 2013

Welcome to the Baht Life: Day Six-Eight

Day Six

Work was mellow, and went by quickly. One of my classes got cancelled so it was a pretty easy day. After work I found out that we were having two more couch surfers coming to stay with us, this time from Hong Kong and Japan. Nick, Kay and I went to the market to buy food and kitchen supplies, so we could make a big dinner for our friends.

Kay is going to slowly teach me how to cook Thai food, so I watched her shop and helped her in the kitchen. We had a bunch of our friends over and they brought alcohol, which saved me having to purchase my own for the evening. For dinner Kay and I made a big pot of Tom Yum soup with goong (shrimp) and Kao Pad Gai (chicken fried rice). Afterwards we went down to the riverside, walked around and then I split ways from the group and met up with some friends at a new club called Cool Club. I didn’t have to purchase anything at the club since I had a small bottle of whiskey that a friend had brought over and I drank it on ice, which I almost never do. We danced and danced while getting stared at by all the Thai people around us, and had a really good time. At one point I was definitely rocking out to Bon Jovi “It’s My Life.” It was one of those moments when I reminded myself…. when in Thailand. I left sometime around 2 am after I had drank my fair share of whiskey, and went home to pass out in my bed.

Day Seven

Around 7 am I was ripped from my much-needed sleep by firecrackers exploding all around my neighborhood. For some reason people felt that was an appropriate time to start the new years celebrations, but my head did not agree. It sounded like a battlefield outside my house, and made going back to sleep impossible. Instead I went out to breakfast at Kay’s café, with Nick and the couch surfers, and Kay made me breakfast and iced coffee for free.

After breakfast, Nick suggested we go to the monkey university, and offered to pay for me since I was close to running out of money. The monkey university is a training college, where monkeys learn to collect coconuts. They got to the university for three months and then get their coconut farming degrees and can go back to the families that they work for.

After spending the afternoon at the monkey college, I came back and tried to get some sleep before going out for the evening. Around eight I went over to a friend’s house to pre-drink before going out for Culture Shock. Culture Shock is a monthly event put on by another teacher, who throws a big party at a bar and has different DJs and it’s more or less a huge party for Westerners. The three-dollar bottle of whisky I bought, along with mixers and putting gas in my bike, left me with less than five dollars (USD) to my name. When I got to GM, the bar where Culture Shock was being held, I realized that I had left my bottle of whiskey at my friends, and so another friend shared her unlimited drink wristband with me. Thats one of the most wonderful things about Thailand. The community I am is generous, giving, and always looking out for one another. I’m realizing that as much as Thailand is my own experience, a big part of it is those you surround yourself with. Good company is essential to enjoying your time abroad.

Day Eight

On Sunday I ended up going over my budget by about $5. I went and picked up a loaf of bread and peanut butter, which is the most expensive thing I normally buy. A bottle of Skippy extra chunky (of course) costs more than a bottle of whisky and mixers. I also had run out of water, and took all of my water jugs to fill up for the week. I hung out around my house ad was really lazy and slept till after lunch, and then watched a movie and did small things around the house. It’s starting to get hotter in Thailand and so my motivation to be active is declining. The temperature is in the low nineties and its only going to head upwards for the next few months. I relaxed and killed time until our couch surfer arrived, ad then I decided to go for a bike ride and invited him to join me. I had wanted to watch the sun set from the top of the city, so he and I went to one of my favorite places in the province. At home, in San Diego, we have this point that I used to go to in high-school, appropriately nicknamed Top of the World. The park I took him to is my Thailand Top of the World. You can see the density of the city that quickly fades into a denser tropical jungle. Pictures do not do the view justice. We watched the sunset and then fed fresh fruit to the monkeys that live there (in cages). We ended the night with dinner at a soup cart which cost me a dollar, and then drinks out with a group of friends, that once again, I was treated to.

Had I not hosted couch surfers three times in one week, I don’t believe I would have gone over my budget. But at the same time, one of the points of this eight day challenge was to demonstrate how much you can do with a ten dollar a day budget. I still went out almost every night, and didn’t really have to cut any concerns. However, I am surrounded by very generous friends who al treated me throughout the week, and I could not be more grateful for the awesome people in my life. It was hard to stay as detailed as I would have liked to have been, but i hope this offered you a small picture of what life is like living and working in Thailand. It is far from any experience you would have traveling here as a backpacker, but I love everyday of it and look forward to all that is still yet to come.

Feb 12 2013

Welcome to the Baht Life- Day Three/Four/Five

Day Three

I started my morning off the way I do almost everyday, with a peanut butter sandwich and some fruit. I had all of the above, so I didn’t need to spend any money on breakfast. On the way to work I stopped and grabbed two Redbulls (20 baht/ $.67), to prepare for the energy drain that tiny children are. Also, please note that Redbull is $.33 in Thailand. I do not know how it is possible that it is actually cheaper than a bottle of water.

Work on Tuesday was really easy because my three hour-long preschool class was cancelled. That left me with two teaching hours with kindergarten, in a seven-hour work day (turns out I didn’t need to drink both energy drinks). I used some of the free time to lesson plan, but mostly messed around on the internet and skyped with friends and family. Unfortunately, lunch was fried rice with eggs and another dish I didn’t like, so I went and picked up lunch from a curry woman down the street from my school. The lunch I picked up ended up not being so great either and so a lot of it got wasted (40 baht/ $1.34). The biggest difference between meat dishes in Thailand and meat dishes in America is that in Thailand, everything gets thrown in the pot. After I saw what seemed to be like some large vein or vessel in my curry I was pretty turned off. It was a friend’s birthday at work, so I left during my break and picked her up a birthday cake from Nick and I (80 baht/ $2.68).

After work at the elementary school, I went to meet up with a friend that I study with a couple days a week until evening hours. On the days I meet with her, I dont return home for eleven hours, and I’m pretty burned out by the time I do. After stopping to pick up dinner for Boobay and Kao-Home, my rabbits (60 baht/$2), I came home exhausted. I was debating what to do for dinner for myself, when Kay invited me out with her friends. I told her it wasn’t in my budget but she insisted on paying for me, so I ended up going to mookata with Nick, Kay and another couple.

A mookata style dinner involves a hot bucket of coals in the middle of the table, that burn under a pot and griddle. There is a giant buffet line where you choose the vegetables, meats, noodles, spices and herbs that will go into the pot. The dinner I cooked consisted of pork, chicken, baby corn, noodles, morning glory, cabbage, and various types of mushrooms, all in a delicious broth that I poured over a bed of green noodles. We also had a beer tower, which is exactly what it sounds like. It stands at about 2 1/2 feet tall and the core is an ice cube surrounded by beer. We had an amazing dinner, which I could not have afforded to attend, were it not for Kay’s generosity. A dinner style meal like this normally runs about 140 baht ($4.70), beer not included. It’s a good deal if you are looking for a wide arrangement of food, and more importantly want to eat dinner in a way that is different from the normal routine.

After dinner we went back to the house to drink some more, and finish my preschool project, and I picked up a small bottle of whisky to share. The whisky I find myself most commonly drinking is Hong Tong, which runs 110 baht ($3.68) for a fifth sized bottle. It’s not too bad, but I don’t know if I will ever drink whisky again after my year in Thailand. It’s all I have had since leaving America.

(Using peanut butter jars for drinking cups, and alcohol bottles for water painting glasses.)

Total- 310 baht ($10.37)

Day Four

On Wednesday morning as Nick and I were pulling out the garage, I challenged him to a race. We took separate courses to work and raced one another through the back streets and alleyways of Surat Thani. Although I lost and probably wasted gas, it woke me up with a little adrenaline rush, and got me ready to start my day. I arrived at work and went through the regular motions of the day. Preschool-kindergarten-kindergarten-and more preschool after the lunch break. I brought in my cat piano that I finished, and introduced it to the preschoolers, who seemed to like it.

When work got out I went to study with my friend and was with her until almost seven. Afterwards, I went to meet a girlfriend for dinner at a restaurant she wanted to take me to, and I had a nice dinner with a beer. I should have explained my budget to her, because I realized once I saw the menu, that most of the dishes were not within my price range. Even with a beer and appetizer, the meal itself was under $10, but hardly. On my way home I stopped for a bit of gas, which would last me until the weekend (50 baht/$1.67), and then arrived home at an empty house. Hanging on my doorknob was a dinner that Nick and Kay brought home for me from the market, and so I put it in the fridge for breakfast the next day. I worked on some student plans and then slipped away into a much needed sleep.

Total- 270 baht ($9.04)

Day Five

Upon arrival at work on Thursday, I learned that it was Sports Day. It was a day where most classes were cancelled, so that students could watch sports competitions taking place on the fields outside. Often I arrive at work to discover I will not be teaching or classes will be cancelled, due to some event that the foreign teachers were unaware of.

The first half of my morning consisted of taking my nursery class for a half hour walk around the school to practice standing in a line and walking with your hands on someone’s shoulders. This was a total disaster. After the nursery I went to my next class, which is grade 4 in the government school. My school is divided into two parts, the private English program and the government side. The EP is for students who pay an extremely high tuition to be in a setting where native English speakers teach the majority of your teachers. They have nice facilities, newer resources, and get a better education because they’re paying a high price for it. The government side is a normal Thai school. The class size is twice as big, and the classrooms are filled with only desks and notebooks that are stacked along the wall on the floor. Often the air conditioner is not working and the classrooms are in pretty bad shape. I have three government classes, second grade, fourth grade and sixth grade, and I see them each for an hour every week. Their English level is very low and some of them are at a similar level as my kindergarten students in the English program.

When I arrived at my P4 class, only a few students were in the room, and the rest were out at Sports Day. I figured since this was their only hour of English each week I would hang around and spend some time with them. I let them teach me the card game they were playing, Circus, which turned out to be exactly like Uno. I was still like an English lesson, because they had to explain the game and rules to me, which required them to speak as we played. It was perfect because I got to know a few students more than I normally would, and since it was a relaxed atmosphere, they weren’t as nervous as they normally are about speaking with me. After spending the hour with those students, I returned to my office, and had the rest of the day free.

That evening we had a couch surfer from Russia come to stay with us, and we took her out to Koh Lampoh to watch the sunset and then to the night market. She was only in Thailand for a few days, and wanted to try a lot of different Thai foods, so we took turns buying and trying different things (50 baht/$1.67). After that we went for dinner and drinks with a group of friends at the pier, and had a really nice night (140 baht/$4.69). The whole town is decorated for Chinese New Year, and we walked around checking out all of the lanterns and food stalls with Chinese treats (30 baht/$1).

Total- 210 Baht ($7.03)

Feb 12 2013

Welcome to the Baht Life: Day One/Two

Day One

Sunday was the first day of my eight day, ten dollar budget. I enjoyed having the house to myself, as Nick was out of town teaching an English camp. Yes, the kids here spend their weekends at camps where the goal is to learn English outside of their English classes and English private tutoring. I spent Sunday doing the things I always need to do but manage to put off. I cleaned my room, organized my ever-growing pile of student work, and took care of my laundry before that pile got any larger. My parents sent me an envelope full of newspaper articles from San Diego, so stretched out on my bed and caught up with some of the current events at home. I found the selection they chose to send me interesting, as much of it focused on ridiculous stories, such as “Man leaves infant with Pit-bull as babysitter.” Also included was a picture of them in the newspaper, from a dress-your-dog-up Christmas parade. And last but not least, the papers for my student loan; a reminder that although I am on the other side of the world, I have not be able to shake free of my responsibilities back home.

I finished the articles and attempted to continue reading a book I have been struggling to get through for the past two months. The book is “100 Years Of Solitude,” which has amazing reviews and won a Noble Peace Prize. I pick it up at least three nights a week, but somehow only manage to make it through maybe ten pages before falling asleep. This was the case for Sunday as well. I was only a half chapter in when I passed out, and spent the next two hours of my Sunday afternoon napping in my warm bedroom. When I awoke, the weather had cooled down and I figured I should try and get outside and enjoy the rest of my day. I rode my bike down to Koh Lampuh, a big park in Surat Thani. The park is located on a small island, surrounded by the river. It is a beautiful place to work out, take a walk, play music, read, enjoy the sunset or people watch. I have used it for all aforementioned reasons, except that rather than playing music I was entertained by Nick and some friends, when they decided to have a jam session one Friday evening.

After spending a few hours in the park, I went to the Sunday night market to pick up dinner. For dinner I grabbed pad thai and chicken skewers (60 baht/$2).

After the market I went back home and started a project for my preschool class. One of the biggest differences about my preschool classroom, and American classrooms I have worked in, is the lack of visual learning aids on the wall. I decided to make a giant counting chart for the kids, so that they could touch the numbers as I said them. After hanging out with Nick and his girlfriend Kay, I called it a day and went to sleep.

Total- 60 baht ($2)

Day Two

The arrival of Monday meant the beginning of the workweek. I have to be at work by 8 am, I get an hour lunch break and an hour break to plan, and by 3:30 I am riding my bike home. It’s a quick workday that is over before you know it. My school also provides me with free lunch, which helps with budgeting, as long as the meal doesn’t include eggs. Anyone who knows me, knows that the one thing I hate more than anything in the world is egg. The smell, the taste, the sight, and the fact that it is a liquid animal within a shell. I do not understand why I am one of the only people I have ever known that thinks there is something wrong with that.

(Normal school lunch- Noodles with meat and veggies on a giant prison tray.)

Planning for classes this week was easy, because I decided to structure my lessons around “Red Fish, Blue Fish, One Fish, Two Fish,” by Dr. Seuss. I read the book to my kinder class, and had them point at different pictures and explain to me why they were silly. I left work early because I had to go to the immigration office and get my passport stamped, for a thirty-day extension. (I will not be including this cost in my budget, as it is not a normal expense of my daily life). The immigration office is an official Thai government building, and I don’t know why, but I was surprised by the condition of it. From the outside the building is part of this giant complex in traditional Thai architecture, but the inside was old, worn out, with years of dirt on the walls, and damage to the ground and doors.

Of course, I was the only Westerner in the entire building, and all the other immigrants stared at me like I was from another planet. The immigration office was packed to capacity with Burmese and myself, all waiting to have our passports stamped. There was a service window, and rather than a single file line, there was a cluster of people all shoving one another to get access to it. As I waited at the back of the mob, I wondered if when I got to the front if people would shove up against me as well and crush me in the sea of bodies.

After about twenty minutes of standing there, debating if I should move up, I realized there were another room and a sign that said “one stop visa renewal.” I wiggled my way through the crowd and walked into the next office. There I sat at a desk and waited for the woman to simply stamp my passport. I watched the clock pass over an hour, as she continued to tell me, “just one moment please.” I was patient because by the looks of the leaning towers of paper and folders on her desk, she had a lot of other work she had to do, and was probably having a long day. I sat quietly and looked around the office. Seated next to me was a mother with a baby that was naked. I wondered why she would take a naked baby, especially with no diaper, to a government office to do immigration paperwork? There are things you see here, that you just wouldn’t in the States.

After immigration, I went to a coffee shop and had a smoothie (50 baht/ $1.67) and worked on some lesson plans. I stopped by my neighborhood night market and picked up dinner and some more fresh fruit (80 baht/ $2.68), and some candy as rewards for my students (100 baht/$3.35).

That evening Nick had company over, and we had a few drinks as we talked and swapped music videos from America and Thailand. I had a half bottle of whisky in the freezer, and Nick picked me up mixers, so I didn’t need to spend any money on that.

Total- 270 Baht ($9.04)

Feb 4 2013

Written By My Father

THE CHERRY BLOSSOM TREE

“No, honey, over there.” “Where,” said Mark impatiently? “Over there,” said Deborah pointing to a distinct spot on the lawn. “Three steps to your right and a step closer to the bird bath.” Mark, in no mood to argue, took three deliberate steps to his right, stopped, and took one full pace toward the bird bath, like someone pacing off steps while reading a treasure map. Deborah, not amused with this unnecessary bit of theatrics, said, “that’s fine.” Mark leaned on the new shovel, part of the garden tool set I had given him as a house-warming gift. He stepped on the edge and watched the sharp, clean blade disappear into the Virginia soil. His soil.
That was soon after I first met Mark and Deborah. They moved into the house next to me and seemed like very nice people. After years of renting in the busy hubbub that is Alexandria, an upscale city near Washington, D.C., Mark and Deborah finally had a house of their own in Stafford Courthouse. A real home. A long commute for Mark, but with a commuter rail station not far, not too bad at all. Although, it wasn’t looking that way to Mark right now. He felt like he had a million other chores to turn to on this forty-year-old house, and planting this tree today was not high on his priority list. But he knew better than put up too much of objection to Deborah, or Deb, as he called her. After all, it was he who was captivated by the beauty of the Japanese Cherry Blossom trees after first seeing them when he arrived in Washington, D.C. nearly twenty years earlier.
Mark was an attorney right out of law school when he saw an entry position in D.C. Born and raised in the farm country of eastern Ohio, this seemed like a wonderful opportunity in life – too exciting to pass up. After all, if things didn’t work out, he was only a day’s drive from his hometown. He could always return and start his practice close to family and friends. But things did work out for Mark. He landed a nice position at the Department of Agriculture and started his career.
The summer of his second year, a young co-ed came to intern in the office of his department chief. She, Deborah, was a senior at Georgetown University. At first he did not pay much attention to her. Presumed she was the privileged offspring from a wealthy family from Connecticut or Boston or such. Spend a summer doing pedestrian service before launching off to grad school. But he was wrong. Deborah wasn’t just mingling with the working class, as he thought. She flat out needed the money.
Deb was raised by a single mom; not by choice, but by death. Her father was killed in an auto accident driving back to Silver Spring, Maryland on the New Jersey Turnpike one December evening. Hit a patch of “black ice” according to the police report, and ran his Oldsmobile right through the guard rail and into sign post. Deb was eleven. Her mother never let her use that as an excuse or to feel sorry for herself. Quite the contrary, she used this tragic event to drive and motivate her daughter to excel. Never settle for good enough she told her. And she didn’t. A stellar student through school, getting into Georgetown was not the hard part. Paying for it was. So the summer internship was not a growth experience – it was a job.
As the summer passed, Mark took an interest in this impressive, and pretty, girl. Toward the end of the summer a group in his office was going out for drinks after work and Mark thought it the perfect opportunity to ask Deb to go along. Not quite a date, just an office social he thought. By now, he was really taking a liking to her and had wanted to ask her out. This occasion seemed tailor made. When she declined his offer, he was more than a little deflated. But, she quickly countered with the offer to take a walk, a “stroll” as she called it. He was relieved and amused; “stroll” was a word he would have heard in rural Ohio, not Washington, D.C. It turned out that she was more than a little interested in this tall, young lawyer and she did not want to be disturbed by the predictable office chatter from co-workers. She wanted his undivided attention. She suggested a walk around the Tidal Basin, a tree-lined body of water by the Jefferson Memorial, not far from their building. A cherry tree- lined body of water. Mark tried fondly to remember that moment, their first date, as he dug the hole for new tree.

That was Mark and Deb’s first summer in the house. Our friendship grew, the cherry blossom tree grew, and five years passed. I was the first to notice it, in the spring. Not terribly obvious, but there it was just the same. After five years of flourishing and healthy growth, the tree showed signs that something was wrong. The yearly expansion of new growth on the branches seemed noticeably less than in years past. And the stunning explosion of the cherry blossoms, while still spectacular, was again less than before. Priding myself in more than a little knowledge in gardening, I logically tried to figure out the cause. Too little water? No, we had had a wet spring. Soil lacking in nutrients? No, Mark had fertilized his plantings in the fall, just like the book says. I looked around the rest of his yard and viewed healthy azaleas and dogwood trees that were so beautiful that they adorned his lawn like jewelry. While somewhat stunted, the cherry tree grew on and I never mentioned my observation to Mark.

That summer when was when Deb was diagnosed with cancer. I remember being stunned when I heard the news. She was only in her forties. “Thank God they caught it early,” I said to Mark awkwardly. I really didn’t know what to say. She immediately started her chemo treatments and everything seemed normal again. Deb looked the same and, if anything, seemed more “alive” than before. No one ever brought up the topic for it was as if she refused to even acknowledge that she had cancer. Over time, however, in a casual conversation she would slip in an occasional reference to her “markers” being better than expected. Deb was not used to losing and in the winter proudly proclaimed that she would beat cancer. We all wanted to believe her.

The next spring, the little cherry tree was clearly in distress. It was only half itself from previous years. I could not help but to see the struggle in this beautiful tree. Normally, I would have spoken to Mark about it. You know, “Hey Mark, what’s going on with the cherry blossom?”, as if we could take some action to rescue it. It was too nice a tree to lose. But given the circumstances, I never addressed it with him. Poor Mark was now knee-deep in the cancer battle that Deb, for the first time, appeared to be losing. At least, that’s the way it looked to me. Now, Deb barely let on that she was sick and Mark never much talked about it. I guess that’s part of our human defense mechanism; when something is too traumatic to address, we don’t.

The seasons passed from spring through summer, and in the fall, the little cherry tree lost its leaves for the last time. Before Christmas, I visited Mark and Deb. It was too late to deny the obvious. Deb was now very sick and the seriousness of the situation seemed to finally hit her. It had started to snow, and as she sat by the window overlooking her front yard, she revealed that today was the day her father had died. She looked at the snow falling, falling on the cherry tree, and she started to cry.

I never saw Deb again. A few days later, while shoveling snow from my sidewalk, Mark came out and told me that they were stopping all medical treatments. I felt so sad I couldn’t move. Just frozen, standing in the snow. Three weeks later, Deb died at home.

I feel guilty now, because a year before her death I fostered this theory that when the cherry tree died, Deb would succumb to the cancer. I obviously could not share my morbid theory with Mark, and felt a little ashamed of myself for even thinking it. I don’t know why, it wasn’t my fault, but I felt it just the same.

Sadly, I don’t see Mark much anymore. I’ve asked him to join us a couple of times for drinks or a cookout in the two years since Deb’s passing, but he always feebly declines. He is truly living by himself now and I feel sorry for him. But there is one thing I will never forget, and it troubles me to this day. It was only a week after the memorial service. That spring, when life renews from the dormancy of winter, the little tree produced no leaves or sprouts at all. And on a Saturday morning in early March, in a soft and peaceful Virginia rain, Mark went out to his front yard and cut down the lifeless cherry blossom tree.

Feb 2 2013

Welcome to the Baht Life

Last night, I was inspired by a friend’s blog post, in which he declared he was going to live for ten days in Washington DC on one hundred dollars. It may sound like a good chunk of money, but after living in the city last fall, I know that a hundred dollars hardly gets you half way through the week.

A year after leaving DC, I have relocated to Southern Thailand, where money goes a lot further (which is great, since you make a lot less). With a week until pay day, and less than a hundred dollars to my name, I decided to copy his idea.

I am starting with 2,365 baht, which is the equivalent to 79.38 USD. I will track my week, from Sunday to Monday (eight days), and document the ways that I spend money and live my life on less than eighty dollars. I chose eight days because his goal is to show how you can live on ten dollars a day, and I would like to offer the same, except from the life of someone living abroad.

To be fair, my fridge has a loaf of bread, some sandwich meat, and a drawer full of fresh fruit and a few vegetables. My motorbike has a half tank of gas, and my water jug is empty. Living in a country where the water is not safe to drink means that I must constantly be either filling up water containers or buying water bottles. While water is still cheap, it adds up quickly when you’re doing it daily, and consume as much as I do.

Rent is the only expense that will not be included in this week’s budget. Just to give you an estimate of what life costs here, I rent the master in a two bedroom/ two bathroom/ fully furnished house, and pay 4,500 baht ($151) a month.

This week I will find productive and creative ways to spend my time, that allow me to avoid spending as much money as I normally would. I will avoid nicer restaurants, going out for drinks, and buying items I don’t need. To save gas I will also be making a conscious effort to walk to places I would normally use my bike to get to.

The house that I have been living in was under construction since late November, and it was only just completed in the last few days. Now that it is finished, Nick, who is wonderful housemate, and I can make it our home. Decorating with the limited supplies we have, will provide me with a way to fill time. I will also post pictures of before and after, so you can see my Thailand home.

There is an Olympic sized pool up the street from me that I can swim in for a little more than a dollar a day, and a park down by the river, where I can lay out and spend my day reading and writing.

I am also taking inspiration from my friend’s idea to track his progress on a painting he is working on. In order to save money, he will fill some of his free time with the canvas, and hopefully complete it by the end of the week. I too will start some type of picture, whether it is a drawing or painting, and dedicate my evenings to it. I will also share the activities I plan for my students and any art projects I prepare for them.

As life so often has a funny way of working, living on a budget this week comes at an ideal time. I recently found out that the school I work for is closed the second week of February. However, my agency has mandatory on call office hours, and if we choose to be unavailable, we will be penalized a day of pay for each time. I was planning on using this week to meet up with a friend who is in Thailand, and spend the week in the islands with her. A normal weekly budget for me is around $100-$150, depending on how often I go out, or what unexpected costs arise. Saving money this week, so that I will be able to afford to take a few days off, will work out perfectly. As I mentioned earlier, I also don’t have much of a choice, since this is what I have until the 9^th.

I hope you enjoy the photos of my daily life, and more so, that this inspires some of you to leave your jobs at home, and come live a life style where you can afford to live on such a small amount of money, while not living without any of the normal comforts of life as you know it.

Feel free to check out The Dandygram, and see how Trevor does this week!

http://thedandygram.blogspot.com/2013/02/living-on-100-for-10-days.html

It will also offer an insight to how one lives in one of America’s most expensive cities, compared to life in an emerging country.

Jan 30 2013

Looking Forward

There is something within me that keeps pushing me. Driving me forward. Forcing me to uproot myself over and over. There is a pulse in my body that can not be calmed. A hunger I cannot satisfy. I want to see everything. Be everywhere. Feel the earth around the world. Lose myself again and again.

I am looking for more.

My mind is always a day ahead of tomorrow.

Jan 28 2013

When Life Started Looking Different

This morning I was playing on the playground in the sandbox, with my preschool class, and I noticed something floating in the air. The sun was shining in a way that created a beam of light in front of me, and in it I saw millions of illuminated little flicks of glitter floating in the air. I looked down and realized that the kids playing in the sand had stirred it from its resting place, sent it flying freely into the air. My hands, as well as the children’s’, were coated in the same gold flakes. What a beautiful (preschool) life this is.