More house hunting, UGH!! - Day #5

It was a better day for us. Better for the kids too. The kids got the day off.
Im jealous. All of them stayed back at the hotel and hung out and enjoyed the
pool and accommodations at the hotel.  Walter and I went and registered at the
school and went house hunting AGAIN.

The school is set and I think they will be really happy at The Regents. Andrew
has a 3 hour entrance exam tomorrow but I'm not worried. Jack just has an
interview which is basically to see if he has a brain ( which I guess could be
questionable sometimes ) and speaks English ( which again could be questionable). Erin already is done when SHE interviewed the head of the IB program. He
already figured out that she will be fine in the program. I think he doesn't
want her to talk anymore and ask 40000 questions. ;) Also her long winded stories
could take all day. She is awesome. How did I get her.

I think we narrowed down our house. It is not quite as WOW as the house with the
indoor pool but it is safe, has a nice yard and a great pool ( one that is
outdoor not indoor).  It is a 4 bedroom with a decent kitchen ( I may have a
hard time cooking a turkey at thanksgiving but it will do). Nothing compares to
my current kitchen. It has a great outdoors area. I really believe that is
important with the climate we live in. It has a large pool with a great deck
around it and a really cool covered Thai patio ( similar to a pa la pa, what you
would find in MX). The "Xbox room" is not so defined but I think the boys will
be happy. One may have to have the TV Xbox in their room. That is still up for
debate. Laundry is another area that is going to be tricky.  First the size of the washer could not even fit Jack inside and a dryer is not available.  Turns out many of the houses don't offer dryers.  Electricity is outrageous that is why.  I am going to have to find a maid quick when we move. 

So strange here is landlords. That is so key to renting the right house. We met
a strange one here. We were seriously considering his house. It was awesome. 3
stories 5 bedroom, huge pool and yard but he did not believe in wireless or a
microwave or a dishwasher. His house was brand new and really spacious but he
was a NUT. Really a NUT. He thought we all would die from the radioactive waves. 
Would not even consider wireless.  Walter was like I work out of the house. He
would only hook up 4 wired Internet cables. I was like how will I read the USA
today on my ipad in my bed at night. Major deal breaker.  It's to bad the house
was perfect. I guess he doesn't need the money.

Walter and I with our realtor went to the Siam Country Club for lunch. It was
beautiful. Pattaya is known for its golf clubs. It is world renown. The food was
just as exceptional. This is a place mom and dad I will bring you. It truly
shows the beauty of this country.

They are all swimming in the hotel pool tonight. It is nice to have a relaxing
evening. It has been really stressful but an important step to the transition.
The kids seem to be doing okay. They have actually been more adventurous then
Walter and I. Ryan and Jack went to the markets yesterday where Ryan bartered
with some woman for some crazy wall hanging. They all went to the family market
today and shopped for some random stuff and swam at the pool. Me on the other
hand am going to go home with out a tan because my time has been spent
in a van sweating to death going from house to house. Oh and Erin gets served.
Nice!  Ryan and Erin think they are sooooo cool. Scary!  Thank goodness Erin
will be going to this extremely strict school with her head buried in the books
studying.

We rode what we refer to as the baht bus yesterday, it is an open taxi.(same as what we rode on Easter to the beach) So strange, think of a pick up truck with seats in the bed and a roof. It is 10
baht around the beach road and 2 nd street. Basically 4 of us rode it for 40
baht which is like a $1.10.

Right now we are being extremely American. It is funny. No one is in the pool
but us. Actually they have cleaned up around us. Think of the nicest hotel in
the US then put the Griswalds there. That's us. I think we have broken every
rule. The only reason they haven't thrown us out is because Walter keeps tipping
everyone which is extremely uncommon here. It is funny. At least we get what we
want. The kids are learning money talks. Sad but true.

No Mojitos tonight at Havanas. I think I will survive. We went last night and
had a blast. Played pool had margarita pizza (it is actually really good thin crust pizza) and drank Mojitos.

I really think it is going to be crazy living here. All I can think is Querétaro
on steroids.  So much bigger and crazy. I may have gone completely nuts to have
agreed to this move. I may have to get a look see trip before we commit next
time . I do think that Querétaro was a good stepping stone for us. Maybe it
prepared us for this adventure. Who knows.

Hope all is good with everyone.
Send me feedback. What do you think? 

Love to all
M

 

 

School Decision Day - Day #4

Rough day but the good news is the kids have chosen a school. Erin and Andrew (Jack didn't get much choice being only in grade 4) chose The Regents which is the largest of the British international schools. It was Walter and my first choice but we wanted the kids to feel secure and be the one to
chose it. Erin was so dedicated to the process we actually spent most of today
at the 2 schools. I'm quite impressed with her and Andrews involvement and how
they wanted to be part of the process of choosing.  Jack stayed back at the hotel with Ryan, poor guy is tired.

We went to see St Andrews school today and wow what a great school but the IB
program is smaller and less choices in classes. Also only about 14 kids would be
in Erin's class. This IB program is extremely rigorous and Erin wanted to make
sure that the school had enough topics for her to choose from that she felt fit
what she wanted.

Going into this school process I had no idea about this IB diploma but wow. IB stands for
The International Baccalaureate® (IB).  It is a non-profit educational foundation, motivated by its mission, focused on the student. The IB Diploma Programme (DP) is an academically challenging and balanced programme of education with final examinations that prepares students, aged 16 to 19, for success at university and life beyond. It has been designed to address the intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being of students. The programme, has gained recognition and respect from the world’s leading universities.  (I didn't write this, stole it from the website. :)

Glad Im not the one going to school.  I would not survive.
Quite impressive with the education level that she will get but lots of pressure
and stress. We were told at all 3 schools how difficult the program is and
finding the right fit is the key. Neither the American school nor the smaller
British school offered Spanish or psychology and that's what she wants to study.
She wants to continue her Spanish.  The high level that she speaks at is quite
impressive.  Also psychology is really important.  She wants to study psychology
in college and go into the medical psychology side so having an IB program in
psychology is huge.  Soon she will be able to explain why we are all so weird.  
Andrew wanted the Regents school from the beginning because of the impressive
music program. He can continue his saxophone study but he will also learn the
guitar and piano. He is very happy with the choice.

Housing is another subject that is just stressful.  ugh. Thank goodness for buy
one get one free Mojitos at Havana's. . We really thought we were settled on the
house with the pool inside but after going back we find some things we were not
thrilled about. To many decisions to make.

More later.
Hope you all had a wonderful Easter
Miss you

The Regent International School campus. 

Easter Sunday - Day #3

It's Easter.  We had great intentions but church never happened for us.  When you are dependant on people some things are just out of your control.  Our driver showed up 1 hour late basically when mass was ending.  We were all dressed up and actually on time.  That is a true feat in itself for us.  :)

We met up with a family from Kalamazoo.  I know Michelle from tennis at the Y.  It was a really fun day.  It will be lots of fun having a family here from the US.  We started with meeting up with them at the end of church and went to their house.  From their house we drove to a great restaurant, Seafood Restaurant on the Sea.  It was so fun and really beautiful.  We ate all kinds of delicious foods and the kids drank from coconuts.  It is crazy as you walk down this long board walk there are tanks full of seafood.  This is where they hold the fresh catch of the day.  All kinds of tanks line the board walk.  When you order they reach in the tanks and grab your catch for cooking.  You can never complain that it is not fresh. 

From the restaurant we headed to the beach.  What an excursion.  We went to the Thailand Naval beach.  I have no idea the name in Thai?  You drive into the secluded area and pay 80 baht per person to ride on the baht bus.  Its funny they have a sign over the window of the ticket counter, 30 baht if your Thai and 80 baht if your a foreigner.  Can you imagine that happening in the US.  Yeah right.  30 baht is basically a dollar and 80 baht is a little more than $2, so we are not talking a lot of money.  The baht bus is a pickup truck.  You might be thinking okay so where does everyone sit, yup in the bed of the truck.  Safe right.  :)  The bed of the pick up truck has 2 benches and a roof and its like sitting in a cage.  These are all over Thailand.  It was so fun.  You ride this thing over the mountains to the beach.  It was a wild ride.  The beach is beautiful.  Water is so warm, really warmer than a bath.  The beach is much bigger here than in Pattaya.  It was rather crowded because Sunday is a holiday, no not Easter for them.   Thailand is a Buddhist Country.  You rent a chair and just relax. 

It was a much needed relaxing day.  Overall thumbs up for everyone. 



The Brinker and Elms family after Easter lunch

The Baht bus

Andrew's lunch

Houses, houses and more houses - Day #2

Sawadee kaa / good morning or actually good evening for you. It's 5:30 am here
actually this is the beginning of day #3 for me but was just to exhausted last
night for my up date. I think my jet lag is getting better. I lasted till about
9:30pm before I went to bed and slept all night until about 5.   Happy Easter!
Yesterday was an exhausting and stressful day. You would think with all the
house shopping I have done in my years it would get easier but it never is and
then throw in 4 kids with an opinion and yikes so much to process.
We started our day with a long walk down beach road. This road runs directly in
front of the beach. This walk was at 7 am bc we were ALL awake. The walk was TO
long. Poor Jack and Andrew they were tired, I don't think it helped the day.  We
did get to see some sights and I'm not talking about objects I'm talking people.
This place is crowded. The prostitutes start early here. The beach in Pattaya is
crowded and very small. I took a few pictures and will attach later. Pattaya is
not a beach I would visit. We are going to a different beach today so I'm
curious.
We looked at about 10 houses and found 1 more to add to our favorites. This
house the kids fell in love with, okay I'll be honest me too.  It has a pool
inside that goes outside. Seriously inside the house was the pool. It was
totally cool, you swam under part of the house and you were outside. It was a
house out of the rich and famous and we are considering it. Which cracks me up.
Seriously though how can you pass up a house like that. When will we ever live
in a house with a pool inside. It's a big pool too no dinky little hot tub. The
house was beautiful. No Thai flair kind of reminded me of Mexico. It had the
most beautiful furniture and the kitchen was incredible. As you can see this
house had some wow factor. The only problem was it was right next to the
security guards house and you had to drive past the people who basically live in
the dirt to get to the neighborhood. The neighborhood is relatively new so
construction is happening and only 7 families live in the complex. The community
is completely secure not that a lot of crime happens in Thailand. Walter has a
bit of a problem with it to because our house will be better than his bosses.
Before we started this house hunting process we were asking to increase our
budget because our realtor said our housing budget was to small for our family
size and now he's like how can I ask for more money for a house that looks like
this. The funny thing is all the houses we looked at were the same price as this
one so any house was more than our budget but because this house is enormous and
has a pool inside Walters feeling a little stressed. The other houses were just
regular and nothing special. We are in a bit of a struggle.  We look at more
houses Monday.

We went to dinner with Walter's bosses wife, her kids and another women Walter
works with. Very nice people. Katie has lived here a little more than a year and
she has 2 small kids, 1 and 4.  Dion her husband is in New Zealand we will meet
him later this week.  Anchon is the other women and she is a Kellogg employee.
She is Thai. Very nice and extremely helpful. She works for Walter and Dion. 
Food is awesome here. I give my kids quite a lot of credit. They try everything.
Ryan ordered oysters tonight and they waitress actually like shows you how to
eat it. You put fresh tamarind on them with this spicy chili and I thought
Ryan's face was going to blow up. Hot like he said so hot he's never experienced
hot. They kids have been eating sushi for breakfast.

After dinner poor Andrew was exhausted. I'm surprised he made the walk home. He
walked into the room and climbed in bed. Erin, Jack and Andrew all in bed at
7:30 when does that happen. I made Walter take me out with Ryan because I had to
force myself to stay awake longer so I would sleep later. It worked. We walked
back down to our now favorite place Havana's. Buy one get one free Mojitos.
Can't beat that. Actually no Mojitos for me just a beer. They had a band playing
and dancers it was very cool.

Ryan is doing well. Poor guy has had some troubles with his ears. I think he has
an ear infection. The plane brought that on. The pressure made his ears all
clogged and now it's an infection. We got him some drops and he has been taking
Tylenol.

Jack is struggling with the TV. Most channels are in Thai, funny how that is. He
has been watching soccer because "you know mom I don't need to know what the
announcer is saying because I know soccer".  He gets frustrated with the tv if
no sports are on.

Andrew is saying way more than 10 words here. He seems to have an opinion about
everything these days. Walter and I said this talking actually might not be a
good thing anymore with all his opinions. :)  He is good but hot. He told me he
sweats to much here. You know mom I just have to walk outside and I sweat. He is
a sweaty kid. I didn't know he could sweat that much.

Erin is great. She will be speaking Thai very soon, thank god bc I will never. It
is hard. It's a very tonal language. Everyone loves her. She tries to learn new
words then tries to speak it with anyone and everyone. It is really funny. We
all want to speak Spanish to everyone. It's so funny. I guess being in a
different country makes us think Spanish.

Today we are meeting a family from Kalamazoo. I play tennis with her at the Y
and she moved here in February. It's weird I know. They are with a different
company. We are going to church with them then a restaurant and then the beach.
More on that later.

That's all I got now. I have to get ready to leave. Katy I'll try to Skype you
later this evening morning our time. Have a great Saturday night. I'm going to
celebrate Easter.

Love to all

M

 Even an Irish bar can be found in Thailand.

 Beach outside our hotel

 Need a drink?  This is one of MANY bars!!

 This is the house with the pool inside.  Nope not the one we chose.

Sawadee Ka - Day #1

Sawadee kaa, thats Thai for hello. The end of our first day here was very
successful. We saw 2 schools ( only one left which we see Monday). Quite
impressed with both schools the kids won't lose on education with either school.

I am experiencing a bit of major jet lag hence it being 1 am here and I am wide
awake.   The time difference is hard to adjust too. I was about ready to fall
over around 2 pm today. I seem to be the only one having issues though the kids
are tired but they have been sleeping.

The first school we saw was the British school, The Regents International School. Very cool and the
campus was impressive. More designed like a college campus and extremely
diverse. They were celebrating their international day so every country that
students are from was represented. Fun to see but not the best to see the true
representation of the school.  We may to go back so the kids can see the school
in actual working form with kids in classrooms. This international day reminded
me of the festival celebrations in Mexico. All the kids were dressed in their
traditional clothes from their country. We were in the Russian room and these
kids did this entire Russian dance to Russian music in traditional Russian
dress. Jack was worried he was going to have to learn that language too.

The American school put their best sales pitch on and were quite impressive. 
Actually I was very impressed but funny my kids saw through it. It actually
might be to American for them.  It is smaller than the British school, for
instance Jacks class has 14 kids total.  This was jacks favorite school. They
did a nice job making him feel very comfortable but he did get his nose bent out
of shape because they did not ask HIM what sports he played. He did not get to
tell them what an awesome soccer player he is. :)   People were very nice. The
neighborhood was beautiful but the houses were old and no private swimming pools
just a community pool which is a deal breaker for the kids.  They want their own
pool.

We see one more school Monday. St Andrews international school ( yes it's
affiliated with the same school princess Kate and prince William attended). It
is the smallest of the three.

We saw a few houses. One we are ready to move into today. It just had the vibe.
I wish I could show you it. Totally cool. The master bedroom shower has no roof.
You look up to the beautiful blue sky. The pool had fountains and a big Buddha
wall display and as Andrew and Jack like to say an "Xbox" room. That  is very
important to them. The house has to have an "Xbox" room. The house had a typical
Thai feel but modern.  If we chose that house I'll take pictures.

The kids feel like the rich and famous here. We are staying in this swanky
hotel. Everything can be done for you if you want. Walter and I went to the
executive happy hour. All free on the 19th floor overlooking the pool and beach
area. No chicken nuggets or nachos served there just traditional thai cuisine. I
cant say I have had a ton of thai food before I came here and YUM. It is
delicious. Half the time I have absolutely no idea what the hell I'm eating nor
can I pronounce it. Today I had something with coconut milk and lemongrass with
chicken, wow it was delicious. Ryan, Andrew, and Jack discovered the swim up bar
in the pool. That is a favorite. Ryan has discovered Singha, the local beer. Yes
he gets served. We told him if he got served he could have a cocktail,
mistake!  He now is ready for Costa Rica because he had his first Mojito
tonight. He thinks he is king of the world. I think he is enjoying himself. He
did not go with us today school and house hunting. He kept himself busy hanging
around the hotel and walked the beach. So funny he told me he went to one of the
restaurants here in the hotel called The Tavern, it's set up like a typical
sports bar.  He ordered a typical Thai dish with seafood which he said was
unbelievable. Well as he was sitting at his table one of the security guards
came over to him and asked to join him. He wanted to speak English. So he taught
Ryan Thai and Ryan taught him English. He said they spoke for about 30 minutes.
To funny only Ryan. Well when we were walking out tonight to go to dinner we are
walking past this security guard and he salutes us. I'm like what's up with
that. Ryan's like he's my friend I had lunch with him. Saluting is a sign of
respect here by anyone in uniform but you do not salute back only say sawadee ka (if your female, sawadee krup if your a male). It was so funny.

We went to a very cool restaurant for dinner called Havana's. Totally eclectic
something out of like NYC. A big huge red chandelier and wing back chairs you
would find in a living room. All wood flooring and trim, very high ceilings,
huge glass doors and windows all open to this outdoor area. Bar was all brick.
Awesome Mojitos. We had pizza, yes pizza and it was very good. The boys played
pool. I can't do this place justice by describing it. I need to go back to
English 101 and learn some new adjectives. This place had a wow factor. Also buy
one get one free drinks, who does that. Seriously, so of course I'm never one to
turn a free drink away I had 2 Mojitos. It was free.  

So did I tell you how HOT thailand is?  Wow it is HOT. They only way is to
compare it to is this past summer in St. Louis. All those ungodly days of over
100*. It reminded me of when we lived in Houston. Well it's not over 100 but it
sure does feel like it. I guess it's summer here now. April and May are the
hottest months. I am not complaining but it does take some getting used to when
we are used to 32* and snow. There is no hope for my hair here. Complete frizz
not even a straightener will help. I am going to have to start sporting a
different do.  My straightener is not helping me anyway because it doesn't work
here. Electricity is completely different.

The kids are good. They are really enjoying the experience. Of course our
realtor loves Erin. Andrew has even come around a bit and is speaking more than
10 words to us.   He actually said that he wants to go to The Regent school
because and I quote " why do I want to go to an American school when I'm living
in Thailand why not get a totally different experience and shake things up a bit
where else would you be able to go to a British school with all these different
people". I was floored and almost fell over.  The music program is exceptional
at both schools but at The regent he could continue his saxophone but also learn
guitar and piano. Also the "round table" ( not quite sure what that means)
theater was like something out of Shakespeare. He loved it.

Well that is all from my day 1. So much to take in it is overwhelming. I would
not trade this for anything. I'm feeling very fortunate that my kids are willing
to take this adventure with Walter and I.

I could write for hours but will spare you  so much to share.
Hope everyone is good where you are.
More tomorrow.
Love to all.
M



Havana's bar

 

 

 

 

The Birthday Boy / 3/28/13

Can't beat a birthday celebrating in Korea and Thailand.  Andrew spent his 12th birthday on an airplane.  We celebrated before we left with a party with his friends and a family dinner.  We gave him special treatment though in the air on the actual day. 

The Korean airport provides some entertainment. 

 Check out the video of the parade of  "The Walk of the Royal Family"

 

 

 

 

Kalamazoo to Thailand 3/27/13

Every transcontinental flight should be this way.  Business Class/ Elite is the way to fly, thanks Big K. Flyin in style, greeted with champagne, more movies than you can watch, a fully reclined chair with down blanket and  2 pillows, full staff to bring you whatever you want, and unlimited food and drinks.  My kids are getting the full treatment.  Could not ask for a better beginning to this journey.