Long-time readers might still remember the time I started posting about my Thai life on Paknamweb back in 2004, even before the existence of this Thai-blogs community. You have been with me through many ups and downs of my life here, so I want to share with you the recent events that will bring about some of the greatest changes in my life. 🙂
European interlude
My girlfriend Cherry and I are about to leave Thailand. Only temporarily though. 😉 Cherry is going to France for a few days, where she will present her research work on an international science conference in Paris. Afterwards, she’ll spend the next six months doing research at a London university, as the final part of her PhD program.
I will use this time to go back to Hungary for a long-overdue family reunion. I haven’t seen them for the last seven years! After the five years in the US at the uni, and now the two years here in Thailand, I really want to see my family again. 🙂
We’ll leave sometime in June. As you can imagine, we’re quite excited, and very busy with preparation. We cleared most obstacles already, but some necessities are yet to be done. This evening we’ll leave Chiang Mai on a Bangkok-bound bus (trains don’t leave CM because of the flood). In Bangkok, we’ll apply for the French and UK visas for Cherry. It took a while to get all the evidence together, and we had it checked with the local consulate to be sure, but you never know… so let’s just keep our fingers crossed! 🙂
I will keep writing to Thai-blogs and Thaiwonders even from Europe. I have more than two years worth of Thailand memories; that should easily last for six months, lol.
Reflections
To move to Thailand was the best decision of my life. I learned much, not only about the wonderful local lifestyle, culture and values, but also about myself. I believe that my life turned out to be better than what I could’ve ever have in the US, had I stayed there for the additional five-six years necessary for the PhD.
The next six months will be a great time to test and contrast the values I adopted here, with the one I left behind such a long time ago. At the same time, I want to come back to Thailand at the end, nice as it may be to be with family. To me, Europe is only a visit to the past. My home, my life, is here now.
Thanks for everyone who kept reading my life stories through these years. 🙂
SiamJai
14 responses to “Thai life: a European interlude”