You´re mostly welcome, sorry for missing the post…
By the way, some little updates, the first small step has been taken, I just e-mailed the Thailand embassy requesting information on the immigration paperwork; during this month I´ll prepare a demo reel to present to about 6 or 7 animation studios in Bangkok to see if I get a job offer from one.
In other areas I smashed my personal records for a non-stop chat session (9 hours), chating time on a single day (16 hours), and about 8 hours in front of a webcam… long distance relationships are a real pain in the ass, not figuratively speaking.
By now my love has passed the most terrible, anguishing and remarkable test of devotion, not only she didn´t run away screaming trying to rip her own ears when she asked me to sing*, but she asked me to sing for her when she went to bed to lull her into sleep, which I did for 2 hours continuously… N.B.: “Singing”, in my case, can be easily mistaken by a passionate impersonation of a cat being strangled.
OMG I did just that this last Dec. I met a man online, fell in love, we met…once (he came to see me) and here I am. I left everything, my own salon, 20+ years of friends, a life I knew and left the state to move more than 600 miles to be with him. I COULDN’T BE ANY MORE HAPPY THAN I AM!
FYI the pre Kudzu (my bf nickname) me wouldn’t even go on a first date with out it being double with a friend.
All I can say is follow your heart, sometimes it knows more than the head!
8 months have passed by and we are still aching to be together, so that´s a very good thing!
There have been a few problems on the way of course, 4 or 5 months ago my mother had a psichotic outbreak and had to be sent to an institution a couple times for about a month; it´s been a long slow path to help her to get bak on her feet again, she´s almost ready to face the choice I´ve made to leave the country indefinetly. Mind you, I have other two brothers who could take care of her but one was the cause of her nervous breakdown and the other hoodwinked my parents off an apartment, so I wouldn´t trust them to be of much use.
Related to that my father quit his job so he could stay along her and has been unemployed since then, yep I´m the only one working in this house, oh joy! :rolleyes:
He´s written a maritime navigation manual (he´s a captain) that seems to be starting to sell, and is looking for a job again so I hope I can take that burden off my shoulders.
On the other side of the world my dearest has had some troubles too, her mother doesn´t approve of this relationship (and she´s the comprehensive one, I dread to hear what his father has to say!); as a matter of fact she wanted her to marry some rich guy… I don´t have many details about that but it didn´t sound like a nice experience.
As for the plans, they have gone through a little overhauling, I´m aiming for February as the departure date, that will depend on me getting a job on one of Bangkok´s animation studios. For that I´m preparing a demo-reel that should be ready by December or sooner; I´m optimist about finding work. (as if I had a choice!)
Another change is that we won´t be living together from the start, I´ll rent a flat or something while we get used to see each other face to face; it may be too much of a shock to live under the same roof from the get go so I think it´s a sensible measure.
Oh, there´s also all that jazz about the coupé d´ etat and the current military goverment too; bening as it seems to be so far it creeps me a little to move into a dictatorship. :eek:
Indeed, now I see that I´ve been decived by the movies my whole life; anyone joins me on a class action lawsuit against Hollywood?
Talking seriously, it´s been a true tour de force, but I like to look at the bright side of things and when I talk with her and see the love she has for me even after this long wait while I´ve only had promises to give her… well, let´s say that I feel overwhelmed, it´s an indescribable mix of love, gratitude, trust and belonging.
I just received an e-mail from an animation & VFX studio in Bangkok saying that they like my demo-reel and want to see some more! This is great news because if I can impress them just a little bit more I may be leaving with a full time job already waiting over there.
Departure time has been adjusted to between the 20th and 25th of January, with a possible stop over at Paris; I´ll have to remember to pack some warm clothes, Montevideo 30+ Cº, Paris snowy Winter, Bangkok 30+ degrees…
6 weeks more and I´ll be posting from a new location!
Sure, I hope I had the time to take the diving course by then; I´ve always wanted to do that but, here in Montevideo, the River Plate is not a very appealing place to dive… 1 meter visibility is considered excellent.
The updates are getting more frequent, that´s a good thing.
I´ve bought the plane tickets last week, I´m leaving on the 21st of January, from Montevideo to Madrid, a 1 hour stopover and onwards to Paris. I´ll stay for a day there at a friends house.
Then I´ll take a short flight to Cologne and from there to Dusseldorf by train, it´s a 25 or 30 minute trip but I have 4 hours to get from C to D so I hope I won´t find any delays!
Finally from Duesseldorf to Bangkok non-stop arriving on the 24th.
This is all very exciting from my perspective…
My girlfriend has already made the reservations for flights to Chiang Mai on northern Thailand for the first of February for a short holiday together in a quiet place. I´m sooo looking forward to that because…
It´s 4 AM here and I´m working preparing some work samples for a special FXs studio in Bangkok that has shown interest on my work, they are hiring people and asked me to send them some renderings. For the last few weeks I´ve been regulary working up to 3 AM or so trying to wrap jobs up, it´s starting to wear me down.
Nevertheless I´ll probably stay up all night today working on this thing, it would be awfully nice to already have a job waiting for me over there, specially since this past year has been particulary lean on income; a couple days ago I had a sure-thing freelance work cancelled and I´ve just seen a good chunk of my budget disappear.
At first I was going to go straight through all the stopovers, but I decided to spend a couple days at Paris to see the place and rest a little. Itinerary changes left me with only one day though.
But it´s not so bad, I wan´t to get to Bangkok as soon as possible, then I can do some proper traveling in good company. I´ve been talking with my GF about the flight plans, intineraries, destinations for a month or so and I think I infused her with some eagernes to travel; she was talking about going to Hong Kong or Malaysia in March.
Ale, congrats on your moving so soon, I’m really happy for you. I met my husband here (on the Dope) and we’re married since August 2004. We’re really happy and it’s wonderful to be able to spend every day together. As you say, long distance relationships are both literally and figuratively a pain in the behind. My husband moved over from the UK to Ireland, admittedly not as long a journey as you are making but love conquers all and the heart knows no boundaries! I know exactly how you feel about this girl, the words you use and the sentiment behind them is very familiar to me. Also my brother has met a girl in Brazil and is planning to move to be with her in the next year or so. My sister also met her SO online and moved to the UK approximately 7 years ago.
I know some have counselled you about being careful and minding your feelings but there comes a time when you have to jump in with both feet and hope for the best - sometimes you have to risk everything. Without that leap of faith, I know my husband would not be at home decorating our bathroom as we speak!
Thailand is a very very beautiful place and I’m thoroughly jealous (in the best way possible) that you’re going to live there. We spent some time there last year and we are definitely going to go back - without a shadow of a doubt, I would also be happy to move there, the people are so wonderful and it would be an incredible place to bring up kids; Thai people have such a good sense of family, it’s so totally refreshing in this jaded age. If you do get to Phuket, have a swim in the Andaman sea for me and perhaps a mai tai on the beach!
I’m really thrilled for you - what an exciting time!!
Even if the relationship doesn’t work out, you have a hell of a life experience to put on the c.v. (and you can entertain the dames with stories of travels through exotic lands).
Gee… thanks for the kind words, Honeydew, I´m glad to hear that things worked out great for you. You´ll be welcomed to drop by at my place if you visit Thailand again.
The current update is that I´ve already got a very nice, well paid freelance job, I´m working remotely so I can do it here, in Bangkok, on the shores of lake Tanganika or up there on the Moon. Being a freelance job it´s not going to be permanent, but I think that it´ll buy me 6 to 12 months of time to look for an onsite work in Thailand.
The drawback of that is I´ve already started working, while I still keep my job at the animation studio, so I´m working up to 16 hours a day, everyday… I´m going to sleep all the way to Bangkok on the plane(s).
Dude, conventional wisdom is against you and everything that’s being done. With that being said, it’s a helluva story and I can’t think of anyone that would wish this to end badly.
I’m kinda jealous I don’t get to have a story like this to tell.
No kidding, last news from Thailand are a little worring, I already had my “Oh dear, what I´m getting into?” moment a few months ago when the military coup kicked the prime minster out; I´m not exactly thrilled to move into a Junta governed country…
Talking about bombs, I was supposed to travel on the 27th of this month, one of the itineraries I had included a stop over on the 28th at Madrid´s Baraja airport, yep, the one where a big-whooping bomb went off on the 29th.
Nevertheless I´m steadfast on my decision, it´s Bangkok or bust… hmmm, that´s an unfortunate wording, all things considered. :eek:
