Holy cow!!! my last week here!
Next Sunday I board the plane out of Uruguay, I´m going crazy with the preparations and finishing jobs to get things done in time.
Next update will probably come from Madrid or Paris!
Can you tell I´m excited? 
, excited and exhausted… what an unlikely combination.
How awesome!!
I wasn’t even here when you started all this, but I’ve read through the thread and really admire your spirit.
Wishing you the best! Great travels and adventures await you!
Thanks for the updates. It’s neat to see people with adventurous spirits doing cool stuff.
Have a good time Don’t get lost in the airport…
I´ll try!, a few hours ago I was talking with my GF and she, somehow, was under the impression that I was arriving on the 27th instead of the 24th (I can´t blame her for that, I had many travel options and arriving dates, besides she moved toa new place a few weeks ago and still doesn´t have a land line or internet connection, we haven´t talked much lately); she´s got to travel to the countryside for work on that day, so… there won´t be any climatic, emotive meeting at the airport. 
I´ll have to, figure out how to get into the city and look for a hotel to stay for a day.
The good side is that she´ll first see me after I´ve slept well (I hope!) and I won´t be wasted after a long flight. That´s me, always looking at the bright side!
Thanks, Heffalump and Roo, I´ve never been known for treading the usual paths of life, but I have to admit that this is a bit over the top even for me. 
You know, some years ago, when I was during that stage when you have to choose what to do with your life, I decided to stop my education (I never completed highschool, I have to pass a maths and physics exam for that… and I love physics!) and study on my own computer animation. My father was very upset and told me that it was just a dream, that I wouldn´t get anywhere.
My father was right, it was a dream for me to do what I did; what he didn´t tell, or didn´t know, and what I´ve came to realize is that dreams indeed can come true, but not on their own; hard work, dedication and a strong motivation make them true.
Well, I stuck to my dream for 6 years and now I´m working on an animation studio, I get freelance assignments from all over the world and I have an interview with one of the leading FXs houses in Asia when I arrive to Bangkok.
All this new life is another dream on the making, I´ve been working on it for the last 10 months and now it´s just about to get started; I know there´s still a lot for me to do, I won´t drop there and declare it Mission Accomplished. I know a close realtionship is going to be vastly different from what we have now, I´ll have to adapt to the culture, learn the language, settle down on my own, etc, etc… A lot of work still, but this time I´ll have someone to tread that path with me.
Phsha, the main reason I didn’t study Computer Science is that my father forbade it (well, that and several dozens other things). Nowadays I work as a Computer Consultant and the majority of my coworkers, including the programmers, have degrees in Law, Accounting, diverse branches of Engineering… but CompSci or programming, nope.
La cabra tira al monte (“a goat will always find mountains to climb”), you found your mountains faster than myself or most of coworkers. Gratz on that.
Congratulations on your move! I hope all goes well for you.
Well, wasn´t it bad timing or what?, my membership expired midway through my trip to Bangkok.
Update is that I am, indeed, in Bangkok as I speak; I arrived last week. So yep, I made it here.
Last wednesday I arrived to the BKK International Airport, through a series of cicumstances my GF was under the impression that my actual date of arrival was on the 27th not the 24th, we found out the misunderstading the day before I left. To make things worse she wouldn´t be in the city on the 24th (business trip) so I had to get my own bearings into the city and a hotel. I did that quite well, at least after I attempted to board the taxi on the driver´s side that is. At some point I should have learned that here they drive on the right…
The first impression is that this is one big, busy place; it´s vastly different from my town, Montevideo. As a city I still prefer my hometown, here there´s quite a bit of pollution, the traffic is sheer madness and there isn´t quite as many public open spaces like plazas or parks as I´d like. Somehow I´m adapting to this new reality.
The people are quite nice and helpful so that compensates for other things, I still don´t speak much Thai but my most used phrase is “Khwaap koon krap” which means “Thank you”, most people I´ve found will go out of their way to help you out.
So, the juicy details, I know you´re waiting for them…
I met my GF on my second day here, I rented a nice serviced apartment very close to where she lives. There weren´t as many fireworks as I expected, I guess that after a year of long distance relationship we are past the phase of silly love behaviour; she came in and we talked for a while.
She´s more beautiful that I had imagined, that´s for sure and I´m slowly getting used to the idea of being so close, I´m still living on my own place and she comes to visit often. We´ll keep living separately for now though, we´ll even book separate rooms on our trip to Chiang Mai tomorrow. I would have prefered a single room but she still doesn´t feel intimate enough, I think… even though we´ve been intimate enough already, I think! 
On other news today I got a job on a Digital FXs studio, I start next Monday working as a senior Animator, quite a hitch on my career and salary. The secondary upside of that is that I´m getting my work permit so I can stay here with all paperwork in order, I´ve arrived on a two month tourist visa so this solves my immigration situation.
As I said, tomorrow my GF and I are flying North to Chiang Mai, I promise pictures from that trip!.
Funny, I was thinking about you just yesterday. How exiting it must be for you to start a whole new life. This is a big change for your girlfriend as well. Take her cues and move slowly. Keep us posted.
“Remembered”, surely? Or had you two never met before?
Fingers crossed for you. And don’t forget diving in Phi Phi in July!
Nope, we had never met in real life before; of course I´ve seen pictures of her, seen her with the webcam and talked to her on the phone. But close and personal, never.
I haven´t forgotten it!
Just today I was looking for dive shops in Bangkok, I have to take a course first, I hope to have the time.
No offense, but how do we know this isn’t some “longlygirl15” type story you’re feeding us? : )
Just wanted to add… good for you, taking chances. I can’t conceive, even if the relationship went horribly wrong, how you could possibly regret having an open mind and living your life to its fullest. I hope the two of you are very happy together… and whatever happens, I hope you have memories to last a lifetime.
Rats!, my dastardly plot has been unveiled!
Eh… no, wrong line, sorry.
I mean, I´m not sure about what kind of story you´re refering to, but I can assure you this is quite truthful, I´m writing a blog , though it´s in Spanish, there are a few pictures there and I intend to keep puttiing stuff in it. Now most pictures there are from my day at Paris with my friend Sara, but I´ll upload the pictures from Chiang Mai as soon as I return from there.
I’m glad that things are going well for you in your new home. It seems to me that it’s good that you and your girlfriend didn’t rush right into living together. This is a huge adjustment to the relationship no doubt, and it probably is good to give yourself some time to get used to all the other big changes before adding the stresses of adjusting to cohabitating too. Good luck with everything.
Bit of advice, from someone who’s moved too many times:
You’ll love the place. Then you’ll hate the place. There will be days when everything is beautiful and perfect and you don’t want to tell people about how great it is because you want to keep it for yourself, mine, mine, mine. Then there will be days when nobody can find his own ass with both hands, a map, and someone’s dick stuck inside; when it rains too much and things are dirty and it all sucks.
It’s normal
The final phase is when you learn the place “for real”, its good and bad and high and low. Hopefully, you’ll decide that the total balance is positive.
Best wishes, off to read that blog!
There, I posted a message in your blog for you. Good luck reading my Spanish!
Gee, thanks for the comment; grammar was quite good, you just missed a couple "que"s here and there.
How about a picture ?
I’ll second that. When my wife in I first arrived in Beirut back in 2000, our first impression (which lasted for several weeks) was, “Oh, fuck; we’ve made a big mistake.” Then we made peace with the elements of Beirut living we didn’t like, learned to enjoy the hell out of the parts we did like, and ended up loving the city llike nowhere else we had ever lived.
Wow. Beautiful couple. Beautiful scenery. You can’t beat that. Congrats to you!!
