Pre-Thailand writery

Dear Reader, aka, to whom it may concern:

This is a test, this is only a test. I apologize if you are an English teacher. My punctuation mimics my spoken language, and as I intend this to be a dialogue, I prefer to use my normal speaking voice. My commas thus should be treated as short pauses, periods longer, semi-colons longer (as they are a combination of a short and a long - {see period and comma}) and colons even longer, since they are two periods. Dashes are up to the reader. I do not expect anyone to mis-interpret what I have written because of my commas etc, therefore, I urge all you English teachers to accept and move along.

Soon, this will become my forum, our forum- our podium if you will. Life has led us in many different directions, and for now, the direction we seem to be traversing towards is in the south easter-ly direction. In several months (September, after the nuptials of my brother) we: namely Chris, Katie, and I, will be heading to SE Asia to spend some time.

This idea was not borne out of sheer will/disbelief/fear/loathing/ (read: thin air). Moving and living abroad is an experience that one cannot describe in mere written word. The life one lives, the experiences one has: even in one's own journal (trust me) one cannot retrace those steps and re-live those memories. Life as a foreigner is non-translatable (just like all language, but ask me that on a different day).

So, the desire to learn, live, and experience has yet again struck. The search for a location lead us through much research, many conversations, and finally dumped us off in Thailand. The reasons are as follows: inexpensive, stable, safe, friendly to foreigners, not impossible to get a visa, Buddhist..... Since I have spent a fair amount of time in Europe we chose to set our sights on Thailand.

That being said, the goal between now and September is to differ loans, store our belongings, learn the language, find jobs/internships in Chiang Mai, and save money.

We are approaching all these things with the same abandon one would approach love or cooking (credit to Gabriel Fabian).

Shalom, farewell, tschuess, ciao, etc ---> for today.