Miss:  Low Cost of Living and Entertainment.  The last item on my list is how cheaply I live here.  I have already talked about how little I pay for food, but did you know I can go see a movie in the theater for $4 (add another dollar for 3D)?  I live in a studio apartment with two balconies, a kitchen area, furnished (including my linens) for less than $200 (including utilities and high speed internet).  I can go away to a tropical island for a three-day weekend and spend less than $150 for transportation, food/incidentals, and hotel.  I can get an iced caramel latte or a bubble tea for a dollar.  I have more than FOUR MONTHS of PAID vacation in one year (including lots of long weekends and random Buddhist/Muslim/National holidays).  In my time living here, I have been able to not only travel back home to visit family on four occasions, but also take trips to Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, and travel around Thailand and make small jaunts to Malaysia.  The wages, working hours, and cost of living in the US would never have allowed me to do that much travel.

 

I will not even add a section of “Things I Won’t Miss” to this, my last post about Thailand.

I have enjoyed every second of this four-year adventure, even when I didn’t (trust me, it makes sense).  I will be moving back home with more experiences under my belt than most people acquire in a lifetime.  I learned a new language with minor proficiency.  I had close contact with amazing wildlife.  I interacted with cultures wildly different than my own.  I made friends from multiple countries and walks of life.  Small gestures from strangers have touched my life and heart.

 

Anyone who knew me before I moved to Thailand never would have expected me to pack up my life and replant on other side of the world.   I had never lived more than a few miles away from my childhood home.  But, I made a decision.  I wanted something different and more exciting in my life.  We get so rooted in the idea that we must work 9-to-5 jobs and make car payments and break ourselves for little reward and could never just let go of (most of) our possessions and do something outside the box.

I’m proof (and so are many others) that it is possible to let go of our societal constructs (even for a little while) and experience something of the “outside world”.  It’s a lot bigger than just your one city, or state, or country.

Pack your bags.  Buy a ticket.  Go.