aagghh. i am so excited for thailand! it seems hard to believe that at this time next week, we will be on a plane across the world. this next week is going to go by sooo slowly. as some of you may know, our plan is to go somewhere every year for our anniversary. it won't necessarily be exact, since this time of year isn't exactly the optimal time to travel to many places (i.e. too cold for many parts of europe). but we're going to make a real effort to go somewhere to celebrate, in either march or april. last year we had an unbelievable time on our honeymoon in curaçao, but it was also a super expensive trip, and hopefully not all of our anniversary excursions will be that way. we managed to keep costs down for thailand, partly b/c our hotel in phuket was paid for by gopooh's thankyou points. :) plus, food and drink in thailand is a ton cheaper than they are here, and the side tours we're planning on are a lot cheaper than the ones in curaçao. the biggest downside to this trip is going to be the actual traveling. on the way there, we have 2 stopovers. we're going from detroit to atlanta, atlanta to seoul, and then seoul to bangkok. but get this. we're flying air asia from bangkok to phuket during our trip... and that means that on the return home, we'll have 3 stopovers: phuket to bangkok, bangkok to seoul, seoul to atlanta, and then finally atlanta to detroit. i'll be wearing my scopolamine patch, but we'll have to see how it goes...
Monday, March 17, 2008
in preparation for our thailand trip, earlier this month gopooh and i went to our travel clinics and got vaccinated up the wazoo. i'd already gotten my hep A shot, so i ended up getting the typhoid and flu vaccines from the travel clinic. yes, that's right. the FLU! i hadn't gotten the flu vaccine this year b/c... well, b/c i'm not sure i've ever had the flu as an adult... but apparently, thailand has a year-long flu season. i was still going to skip the shot, but then i thought about how awful it would be sick while on vacation. so there i was, getting the flu vaccine in march. i'm surprised they still had any left to give. but then again, they probably keep it stashed for ppl like me... bangkok and phuket themselves don't have any reported cases of malaria. but the other cities (kanchanaburi and phang nga) are a little iffy, and neither of our travel clinics could tell us for sure whether we should or shouldn't take malaria prophylaxis. we aren't even sure if we're going to be in those areas at nighttime. but when we were in curaçao i got bitten 25-30 times, and gopooh started to catch up towards the end of the trip; apparently we have quite the tasty skin haha. so to be on the safe side, we both got the malaria pills. i'm thinking though, that the chances of getting malaria are slim to none to begin w/. on top of that, even if i were bitten by a malaria-infested mosquito, w/ my defective hemoglobin and all, i'm pretty sure i still wouldn't get malaria. and those pills were pretty expensive! i'm starting to think i don't really need them at all. after all, my brother and parents went to thailand a couple years ago w/out any prophylaxis or immunizations whatsoever, and they came back fine. :p
Monday, March 10, 2008
my parents are moving out of michigan after 32 years or so. to make a long story short, gopooh and i most likely will not return to michigan, b/c of better jobs elsewhere. knowing that began my mom's job search at other VA hospitals. she found the perfect job for her, b/c she'd be doing exactly what she's doing now, but she'd get a promotion. she applied, she got it, and now they're going to move out there. to los angeles. their rationale is that w/ my brother being in nyc for 5 years (and probably indefinitely), and w/ us leaving, there's nothing keeping them here. my dad is retiring (again) and will get both social security and a good pension, so he can go anywhere... and since my mom has found this great job, they should give it a shot. and then when they get a grandchild, she will quit her job and they will move again. seriously, that's what they're planning. this whole thing for me has been a shock. for some reason, ever since we made the tough decision to move, i've been assuming that my parents would stay here -- not forever, but at least until my mom retired. and then wherever we were, my brother and i would visit for holidays, and i'd get to visit old friends and the area where i grew up. i know it's not completely rational, but that's what i imagined. it's weird to think that once we leave in june, we may never return, and holidays will be spent in california. i mean really, when was the last time california had a white christmas? gopooh's shocked as well, but he keeps saying that his parents are still here so of course we'll be back. and i know that, but it's just not the same thing. this is where i call home! and in a few months, my whole family will have left. it feels like everyone has just abandoned ship. crazy.