our new hood

check out our neighborhood!

so, the main street running through this part of town is Sukhumvit.  here are a couple pics, but it's kind of hard to see because the sky train runs along the middle of the road - very convenient for us!  there's a stop right at our street.

traffic on Sukhumvit is always like this

there are dozens of numbered streets (Sois) on either side of it.  we live on Sukhumvit Soi 24.  

soi 24 can be summed up by 3 types of establishments: high rise apartment buildings (like ours), massage places/spas (most of them are above board), and japanese restaurants (there are lots of japanese people living in the area).  here's a little montage:

all of these are ON our street!

not cheap, unfortunately...

2 in 1!

some other fun things on our street are pictures of the king and/or queen,

spirit houses,

the bottom right one is at our building :)

a giant shrimp (great landmark when directing taxi drivers - 'gung yai'),

and our street's most puzzling sign.

some of the other nearby sois are really great, with lots of interesting restaurants and shops - pics of those places to come!

saying goodbye

well, we're in bangkok!  more on that later.


we had several months and multiple locations of saying goodbye to family and friends, and I want to make sure i record those memories here - it was wonderful, sad, fun, difficult, surreal...


first big goodbye was when my brother jesse and his wife rebecca and son Daniel visited us back in early may.  

hanging out with both of my brothers - rare opportunity!

i adore this kid

cute fam!

next was a visit from my sister susanna and her daughter lily.  

2 preggies

lil and i riding the carousel on the national mall

then we took a road trip to chattanooga to see my oldest friend, amy, and one of my best college friends, heather.  i was terrible about taking pics consistently, so i don't have any of heather :(

ian and scott

amy and dove

we flew to new orleans to see our friends billy and nikki and their daughter rosie.

on the ferry going to the beach!

these 2 were best buddies

i went alone to san antonio to visit my sister libby, her husband, and 2 fantastic boys, lukas and josh.  (ian went straight to florida for some mom-son time.)  no pics of lib and me - how is that possible??

joshie always invited me to cuddle with him. i ate that UP! 

of the pathetically few pics i took in san antonio, 90% were versions of this :)

then i joined ian in florida for some time with his mom, and we got a visit from his sister jana and her family.  somehow ian and i both failed to take any pics during that entire time, except this one of bryce :)

back in dc, we said our final goodbyes to friends (of course i kept forgetting my camera!) and to my family.  my mom organized a lovely picnic at the dc aboretum.

yummy picnic lunch

mama and me

the final goodbye was at the airport.  we met my parents early in the morning, and clay came and surprised me!!  

breakfast at t.g.i. friday's - not bad, surprisingly!

weepy me

last moment!

it was great to spend time with all those people, and really hard to say goodbye.  but we were also so excited to be leaving for bangkok - and now we're here!  

i'll post about our new life in bangkok soon.  things have been CRAZY busy, and i haven't had time to take more than a couple of pics, so a post wouldn't be too interesting.  but i'll do it soon!

we finally know where we're going and who's coming with us

we're going to thailand, with a baby on the way!  

ian and i first began this international adventure 2 1/2 years ago, in november 2008.  we discovered that USAID (the agency that employed his dad and gave ian a childhood all over the world) was hiring, and we spent many months agonizing over whether or not to go for it.  our life in nyc was great.  we loved it, and had no reason to leave.  but spending the next 20+ years living all over the world was the one temptation we couldn't resist.  the next year was consumed with the hiring process - we didn't find out until nov 09 that he'd gotten the job!  

in feb 10, we moved to dc, a required first post, for about 18 months.  we were of course dying to know where they'd send us next, and we hung on every little hint of an update from his office.  throughout the fall, the list of possibilities narrowed, and it looked like we might get sent to thailand.  but it seemed waaaaay to good to be true.  everyone in the foreign service wants to go to thailand, and it just didn't seem likely that we'd get a dream post first time around.

in early march, it was official - we're getting sent to thailand for the next 4 years.  we are beyond thrilled.  

next thrill: we found out in february that we're having a baby!  at first, we thought the timing was a bit inconvenient, but it's actually turning out pretty well.  i survived a pretty miserable 1st trimester in the comfort of our dc apartment.  my 2nd trimester, when i'll supposedly be feeling awesome (i must say i'm already feeling a ton better), will be spent getting organized, packing, and traveling to see friends and family.  then, if all goes according to plan, we'll arrive in thailand as my 3rd trimester begins.  i'll have a few months to unpack, get settled, and find a great doctor/hospital in time for a 10/22 due date.

we're so excited that both great things are happening for us, and i'll try to keep up a little diary of these joint adventures on this blog.  more to come!