Damn learning curves....

So I went to Laos (please see picture above if you do not know where that is in reference to Thailand) I didn't take lots of pictures, because I rarely do. The Thai school (studying Thai) that's taking care of my visa sent me on what I thought would be a simple exit, apply, stamp, return mission. Turns out it was everything and then some...

It started in the parking lot of a large grocery store. About 30 people needed to cross the border for varying reasons (visa run, extending visa, visiting family, going on job interview, etc etc). I was told I would be put in a group van 637. From the outside it looked like a nice, new, normal 9 seated passenger van, but when you stepped in it looked liked something out of Vegas sideshow. Mirrors and eccentric gold and diamond-esque interior. I felt a stripper pole would surface at some point. This should've been a sign. I started meeting the misfits I would soon be connected with for the next 3 days. It was brought to my attention that this was a regular event for some (visas are complicated EVERYWHERE) so many knew each or had similar experiences with some of the same riders. I learned that there's a Black guy that loves to play guitar on the trip, there's the hippies that prove the ehh umm smoking "goods", there the cool guys that have been doing these too long and will probably get kicked out of Thailand soon (sources told me). 

My van consisted of 4 models from all over eastern Europe, a Romanian James Bond, a French chef, a quiet family guy face timing his daughter most of the time, a conspiracy theorist American that was convinced the earth is flat and U.S. didn't launch anything in space, and a few other low key characters that were basically the audience for the show on wheels. Then there was me. It was my first time going on one of these adventure VIP van rides. The head agent in charge of assigning the groups, felt it necessary to tell everyone on van 637 I was new. I must admit these guys looked like the practical joker types that perhaps some hazing would go down. Instead, they all smiled and started regaling me with all the tales of their first time experiences as if they are war veterans sharing stories. I was assured that it would be fun and or very interesting by the end of the trip. They were very much right about it being interesting, for sure.

The first few hours of the 8.5 hours were filled with the conspiracy theorist giving us a run down of how the earth is most definitely flat and that he could prove it based on things he's found on the internets. I was a little taken back because NO ONE was challenging him or questioning his thought process. We make our first pit stop and break and he is still talking. At this point I've made eye contact with a few people and one of them whispers to me "oh we know he's crazy, but he seems to want to talk. so we just let him". I'm thinking, "oh thanks for letting me in one the charade guys". Mr. Talkative falls asleep and people start talking about their lives and how they all ended up in Thailand. Leave it to a road trip to find bonds with strangers. Its early morning before we get to the Lao/Thailand border which we have to cross on foot. So many vans and touring groups all parked at the border. I got this refugee feeling (or what I can only imagine its like) watching people gather at the gate (we could not drive our van across the boarder because it was Thai registered vehicle). Our driver was very protective of us. I forgot to wear my badge and he kept reminding me.."you don't have this you will get kidnapped". Silly scare tactics I guess he uses to get people to listen...it worked. Gates open and we all rush to line up at the departure counter to line up and wait. It takes over an hour. Once I was through, I need to board a much larger bus that transports any and all people leaving Thailand to the entry point to Laos. We waited over an hour for our passports to get Laos visas. I later found out that our agency did not "grease the wheels" (pay a bribe) so we had to queue in line. We were all tired and delusional at this point and I was receiving constant reassures that "you will get my passport back". Call me paranoid, whatever. The agency then loaded people on vans, now in Laos to go to the Thai embassy to apply for whichever visa you needed. Once at the Thai embassy we all agreed to pay the bribe to bypass the line (we were all over the process at this point) for dropping off our passports so we could all just go to the hotel. Our driver, in different shiny Laos van, was ready and beckoning our, now very tight knit, group to take us to the hotel. 

There was food, a pool, a bar, and individual rooms for each of us. I showered and slept. I woke up 4 hours later sat by the pool and waited for dinner. By this time the driver came to me to return my wallet because I left it in the Thai van. He thought I was going to lose it again so he waited to give it to me. I've never felt so absent minded. I completely agreed with his decisions. Laos looked like Miami 40 years ago or pictures you see of Cuba today. I went out with a few from our group to what the "nightlife" in Laos was about...No much unfortunately. We did more talking and I realized that I would have never met any of these people in any other circumstance other than this point in time. The French chef and a Romanian  guy (I am convinced was a spy or something undercover) seem to be the real caretakers of the group. Really helpful to me, anyway. If I wasn't moving fast enough at any point they took my bags and they wanted to know where I was from the first stop. When they said they would lookout, they were serious.The following day we all lounged around the hotel desperately looking for wifi, swimming, grazing the nonstop buffet that seemed to be available the second we walked in . The food was decent too. Later afternoon, we checkout and everyone gathered to do shopping in the duty free zone while we waited for the agency to collect our passports. My bodyguards seemed concerned that I wasn't shopping and I told them I don't need anything. 007 bought me a Lao popular sub sandwich that had noodles and chicken and tofu. It was so good. French chef bought me flowers. Weird scary looking lotus flowers. I awkwardly accepted and thought "what the hell am I suppose to do with these?" It didn't occur to me until later that we had talked about cooking and spices the day before and  that he was sharing a local cooking flavor by giving me lotus. I just thought he was a weird French dude. C'est la vie. hahaha

We get our passports and now have to do everything in reverse with border crossing and immigration stamping. Going back was a lot more entertaining. While in line, this time, I was pulled aside 2 times by the immigration agents asking to see my passport. They just glanced at it and without opening it to look, motioned for me to return to the line. By the time the 3 agent came around to ask to see my passport, I sensed something was wrong. I must has looked so confused and lost because the Filipino behind me and the Chinese lady in front of me, both turned a said "they think you're African". They then explained to me they are stricter with all Africans passport holders because they have extra visa requirements. Filipino guy said "she don't even look African". Chinese lady says "she doesn't look American either". I say to both of them "I can hear you". Just as I say this another agent (why do they have so many different agents at this tiny border....God only knows) comes over. I'm about to go through the "routine" of passport showing when the Filipino guys says that I'm American in English and the Chinese lady says in Thai that I'm American also. The agent quickly walks away. I tell them thank you, and tell them its ok that I show them my passport. Its not a problem. Chinese lady said "they need to share the information with their colleagues. attention attention only black lady standing in line is American. easy". I told her "I see your point". I was the only Black person there and its not like there was a shift change...I finally made it through and was stamped officially back in Thailand.

The ride back seemed to take longer. We stopped more time to stretch our legs and give smoke breaks to the smokers but it was pleasant. It felt like a quirky family after only a day. Some of us exchanged contact info. Chef invited everyone to his restaurant and I felt a little sad it was over. I got home at 2 am. The driver dropped everyone off at their homes, which was the icing on this weird cake for me. I was so tired. Now back to the grind of desperately trying to learn Thai.

That's that!

You know, just life lessons

So  you have to enjoy how life is always "teaching" you lessons especially when it seems to be the same lesson time and time again. I get it life. This time I get it. It doesn't matter how smart, talented, interesting, open minded, creative, blah blah blah you are. Trusting people to do what they say they can do is always a crap shoot. 

This time around isn't as shocking or even earth shattering. I had a gut feeling, but I ignored it to focus on the fact that there were robots and an interesting concept to be apart of.  I mean really, wouldn't anyone do the same...robots people...ROBOTS.

So I signed up (roughly speaking because no contracts were signed) with a startup that has this great idea for having robots as language buddies. I was basically hired for my experience teaching kids and being awesome (mostly in my head), but ultimately my perspective.They obviously had not one clue about the education industry because this group of guys were in the IT industry that basically worked with refurbished servers and re-purposing many companies old network systems. This threw me off a bit, because I was under the assumption they were innovative, forward thinking, and planners. My bad. I realized immediately how unfocused and self destructive they could be especially when they said "visas are so easy", "we're doing something thats never been done before in SEA (southeast asia)", "this will go big and we will be a publicly traded company", [insert grandiose statement here]. Even with all this silly speak I called visionary bullshit. Whatever it was robots. I got to play with a robot everyday. 

My role changed immediately when they realized my other strengths

(I am willing to attempt anything and like a challenge) and I started designing a curriculum for "in class use with the robot". I was working on an interactive kids book that would go along with the robot. We just started doing focus groups, which I setup, organized and magically constructed with the help of the group. Yes the scope of my position changed vastly and became dynamic. It was challenging because I wanted to believe.

I still had my hesitation from jump street. I would get into arguments with the head guy that was more focused on having brand marketing, and the robot making loud noises (he thinks kids are idiots and that loud ass sounds will appease them and convince parents to drop 10k USD to purchase) instead of focusing on trying to get the robot developed to be functional.

Meanwhile, I'm traveling to Singapore and KL and the other offices to work with programmers and animators to try implementing the new designed curriculum. Why was I traveling so much you ask? Because they could not bring the robots into Thailand without having to pay a phenomenal fee to customs. This posed a new level of drama when we needed to repair robots. Sending and receiving them from the Paris company where they are maintained and having customs hold for a few weeks...not sure how that fit into their business plan. I voiced my concerns with this on top of marketing tactics and was marked as being negative and not contributing solutions. Which is true, I do not know how to save a sinking ship. So I continued to just rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic (thank you Ebert for giving me an expression that perfectly fits this situation)

I was going to give them until November to come up with some solutions for all of the grievances I had. It wasn't just me, all the foreigners thought the same thing, especially when it came to visas. 

Fast forward to last week, I found out they could not do visas, they did not have the robot company registered, they had gone through 3 shady "lawyers", "agents", "somebodies cousin" to do the paperwork for the foreigners. Cutting corners basically. I was very upset by this and in a group message (yes unprofessionally and absolutely disrespectful) told them "they needed to get their heads out of their asses and start being more open about this lack of process." No I was not thinking of winning any popularity contest and no one disagreed.

Not to my surprise I go into the office Monday. I apologize to the the "manager type" guy that was only hired because he's white and that's how you sell stuff here. I said I was sorry for being so venomous in the message, but he has to understand our frustrations. He replies with a "you cannot disrespect us like that", which I totally get. I know I was wrong. I try calling the head guy and his wife to apologize. They have conveniently stop taking calls, messages, and not replying to emails prior to the message. I knew right away what was coming.

4 hours into the work day (I was deleting files and moving things to my flash drive. I cleaned my work laptop completely and left very basic things I did on the server) manager type guy tells me and an animator that this isn't about messages or anything other then the visas and that they will have to let us go, because they cannot do your visas. I said "oh, ok", the animator did not take it so well. I thought he was going to start swinging and breaking robots. Dude is all muscle. He immediately went to our other Bangkok office where the head guy (that had been avoiding my calls/emails/messages all weekend) to try and talk to him. I changed my flight dates, printed out my boarding pass and found a hotel and started using the office printer to print out information on visas and jobs. I needed to exit and I still had stuff in the KL (Kuala Lumpur) office which me and the animator where suppose to flight out to go to this Tuesday. 

There is a robot show coming up that they now realize they are not ready for. They let us keep the flight ticket and we could use it however we wanted. I thought "they really think they're doing us a favor, hilarious".  Before I left the office Monday, they asked if I could do freelance work for them HAHAHHAHA. Ballsy people. I smiled and said "of course". If I choose to actually help them I will charge them ASTRONOMICAL fees for my assistance.

I had an interesting talk with the animator about what he had discussed with the head guy on our flight to KL. Apparently the head guy is just as big of a coward as I thought. He apparently thought we didn't appreciate all of the money he's spent on us and his shady efforts and compartmentalizing methods of information. He especially didn't like my message, the one about them suggesting they remove their heads out of their asses. The Thai staff apparently had a problem with the animator that none of us realized and thats why they needed to let him go... figured it was BS reasons. I was over it all 2 weeks ago. They just pulled the trigger before I did, which is a little annoying. 

So that's that. Sorry this was so long, but I've been to busy to do a play by play of the #robotlife that was happening. I wanted to genuinely give this a chance. I can say I tried with no regrets.

On to the next thing now.

Sending positive vibes everywhere!

Signed Uncompromising Anne with an e

Learning as I go...per usual

I'm passed my 100 day mark here in Bangkok.  Much like POTUS ('cause in my head I am just as important. Don't hate. Hahaha joking...not really)

I should have some things to show for 103 days, right?

Unfortunately, not much to report. Really basic things are happening. I'm trying to get settled into my new apartment, trying to figure out this #robotlife, learn thai (I know only know 10 words at this point SMH), figure out a budget and yes still publish a damn book (I know I'm getting sick of hear ABOUT it too)....

My apartment is nice and cozy, strategically located between my work, #robotlayer, and the hot spots that have a good mix of hip, chill, and cheap deliciously unreal food/entertainment/grocery and street boutique shopping.

My work is ridiculous. Its hard to explain because it is so ridiculous.  With this startup company, I basically play with robots that speak over 25 languages and try to figure out ways for kids to possibly learn/play/use it for school and at home. My team and I are currently preparing for a robot conference in Singapore . Which is why I sadly cannot make it back to the States this year. I finally got an opportunity in Bangkok thats interesting and I had to make a very big sacrifice to keep the job.

Much like it was in China, people just want to speak English to me or assist me by being my personal translator. This is amazing and kind, but problematic. I cannot learn Thai this way. Minor problem, I will get it. I just need to get to it!

Last but not least, I got my 16th and 17th rejection from 2 publishers for my books...Its all part of the process, I just keep going forward.

I found a yoga studio and boxing club near my place so I think I'm pretty set. Thailand is treating very well. I've me some very interesting people and am STILL learning about myself.

Other than a 1st degree burn on my leg because I don't know the proper way to disembark from a motorcycle while riding side saddle (I'm a lady now)...its all good.

I believe thats all for now.

Anne with an "e" over and out.

"I exist as I am, that is enough"
~whitman

So yeah...Anne is not in China

I thought long and hard about whether to keep posting here for the following reasons, because I'm...

A. not in China
B. one of millions of people of color traveling
C. have no fascinating stories to share.
D. Only my haphazard lifestyle of "what not to do" or "how it probably shouldn't be done" methods.

I finally decided that I should post that I'm alive and doing ok. I'm in the land of thank yous and consideration and lots of manners. I am not missing Shanghai...at all.
That's all I have to say about that.

I have had the fortune, luck, blessing, or whatever you want to call it to be able to transition from every place I've lived to the next with the patience and understanding of the people I know (I cannot thank you all enough for putting up with me, sharing your friends and lives with me)
Not sure if many of you all remembered my German friend in Shanghai, Erik (I helped him use his amenities in his luxury condo (i.e. large kitchen with an oven, jacuzzi bathtub...etc etc) while helping him when he had back surgery (because I'm a true friend). So this guy, was reassigned to Bangkok 18 months ago and I am lucky enough that he's offered his place for me until I get myself together...job and place of my own (trust, it will happen soon). So no need to worry about me #roughingit . I initially came thinking it would take a week or two to get situated. Turns out no. #realtalk

So you ask, now what? As usual, I'm playing it by ear. I've gotten some corporate training position offers in Bangkok (#fingerscrossed this week) and other rural cities (no thank you). I could bum around the beaches in the south and teach locals English for little pay but very rewarding laid back life. I'm looking at my options still.

23 days in and I'm still ultimately trying to figure Bangkok out.

You'll know when I know.

Anne with an "e" out and counting her blessings!!!

Pictured Erik shopping for teak wood...dude is obsessed with #teak

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.” 
―Beverly Sills

new home maybe...Thailand

So, this is probably my 6th or 7th trip to Thailand. It was by far the most unique visit by far. First, going with a local to more places is exponentially different (of course). Secondly, when that local is crazy and awesome and is looking for a break from her Australian architectural studies...it adds another layer. Also, when than same local Thai girl threatens to make you go around with a selfie stick (hate those things) if I wouldn't comply with her picture taking demands...well that's a game changer. So that was the main motivator behind the heavy photo sessions.

I realized, because we had 1000s of pics from the trip, that I looked really happy. I know and felt it was great but I somehow forget how much I really like Thailand. I don't think I needed pictures to believe this, but I've been in a real rut/stalemate lately. Losing time/money/energy on my Taiwan plans has made me really want to leave all thing Chinese. At the same time I don't want to leave here bitter. I'm doing well with work in Shanghai, but my wanderlust for travel, the beach life and fresh air have been really itching he past 4 months. I was in the hospital for a week at the beginning of the year for a lung infection. I'm doing so much better now...breathing and all. It just was another nail in the coffin for mean to leave. Its so easy to live in China. I admit that I've let that comfortable bubble distract me from my future adventures. So its now time to really get to work. So much researching on locations and jobs and expat life is exhausting, but rewarding. So we shall see.



Anne looking to leave China for good...for real this time...no no I mean it