bnow.org

i moved back to thailand from the us in 1996. after nearly two decades of living in the states, i figured that coming back to live in bangkok would be a piece of cake. i thought, i'm thai, i speak thai; so, this should make things easier. little did i know then, that though i have the communication skills and look thai, i would have to learn to adjust to a system that was entirely foreign to me. at first, i relied upon my extended family living in bangkok. as time passed, i thought i really needed to get more self-sufficient and sort things out on my own. simple things like getting advice on where to live, how to work with a contractor, networking to find the right job or getting tips on how to succeed in a cross-cultural environment were hard to come by. occasionally i lucked out and things worked. there have been other times when it turned into a fiasco. fortunately, after the first year, i made friends and they gave me sound advice on how to approach things. i thought about other pe