Sup blog? Sup my faithful 0 followers? How’s life? It has been just over 3 years since my last post. I’ve just eaten a chocolate tart, am sipping the dregs of my [intentionally] chilled latte, and am feeling inspired as an incoherent Thai songstress croons admirably from within the sound system of this quaint cafe in northeast Thailand. It is a new year, 2021. Holy moley was 2020 a trip; let’s not get into that lol. We’ll just keep it simple with a life update. At the time of my last post, I was contemplating life from a cafe in Lipa city, Philippines whilst also jamming to fresh hot beats from none other than Ms. Grande. What else is new? Very little has changed since that period…
Well, no… actually a considerable amount has changed, though I’m still in Southeast Asia [albeit a different country entirely], still in a cafe contemplating life, and still pondering where this road is leading – nonetheless enjoying the ride per usual. Oh, and I’m still single AF.
After popping back over from the Philippines to the states, a purty decent job presented itself via combination of luck (right place, right time at a networking event) and perhaps a bit of skill; they still liked me after the interviews at least, and [perhaps] still like me now nearly three years later with the same company. The job: watermelons. The location: Thailand. Nuff said. In all seriousness I work for a reasonably prominent international agricultural seed company and study everything related to watermelons (their genetics, growth patterns, shapes, sizes, colors, textures, flavonoid profiles, disease tolerance; you. name. it… and I study it). [You want to learn more? Ask me below!] Ultimately the goal is to breed more delish and nutrish watermelons for all Homo sapiens individuals across the globe to indulge and enjoy, all whilst admiring the gorgeous aromas, flavahs (flavors), colahs (colors) and textahs (textures) [read that last part in a Southie Boston accent derived from a 65-year old chain-smoking woman on her way to get some Dunks iced coffee]. Indeed I feel deeply grateful for this job. No doubt it has been a lot of work, given the nature of large companies and the responsibility to balance a decently sizable project portfolio, manage project budgets, innovate, and communicate regularly with a team of colleagues from around the world [a duty bringing its own challenges in interpersonal communication with varied personalities from varied cultures; in other words, that can be a huge pain in the ass sometimes lol]. With all of that said, I feel genuinely lucky to have found a job that I enjoy and am excited to discuss with colleagues, friends and family. Moreover I am fortunate to have managers who genuinely care about my personal well-being. While personal sample size working in industry is small, I presume that landing with a skilled and caring management team is not always a given. Anywho, enough buttering up my employers; they are never going to see this post anyway. [But seriously lol, I really like my job, so life is goood in that regard.]
This job, and thus my bodice enrobing my supple torso, is situated in none other than the land of Thai. The rationale: this climate presents a valuable opportunity to select for hardy watermelon that will resist various bacterial and fungal diseases known to persist in particularly hot and humid climates [enter – Thailand]. Have you ever had a whiff at the pleasant aromas emanating from soggy undahpants [your own or those of a friend] after a hot, sticky summer day and thought, “I wonder what pathogens may be breeding in this garment at present?” Well, the watermelons we select are basically sitting in soggy underpants all the time, able to withstand that arduous challenge and emerge deliciously victorious on the other side. I didn’t go to soggy underpants land right away. Initial job training took place in the US for the first 5 months, and after that they decided, “Alright, this guy is good enough; let’s send him to the swamp.” In October 2018 I popped on over to Isaan [Northeast] region of Thailand and have been living here ever since [with visits home in 2019 at least… 2020 had other grand plans of its own]. In all seriousness I do like living here, but at times it gets gooey hottt – hot like a Pillsbury Toaster Scramble fresh out the toaster oven that burns your fingertips and causes you to attempt to remove it from said toaster with a paper towel, subsequently and inadvertently setting alight the paper towel and throwing it in the garbage barrel in sheer panic, causing your Dad to have to run into the kitchen to upend the entire trash can into the sink with water running. Yeah, that happened once in my eventful pre-teen youth. [Sorry again, Dad, for almost setting the house on fire in my haste for the bacon egg and cheese scramble.]
Aside from job responsibilities, life in general here has been a fun little trip! Learning Thai [language] has been purty interesting [and challenging]. Admittedly a slow and steady burn in progress, happy to report that I am ~60% proficient in intermediate skill level (according to Learn Thai Podcast language program). [Side-note: Huge fudgin’ shout-out to LTP developers; what a great program they have crafted. If you ever want to learn Thai, look no further.] Now I can have conversations with local friends in their language, and soon enough will be able to gossip as the natives do. [JK lol; not trying to do that, though it is an aspect of interpersonal dynamics for many locals – for which I do not pass judgment.]
Otherwise, I have been training in Muay Thai since February 2019, which has been an unexpected and very fun little journey on its own. Still will get my a** handed to me by anyone with actual fighting experience, though my muscle memory and mechanics (body control and range of motion) have seen steady improvement from the jump, so that’s cool. In fact, a few months ago was my grand debut at a ‘newbie’ fight night hosted by my local gym, for all gym-goers to partake as desired (nobody with too much experience). While not quite just for funzies, as my opponent was head hunting early on, I managed to bop him back a bit, and we ended in a draw. All in all, might step back in the ring for another go at it in some months from now, but first will work more on range of motion, power, and general mechanics before unleashing the beast unto the world. [Translation: I don’t want to get my ass handed to me, so will try to get better first.]
To wrap this up, as mentioned early on above, 2020 was a trip. Y’all know about that already. I will say it has been super weird to not be able to visit family and friends in the US for a full year (and counting). Hopefully this vaccine is distributed soon, because damn… You do not want to be listening to Mariah Carey’s ‘All I want for Christmas is you’ while sitting alone in a salad bar buffet on the other side of the world from your family and unable to fly home due to a pandemic. It is not a joyous occasion. Pandemic ish aside, we can all be thankful that we’re still here now. [If you’re reading this post, you’re still here too. Sending out to you and the universe good health and positive vibes that 2021 will be aight for us all.]
Mayhaps that’s enough for now. Feel free to hit me up in the comments for some jovial interactions. If you made it this far, thanks for tuning in. Cheers, my dearest of friends. For those just passing by and if we don’t know each other that well [or at all], still wishing you all the best <33. Keep ya chin up :-]
With love,
Dave