Exciting news!

So I was at work the other day and was chatting in the break room when someone brought up that he read my blog. That was quite exciting. He also mentioned that I hadn't updated in a while. Well, considering I have loyal viewers out there, here we go!

Life's been pretty regular. Work all week, karate some evenings, hang out with coworkers on Friday nights. I've been enjoying what I've been doing at work, but I need to start getting some studying for tests done before February, which isn't that far away.

Karate has been a lot of fun, and a good release/workout. I started back up with kickboxing. The kickboxing I do here is a lot like what I was doing in Taiwan (cardio-based with full body workout) but instead of a crazy Danish guy yelling at me it's my classmates from karate (and the classes are one hour instead of two...and indoors). I have been helping out with the kids' class on the weekends which is fun and scary. So far my main goal has been to get them to do the moves without them making goofy faces into the mirrors.

I've been meaning to post these for a while...here are some pics of my apartment! (I took these a while ago)

From My apartment

That's my living room. Note the awesome TV and my karate equipment on the couch.

From My apartment

That's how the kitchen table looks. That was probably its cleanest. It seems to accumulate a lot of random stuff. I got the chairs (along with the desk in the last picture) from the same guy on Craigslist for a pretty good deal.

From My apartment

From My apartment

My kitchen, from two angles.

From My apartment

That's my huge fancy bed. I need stuff to put on the walls.

Seeing all those pictures of my place all clean makes me want to clean again. I think I'll get at that. Thanks for checking in!

Money!

Good news: I got paid this weekend. I went from "I wonder if I'll have enough money when I go to Taste of Madison" to "I wonder where I should start furniture shopping" in a matter of hours.

I just finished up with a week of training. It was tough sitting in class for seven hours five days a week (flashbacks of high school! Aaagh!), but I learned a lot. This coming week I'll have some free time, which I'll dedicate to getting closer to taking certification exams and probably goofing around with a couple of servers.

I'm having a quite low-key Labor Day weekend on the social scale. I was mulling going home but due to my previous lack of funds I scratched that idea. Yesterday I had a pretty fun time. In the early afternoon I went for a bike ride with some co-workers of mine through the Arboretum. I borrowed a bike from a friend of mine and had a nice leisurely bike ride. Afterward we met up again to go to the Taste of Madison at Capitol Square. A lot of restaurants from Madison (some big chains too) have small entrees for $4 or less. I had polish sausage, paad thai, french fries, and an ice cream float. It was delicious. I had a lot of fun showing off to my co-workers (two from Illinois and one from Minnesota) my familiarity with Wisconsin.

Today I did quite a bit. I hit up Craigslist and bought a set of chairs and a desk from a guy about to move to Canada. I saw the chairs about 20 minutes after they went up, called him and checked them out. I bought them and he asked if I wanted anything else at his place. He had a nice looking desk for a decent price so I jumped on that. He even disassembled it for me so I could fit it into my car. I just assembled the desk and am now sitting at it.

I still have quite a bit to do. I'm not sure I want my desk where I have it. I was originally planning on putting it in a more open part of my living room but I decided to put it next to where my cable modem and router are. (Loyal reader: "Well, Ted, we all have no idea what your place looks like!" Me: "Okay, I'll clean up my place relatively soon and take some sweet pictures.")

I also need to furniture shop again tomorrow. I went and scouted out different furniture stores for mattress and bed prices. There wasn't one store that popped out at me as THE store to get my furniture, but at least I know a price range so I can plan it out and attack tomorrow. Here's all of what I need:

• Bed (frame, preferably wood)


• Mattress with box spring


• Dresser


• Coffee table

Steinhafel's is having a pretty good sale and American will throw in a LCD TV if I spend enough money, so I'll check those places out. I'm also considering a place over on East side that a friend recommended. Big day tomorrow!

Re-Connected

Okay, so I finally got the Internet again. Charter (the Internet company) took a while getting here (I guess it didn't help that I was only available weekends) but they got everything set up.

The first two weeks at Epic (hello, all my co-workers reading this) have been pretty good. I've been meeting a lot of new people and doing a lot of orientation and training. I did get an opportunity to do some semi-hands-on stuff this past week and I really liked it. I'm really looking forward to finishing up training.

My new apartment is pretty nice. I'll try to clean it up here pretty soon and take some pictures for all to see. It's on the west side of Madison about 2 1/2 miles away from the office I'll be spending most of my time at. It's spacious, the management is nice and it has a pool (which I haven't tried out yet). I still need to put some effort into furnishing, however: while I do have a couch, TV, kitchen table and Xbox, I still need to get a bed (I've been sleeping on a portable mattress), a dresser, chairs and some more living room furniture. Once the money starts coming in it shouldn't be long.

This afternoon I'm probably going to be going to a sweet corn festival in Sun Prairie with some co-workers. I love sweet corn. As for this week, I'll be doing some more training and some more tinkering around with and getting used to things at work. Should be fun!

Back from the dead

Okay, I know I'm done with vacation and everything and I'm back in the States. That doesn't mean my life is boring now, does it?

One of the reasons I called this blog "The Adventures of Ted" and not "Ted Overseas" or something like that was because I planned on keeping up with it after I got done with my voyages. I know I've been neglectful for a good month, but let's just try to make this a step in the right direction.

I got back from Saudi Arabia all fine. Being home is good, but not having anything to do with the lion's share of your time wears on you after a while. I've seen my friends and relatives, got a lot of people caught up on me, and caught up on a lot of goings on.

Good news, though: I have a job lined up. I will be starting work with Epic Systems in Madison, Wisconsin on August 4th. I'll be doing computer setups for hospitals. It's somewhat of a bummer I won't be doing anything with my Chinese right away, but I think I can keep up with it as long as I don't get lazy about it. Madison has quite a few Chinese speakers and I know where I can go to practice.

So in this coming week I'm getting ready for moving down to Madison. I have to arrange temporary housing, get my stuff organized (which I've started!), find an apartment to rent, and get generally situated. I haven't zeroed in on a moving day but it will be sometime within the next seven days. Until then!

Good times in Saudi Arabia

In three hours I'm taking a cab to Bahrain, where I'll be heading on a plane (via London and Chicago) back to Minnesota. It will have been 10 months and 9 days (or 314 days) since I have been home.

I've been having a fabulous time in Saudi Arabia. Greg and Amy have been fantastic hosts and my cousins have been a load of fun. Their pets are pretty fun too, especially their dog Morrie (who enjoys chasing geckos).

I've been here since Friday, and the week in Saudi Arabia goes from Saturday until Wednesday so most of my time here has been during their week. While they've been at work (my uncle is an HR rep and my aunt is a reading teacher) and school I've been relaxing around the house, going to the beach, and working a little bit on my impending job search. I also got a chance to meet Clements, my aunt and uncle's assistant around the house. He's from India and a very nice guy.

In the evenings I'd do fun stuff with the family. Twice we went into Rahima, the non-gated town about a 5 minute drive away. We got dinner there twice, which was absolutely delicious (I'm a big fan of the Shawarma, which is basically an Arabian burrito). On Sunday night I also got the chance to see Emily and Gus in concert, singing and playing a few select songs.

All in all I've had a fantastic time here. The weather has been quite hot but it's also pretty windy. Because of the wind I've been in a "Shmal" (kinda like a sandstorm), but their idea of horribly sandy air looks a lot like a major city like Bangkok or Taipei to me.

Although I've been able to get on the Internet, I can't seem to access webpages on my personal computer. As a result, I can't post pictures until I'm back home, but I've got quite a few good ones.

Buuuut before I get home I've got a lot of flying to do. Later!

In Bahrain with family

Between the last time I've posted and now, I went to the beach again in Phuket, flew from Phuket to Bangkok, picked up a suit in Bangkok, flew from Bangkok to Dubai, flew from Dubai to Bahrain, went through customs in Bahrain (which took an hour of waiting in line), got to the hotel in Bahrain, waited, and met up with my uncle Greg and cousins Ben and Gus.

My plane arrived at 8:30 AM and my uncle couldn't make it until 3:30, so I took some pictures around the hotel I'm staying at.


Downtown Bahrain.



The hotel has its own little ocean swimming area.


That's me, Gus, and Ben, giving thumbs up at a the hotel we ate at and that we're going to stay tomorrow night.


Me and my uncle.


We played some pool at Sherlock Holmes, an English pub. Gus wiped the floor with me.


In the cab on the way home.

So yesterday was great. Today we're going to see the Grand Mosque and maybe see a bit of the real Bahrain.

It's good to see some family.

I may have a new favorite place in the world

Let me tell you something about Phuket: It is WONDERFUL. Today I had an absolutely magnificent day on this island. Let me tell you about it.

Yesterday, I took a plane from Bangkok to Phuket and took the bus then walked to my hostel, the Backpacker's Hostel. It's a really nice place in the largest town in Phuket, aptly named Phuket. After settling in and grabbing some eats around the area, I suggested to some fellow guests at the hostel that we rent scooters and cruise around the island. One guy, John (an Australian carpenter) was willing.

This morning I rented a scooter (200 baht, about $6 US). We decided first to head over to Patong beach, the most popular beach on the island.





The way they do paragliding in Phuket: You run off on the shore and a Thai guy grabs onto the parachute as you're taking off. He sits up with you during your trip. When the time comes, he steers you down on the shore where two other Thai fellows grab on.

After a brief run-in with the law (not me being naughty, John got a ticket for not carrying his Australian license with him), we went to Kamala beach.



We did not heed the "No Swimming" sign and swam. It was magnificent. After that we headed towards a national park.



We saw some elephants on the side of the road. They had elephant rides available but I passed. I had a perfectly fine mode of transportation as it was.

We got to the national park, which (according to our map) has a waterfall. However, there was an admission fee for the park and John had spent all his money on his unexpected ticket, so we decided to head back to our hostel in Phuket. We took a thirty minute break, did a 7-11 run, got some gas, and headed towards the southern half of the island. On the way there, John and I got separated: he was speeding ahead of me and took a turn which I didn't see him take. So I finished my touring of the island by myself.



I forget the name of this beach but it was beautiful.



This is at the Karon Viewpoint, where I buckled down and asked someone to take a picture of me. Now I have proof that I was actually in Phuket (unless you think there's some photoshop conspiracy).



This is Promthep Cape, which is advertised as the best place to see the sunset on the island. I got there about 4:30 and the sun didn't set until 6:41, so I grabbed some eats at nearby foodstands, did some souvenir shopping, took a few pictures, and hopped back on the scooter.



This was taken from the Promthep Cape Alternate Power Station, which is about a 5 minute drive away. They have a couple wind power stations there.



Here's the pic I got of the sunset. Clouds were blocking the horizon, but still got a decent snap.

(I have a few more pictures on my Facebook album, take a look.)

So here I am back at the hostel, a little sunburnt, tired, and satisfied after a full day. I was thinking about going to Phi Phi Island tomorrow, but the weather doesn't look very promising. I might just have a laid back day around here, which would also be pretty fun. (I could put up my other Bangkok photos too!) On Tuesday I'm heading back to Bangkok and then flying to Dubai then Bahrain. I'll keep y'all up to date!