Progress: Pajamas Found!
Progress: Pajamas Found!
On Saturday, while in the Bronx visiting their wonderful zoo, I stopped by one of those really cheap but total rat hole clothing stores. There I found the cheapest pajamas ever. My first find was a long one-size-fits-all night t-shirt for $3 then I continued to look and found a set with calf length pants and matching tee for $3. For a couple of moments I pondered which to buy and then I decided what the heck, I'd splurge and buy both for a whopping $6. And thankfully neither are super cutesy (one has 60s flowers and the other are a blue star/moon theme). I will test them out in the coming summer months and choose then.
I am still looking for the perfect bank, ideally, in all my destinations. I called Chase yesterday. I was told that they were in ChangMai, Thailand. It turned out that no they were not. So, I asked what were the fees to use a non-Chase ATM. $3! Plus 3.5% conversion fee (from usd$ to Thai Baht). Good lord. Am I crazy or are these fees ridiculously high?
I went looking for Standard Chartered as listed on their website. Couldn't find it. It was suppose to be at 23rd and Madison. I sent them email and of course I have heard nothing. It was the same thing with Chase. Why do they have email contacts if no one is going to respond? What is the point?
Did I mention that I have added Citibank to the running? Turns out they are every where. It seems that my choices at this point are Citibank and HSBC but unfortunately neither is in ChangMai. I guess it will come down to ATM and conversion fees. I have recently heard about this cool feature that HSBC has in which you can move money back and forth between any of your accounts, regardless of which bank. That really could come in handy. Plus I think it gets some high interest rate of 4.5% - well high these days.
Still haven't decided of exact departure date. I guess I can go anytime after the 1st of the year but I really don't want to show up on New Year's day. Since I am going home for the holidays, I won't be going before the New Year. I could do another 9-day meditation retreat at IMS but it doesn't end until the 7th or something. It totally would be a great way to start the year but it seems odd to do a retreat in the US before I go to a Buddhist country. Perhaps I can find one there.
Yesterday I ran into my downstairs neighbor, Park. He is moving to Bangkok July 1! Good for me. Now I have a solid contact in Bangkok. It gives me a bit of a piece of mind. I am a little disappointed that he won't be around to teach me Thai or to answer my questions. I guess I can still email him with questions. He didn't invite me to stay nor did he offer his email address but it is still nice to have him to fall back on. I do have a few contacts to friends of friends in Thailand but it is still great to have someone whom I know personally.
Yesterday I edited the letter of invitation and the contract from Ne-na'. Although the English was fine, it is interesting because of the choice of words. I know how this runs, you don't know the word so you look it up in a dictionary. For example, he wrote that they reviewed my materials and they very much appreciate. Well, not exactly wrong but not exactly correct. I was also surpassed by his usage of the phrase "went through" instead of the word reviewed. That was totally correct but it is a phrase that an English speaker would use when talking not one I would think would be listed in a dictionary.
That's all for now. I think I will go to HSBC and ask a few questions.
I'll keep you posted.