Employment: pizza maker, lawyers assistant, college bakery, RA in dorms, orientation advisor, waitress, Moroccan rug sales, turned toast at Munich Oktoberfest, pub worker/bartender in London, waitress, substitute teacher, ESL teacher in Thailand, sales for a ‘grown up’ company in Boston, bartender, caterer, mini restaurant owner, homesteader, caretaker for the elderly, designer in England, PR in Jamaica, water-ski instructor, co-owner of massage education business, tour operator (really what I do is far more involved than what those two words indicate), designer/accessories, marketing.
To avoid the ‘real world’ we created several businesses which actually forced us into some very real world living:
- One World Kids-designed to help hill tribe children in Northern Thailand learn English and purchase school supplies.
- Sensorio-catering business that started itself and turned into a restaurant (on-two times a week we would open our doors to the public and serve a 5 course meal in our living room-smashing success!!!.
- Saffron Concepts-this was so brief I don’t even remember exactly what we did-had something to do with design.
- Zen Thai-Thai massage education with Martin as the educator and I the every-thing else person. Zen Thai continues to be www.zenthai.org. Martin is not teaching as much anymore, opting instead to have a private practice in Asheville which has taken off fantastically! Despite all the dull pieces of the job, we have been on cruises, to Costa Rica, Las Vegas, and many return trips to Thailand which in turn manifested-Culture Junkies Travel http://www.culturejunkies.org/
- Culture Junkies Travel-Tours with a delightful purpose: massage courses, yoga retreats, spa hopping and pampering as well as cultural tours (we are going to Brazil in April to see www.ashesandsnow.org and in 2010 to China for a textile tour). http://www.culturejinkies.org/
Places I have been: Greece is where it all started at the tender age of 16. I was an exchange student and I was having a dickens of a time with culture shock (although at the time I had no idea what culture shock was). I was ready to ‘run away’ when I called home and my Dad told me to be an American when in America and a Greek when in Greek. He hung up on me and I cried for 2 days. When I emerged from myself pity, I wandered out to the dinner table where my Greek father was devouring beans soaked in olive oil and a fish head. He handed me a piece of thick brown bread and gestured to a plate.
I never looked back.
Canada, England, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, France, Monaco, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia (Sumatra, Siberut, Bali, Java) Bangladesh (completely spontaneous side trip that turned out to be AMAZINZG), Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Jamaica, Antigua, Aruba.
Places yet to see….Papua New Guinea, Boreno, China, Prague, Mongolia, Tibet, Belize, Belize, Belize-when will I get there????, Ethiopia, travel down the Mekong from China to Vietnam, Afghanastan, Turkey, Kenya, Congo.............................................
Things yet to do (aka Bucket List): Photograph Big Game, dive the Great Barrier Reef, wine tour Italy/France/Spain/Chile/is there anywhere else I should add?, Sistine chapel, another Puja in India…I am sure there is more, but it is late-more to come….
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