Mark Jochim

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In April 2006, I gave up the life I'd known and become comfortable in by moving from New Mexico in the States to Phuket Island in southern Thailand.
On a previous holiday I had met and fallen in love with a lovely woman from Lamphun Province in northern Thailand. Sangwan (her Thai nickname is "Tim", meaning "ruby") had been in Phuket during the December 2004 tsunami and what she saw in the aftermath still haunts her.
We were married in August 2006 and have established a nice home on the southern part of the island in the community of Chalong. Tim's son from her first marriage came to live with us just a couple of days before Christmas.
I am currently unemployed -- changes in immigration laws, the coup, and a crackdown in schools hiring foreign teachers have been unexpected obstacles -- but expect to be legally teaching with the start of the new term in May 2007.
In the meantime, I have been enjoying my new life with a new family (I've never been a husband or a father before) in a new country. Yes, there have been some frustrations and delights (the latter over the former) in learning a new language, new culture, and new bureaucracy (and the Thais seem to work hard at inventing new ways to increase the red tape). But I wouldn't trade any of it for anything else.
I chronicle my adventures in a blog at GOODNIGHT PHUKET , including many photos to make up for my long-winded commentary.