Hello all,
My name's Shyaporn, Shy for short, and I'm an American-born Thai fellow. My mother came to the States for college, stayed for higher-education and career and, after 30+ years in the U.S. finally returned to Thailand when opportunities in the field of education and civic work beckoned. She sadly passed away unexpectedly at the end of December 2012 while doing academic outreach work with children and educators in Burma, as a result of complications from a fall she took that led to a stroke. (I'd post a link to a blog post I made detailing her many accomplishments, but apparently I need four more posts for that
As for myself, I was raised in the States and had only come back to Thailand three times during summer breaks in my childhood, until about the age of 10 or 11. I remembered picking up the language while I was here and then promptly forgetting it upon my return home. My parents divorced at an early age and no one ever really spoke it to me, and I was a rather rambunctious child with little patience for linguistics, so it sits somewhere in the dark recesses of mind.
Which brings us to the here and now. With my mother's passing I've returned to Thailand again, some 30 years later. I don't speak the language, let alone being able to read it. And while my aunts and uncles live in houses across the street from my mother's home in the far West of Bangkok, around Sala Thammasop, they speak only a smattering to a fair amount of English amongst them. Communication is fine, but lacks the nuance I'd like to really get to know them better. I've little sense of the geography of the city, region and country and, being from New York, can't really drive all that well.
But I'd like that all to change. I'd like to learn (or re-learn) the language, familiarize myself with the culture, both traditional and modern, as well as explore the city and country. I was excited to see the gardening section here as my mother was an avid garden, as I, too, have become in recent years, so I'd like to maintain the large garden space here at the house she recently built for herself to retire into.
I do also have access to a mostly vacant condo that my mother was in the midst of trying to sell in downtown Bangkok, and will no doubt consult the boards for advice on that particular bit of business.
I will be here through the end of January attempting to, at least partially, put my mother's affairs in order, and expect to be back in a month or two to study Thai, get to know my family and my long-lost motherland a bit better as well. I think my life will still mostly be in New York, but I'm just realizing now that I have a home here in Thailand as well.
I'm delighted to have found this site, as it seems that most of the things I'm looking to accomplish with regards to Thailand are dealt with here. I look forward to getting to know the site and all of it's posters better in the coming months.
Cheers,
Shy