Blogs from Virginia, United States, North America - page 127

currently sitting on the veranda at butch's uncle's house...about a stone throws away from the water...the sun is out the vibes are up, and the coffe is flowing... sad to say...it is now just "the butch and jeremiah show"...our travel mate, cara...has left us for greener and cleaner pastures...long story short, it wasn't her cup of tea... we left the mountains to head into ashland...stopped right outside of cuckoo to have some lunch. pulled off the side of the road to one of those trailers that serves smoked b-b-q...they enjoyed our story and company that they served us lunch for free...and it was mighty fine...(by the way, they do catering and all sorts of events...i got the hook up if needed)... we stayed at a campground that night...butch and i kept a nice fire going...and got ... read more

Moving back to the States this time we experienced the worst culture shock ever; nothing like going from the States to Thailand. For one, when I came home from work the first evening and asked Linda “Hi, honey, what’s for supper?” she answered “Nothing, YOU fired the cook.” Secondly, although I was soon promoted to GS-12 my paycheck was effectively reduced by 40% or more as I no longer received a housing allowance that paid for rent and utilities, a 25% cost of living allowance that reflected the extra cost of living at U.S. standards in Thailand, and hardship pay for working in a remote dangerous place. Meanwhile, the cost of living in the Washington, DC metropolitan area was much higher than Thailand. So we even had to budget for the laundromat. We rented a one ... read more