72 hours with a boomer: Episode 1

A boomer and a millennial chatting. This is not the boomer from the story, just a google image.

Today I am going to start the first of a three part blog story called “72 hours with a boomer”. It is the story of a boomer I met while in Thailand in the late summer of 2019. I have changed job names, hotel names, company names and the name of the boomer in the story. Here is the look of those things you may find in the story:

The boomer: A large man, shaved head, tattoos and a body showing past gym work that has somewhat faded.

Nawaf: A Saudi worker, who works in the embassy in Bangkok

We slept you: A hotel in the backstreets of the business district where we were given board by the Saudi company. About a five minute to the Saudi Embassy in Bangkok.

Rank1teachers inc: The company me and the boomer now work for.

Thobe and Shmaq professional University: The Saudi University I work for. Called TSPU.

International Bedouin school: The secondary school for failed students and for teacher who The Saudi Company don’t want working at the Saudi University. Called IBS.

Ok, now that we are familiar, let us begin.

Beylikduzu, near Eski Beylikduzu/Esenyurt, where I was living at the beginning of this story.

The story actually begins in Istanbul, Turkey. I was working for an overseas English school. I worked for 28 days on an oil ship as an English teacher, teaching Kurdish, Azerbaijani, and Turkish workers. Then I was supposed to get 28 days of vacation time off the ship and on shore. No matter where I lived, they would pay for my flights, taxis and hotels on my way to the ship. During my onshore time I was staying in a lesser known area of Istanbul called “Esenyurt”, which is near Beylikduzu.

The location of Beylikduzu/Esenyurt in Istanbul.

It was getting close to the end of my onshore time, but there was one small problem. The company I was employed with, had a contract with the ship and the contract was ending. I also had a 4 month preliminary contract and that was also going to end after my next offshore trip. A friend kept asking me what I was going to do if the contract ended, but I was sure it would continue. Still, to be safe I considered teaching online. After doing some research it seemed like I could make more than enough money doing that, so I made that my backup plan.

Fatih, Turkey’s first oil drilling ship. I spent 70 days there in total.

However, on this trip, I started to get annoyed at my company. They wanted daily lesson plans emailed, and kept me on the ship for 5 weeks instead of 4. I also, was annoyed at them, as every time I gave them feedback they just down played it or ignored it. In my mind, I started planning to not renew my contract, and decided I would pursue the online teaching gig. Even though, I decided this, I thought it was a bad idea to tell them early. I didn’t want it to affect my salary, or transportation getting back to Istanbul.

My online teaching setup.

Back in Istanbul, I set off to setup my online teaching background and also applied to work at three different online companies. The interviews went well, but there were some technical problems. They wanted me to have a 120 hour TEFL and I only had a 100 hour one. PayPal was banned in Turkey. The only option was to do a wire transfer to pay for the company’s online TEFL course. I went to the bank but they refused to do the transfer, saying that I had to do it online because it was cheaper. They were right of course, it was $75 to do the wire transfer inside the bank, and only $25 online.

I decided to try another online company. This time they accepted my TEFL but the interviewer seemed disinterested the entire time and they offered me the base pay. They wanted a criminal background check done from the US, but at the time I didn’t have a bank or credit card, so it was impossible to pay for one.

I sat thinking about how hard doing online teaching was in Turkey. Also, after reading about the stress and problems teachers were having while teaching online, I thought a bit. “Why work for $2,800 a month online, when I could just go to Oman or Saudi Arabia and make the same money?” Thus, I set off to apply for teaching jobs.

It wasn’t hard to get a job offer from Saudi Arabia. I was teacher with 5 years of teaching experience at that time, so I applied for 12 jobs in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. In 24 hours I heard back from 3 jobs in Saudi Arabia. I chose a company called “Rank1teachers.” I was then told I needed to start the visa process at the Saudi Embassy, by the company’s visa agent.

America, or America?

The people at the embassy and the visa process center both told me that I couldn’t apply for a visa in Turkey, but would need to return to the USA to do the visa. The visa agent at rank1teachers kept working for a solution, but then I didn’t hear from him for awhile.

Some current jobs on a job site for ESL teachers called “Tefl.com”

With my savings dwindling down to $1,500, I was getting a bit desperate. The truth was that in Turkey, my personal cost of living every month was $381. This meant I still had a good 4-6 months left of savings, but I was in a bit of a panic anyhow. I applied for every job I could find on TEFL.com and a few other ESL job finding sites. I had around 10 interviews, mostly for jobs in Poland and Russia, but I also had a few from Italy, Kazakhstan and China. The Russian jobs also wanted me to go to the USA to get the visa, the Italian job interviewer asked me if I knew how to do the visa process as an American (she didn’t know). Finally, the Polish job interviews went well, but in the end I wasn’t able to get either of those either.

A couple of Whatsapp voice messages

After applying for around 81 jobs, doing a little over a dozen interviews and being out of almost all options, I got a voice message from Nawaf, the visa agent from “Rank1teachers”. He gave me an offer, that I couldn’t refuse. He would fly me to Thailand and pay for the ticket, I would pay for my hotel and he would do he visa in Thailand. Then after the visa was completed he would fly me to Riyadh. At first, I was a little bit afraid, not knowing what was going to happen. However, he was paying for he flight, so I thought in the worst case scenario, I could find a job in Thailand or return to Turkey and teach there if it didn’t work out. I told him, “send me the flight information and I will do it.”

A Thai plane, soaring through the sky.

I packed my essentials, gave my key to a close Turkish friend, and told him to keep it and if the visa was successful to give it to my landlord. He agreed and the landlord also agreed.

Less than 48 hours later, I was soaring through the sky and ready to flip through the time zones. When I landed, I would be in a region I had never been in before, with no internet or phone plan, no idea how to get around, and nothing more than the airport WiFi to work with. Surely there would be a line of taxi drivers licking their chops and ready to help me, as soon as I arrived.

My hero, ready to milk me for all I was worth.

When I left the customs area, the airport was large and packed full of people. Surprisingly enough, I was able to get my luggage pretty quickly. I got in a queue to get a taxi driver. My message from Nawaf, told me “see you in thirty minutes”. For some reason, I didn’t believe that was going to happen.

As I drove across Bangkok, I sat wondering how much the fare was going to cost. The ride was at about 2 hours, when we arrived at the embassy, and it was closed.

Thai Motorcyclists and moped drivers.

He took me towards the hotel, which took around 45 minutes to get to (it would take me 7 minutes on foot). The first thing I noticed, was the large amount of people in traffic on motorcycles and mopeds. It was like I was surrounded by a Mongolian horde. Finally, we left the main road and were going down narrow dirt back-roads. When we arrived at the hotel, I expected my fare to cost 1,000 to 2,000 BAHT, but it was only 700 ($21).

A hotel in Thailand called “Pietra”, mine was called “We slept U hotel”.

I stepped out of the cab and gathered my bag. The hotel was called “We slept you Hotel.” I opened the door and prepared “to get slept”. Nawaf had signed me up for 7 days, so it seemed like he expected I would be there at least a week. I got the key and made for my room. The interior was new and nice to look at (unlike the neighborhood).

A familiar sight in Bangkok.

As I laid down to sleep, I knew I was about to sleep well. Then from the neighbor on my left I heard a familiar moaning and knocking sound. Someone next to me was “getting slept”. When they were done (3 minutes later), the other neighbor had a turn. After the battle of the bangs had ended, I did get a really good night’s sleep.

The streets of Bangkok.

The next morning, I got a new message from Nawaf, asking me to come to the embassy again. I told him, “be there in thirty minutes”. I checked the route on google maps. I tried to memorize it, but no matter how long I stared at it, I knew deep down, I was going to be getting lost. Sure enough, things weren’t looking good as I walked around. I asked a few people where the Saudi Embassy was. Finally, someone knew. I made it back to where I had started from, then went the right way.

Nobody was inside, I made my way up the stairs to a room where there were a few people working. Nawaf was there with a large man. He sounded American. He was wearing shorts, a T-shirt and had a shaved head. He was a boomer for sure. I was told by a Thai office worker to have a seat.

It wasn’t long before I was talking to Nawaf, face to face, for the first time. He thanked me for trusting him and told me about how things were going to go. I asked him about half a dozen questions, then he told me what he needed from me. I was to bring it back in the afternoon. With the meeting over, I headed back downstairs. As I walked out of the doors of the embassy, there was the man again. Waiting for me at the corner of the embassy. It was the boomer.

A boomer, shirtless, on a beach somewhere. Not the boomer, who I met.

He was friendly, talking to me as if we had met before. I thought it was slightly awkward, but I had no one else to talk to, so I thought “Might as well”. I told him I was heading back to the hotel and he offered to help me get back there. He told me, he was staying in the same one. On our way back to the hotel he talked my ear off. Both of them, were on the ground by the time we made it to the hotel. It was as if he had been waiting to talk to someone. He talked about his experience in Thailand, China, and got dreamy about the nostalgia from the olden days “before the other tourists came”. When we made it to the hotel, I told him I needed to go back to the embassy with some documents and he said he had the same problem. He talked to me for another 10 minutes in the lobby and then I told him I would meet him in 20 minutes to go back to the embassy.

That’s it for now folks.

Thank you for reading this first episode and making it to this sentence. What will the boomer do to me? What will he talk about? Will we go somewhere?

You’ll have to find out next week, when I post the 2nd episode of this 3 episode story!

All the items I have left from America

Nowadays, being a nomad is more popular than ever. Digital nomads are especially popular. Some come and go, but some who go to far away lands, may never return home again. It’s interesting to see what minimalist nomads keep. What heirlooms, devices and even clothes that remain after several years.

Gathered here, are all the items I have that I have kept, since leaving the US in August 2014.

I am no different. I left the US in August of 2014. New York City was my last stop. I sat on the grass with a guy named John. We took the subway to the airport and soon, I would never seen America again. Here on the bed are all the items I could find, that I still have. In the blog today, I would like to try to show and tell about everything that still remains. The items will be in no particular order. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

A Toshiba external harddrive. It is 1.5 TB and I bought it in 2012, it still works.

This is an external hard drive that I bought during a summer camp in 2012. I had a 500 GB hard drive that was 5 times it size, yet had 1/3 less capacity. The drive still works, and is 8 years old now. I try not to keep anything important on it, that isn’t backed up somewhere else to be safe.

The passport i had when I left in 2014. It is no longer valid.

Here’s my first passport. It is no longer valid. They punch holes in passports when you get a new one. If they hadn’t done that, then I would have had two passports for 6 months.

2008

2018

2019 (Saudi Visa inside the 2018 passport)

Take a look at all the photos, aren’t they beautiful? I feel like I look the youngest in the 2019 visa. What do you think?

A folder.

Here is a folder, from my Theatre UAF days. But, what’s inside?

A UAF alumni bumper sticker.

What it would look like on a car.

Inside the binder there are different portfolios and other documents. Also UAF alumni regalia.

A samsung USB microphone that is now 10 years old.

This is the microphone I used to record the audio for my undergraduate film thesis called Swede Dreams. It was a 9 minute 2-d animation. Nowadays I use this for online classes and recording other things I need to record. It still works well after 10 years of use.

A really old mp3 player.

This was the first mp3 player I ever bought. I still have it for some reason. I bought it back in 2012, when I bought an Iphone 2. The mp3 player came with it for free. I’m sure they were just trying to get rid of them.

A jaw harp

This is a jaw harp that I bought at a folk music festival. It was in Richmond VA inside of a civil war building. I can make some notes with it, but don’t really know how to play any songs.

A lighter, tick scoop and two knives.

These four items, came mostly from America. The lighter, I bought while in Norway. I’ve used it mostly as a bottle cap opener as you can see by the bottom, that looks like its been chewed on. The tick scoop I got while working at a summer camp and I put it to good use. I had 38 ticks that summer. I still have it just in case. I can almost feel them crawling on me now!

The green knife my brother bought me as a gift with my name written on it. The black knife I got in a package of 5 knives from my father. Its been used for many things, including slashing someone’s tires. Nope, I didn’t do it. A friend asked to borrow it and I found out what it was used for later. :/

Sea shells down by the sea shore.

Sea shells collected from the time I was a kid and up to when I was 24 years old. Mostly collected from Myrtle Beach South Carolina and the shores of Northern Norway. (Tomma island and Nesna). Looks like some of them are broken. #sadface.

Some hats.

Three hats from America. The Redskins hat is obvious, I’m a Redskins fan. The knitted hat was made by my great grandmother from Norway. I’m not sure when it was knitted, but I like to tell people “1925”. The last hat was a hat I bought in Alaska, and I get to use sometimes when its cold.

Currencies from half a dozen countries.

Some of these currencies were collected after I left America, but most of them were collected before I left. Here there are currencies from Germany before the EU, America, Norway, Turkey, Thailand, Poland, Hungary, Canada and Brazil.

A young wolf’s head’s skin.

This is a wolf’s head. Ok it’s the wolf’s head’s skin. One year at UAF there was an art class that was giving away different animal skins. One of my Finnish friends named Minerva got a full bear’s skin, and I got this wolf head’s skin. I’ve got an idea of creating a hat with it or maybe a glove, but then I would need a second one.

My mother’s family tree.

My mother is a studier of dead people. Ok, she’s a genealogist. She gave me this copy of her side of the family and their records. According to this, our first white relative was born in the US in 1693. There are some Polish tongue twister names such as: “Zdziarski” and “Wyszk”

A knife I made that started out as a steel 440 block.

This knife took 50 hours to make. It was the second knife I made in a knife making course at UAF. This is a curved blade and has a brass finger guard and a plaster handle. The material it rests on is a piece of the t-shirt I used while making both the knives. It was an old t-shirt that had “You are just jealous because the voices speak to me” written on it.

Here are some more angles, looking at the blade.

Bracelets from “Traena Festival”.

These are bracelets from Traena Festival. I went there in 2009 and 2010. This is a music festival on an island in Northern Norway and of course the island is called “Traena”. Both years I went there were blast. It is mostly drinking and talking, but once in awhile you go down to the concert area and listen to music. There is also a concert in a cave and mountain climbing expeditions.

Man jewelry

From left to right: high school class ring, Thor’s hammer, key chain, and UAF alumni pin. The Thor’s hammer was a replacement for a Thor’s hammer given to me by a woman I met in a German class. It was supposedly blessed to soothe anger, kind of ironic if you think about it.

Friendship bracelets from a camp I worked at in West Virginia.

Now there was a time when I could list the people who gave me these bracelets. Sadly, I can’t remember now. But I do know two of them were given to me by Martina (Friend from Slovakia) and Roman (Friend from the Czech Republic). I think Lukasz (also from Czech Republic) gave me one too.

Civil Air Patrol decorations and rank.

Here are ribbons and rank insignias from a military youth group I was in called Civil Air Patrol (CAP). I was in there for two and a half years. I became the first sergeant of my squadron and reached Chief Master Sergeant rank. I also went to two encampments and logged 240 hours of community service.

A packet of real photos.

Photos I used to keep in my wallet. Now they rest in my heirloom bag. Check below for a look at the individual photos.

All of the photos

Senior prom photo with my date named Christian.

North Carolina encampment ball photo with my date named Margaret. This was in the summer of 2000 and was my second of two encampments that summer.

A photo of my great grand parents. The man is of Irish, French, Powhatan and Cherokee descent. The woman is of Scottish descent. This is according to genealogy records.

My sister named Suzanne.

My brother named Ted and his dog named Shiloh.

Friends from early childhood. The man leaning on the airplane is named Hamilton and was my friend in CAP. The girl in the other two photos is named Rachel and was my pen-pal from 12-15. She was from Kalamazoo Michigan.

My mother named Victoria.

My grandparents on my father’s side. The man named Kenneth is of Norwegian and Danish descent. The woman named Charlotte is a huge mix of Dutch, German, Swedish, Welsh, Irish, Scottish and English.

A Norwegian Christmas tree ornament.

This interesting Norwegian Christmas ornament that I have kept for 8 years has a cool story to it. I was visiting Norway and at my Norwegian relatives farm. We went to one of his friend’s for Christmas eve. They had a dinner and after the dinner we opened presents. One of the presents had instructions written in English but there were some errors. We took turns seeing how many mistakes we could find. I ended up finding 9 and so they let me have one of their ornaments as a reward.

Stuffed animals I kept from my childhood.

These stuffed animals might be older than some people reading. The white dog on the right is 29 years old and the blue dog on the left is 23. I loved the 101 dalmations story as a kid so I got the white puppy who is a character from the movie named “Penny”. She’s got a cracked eye now, but besides that doesn’t look bad. The funky dog on the left is named “Kipp”. He needs some eye and nose work. Besides that he is still pretty fluffy.

Cutco equipment

I used to work for a cutlery company called cutco. I had a sample kit that included these knives and scissors. As an option, you could buy your own sample kit, so I did. I have now had these for 7 years, haven’t sharpened them and they are still sharp. The scissors come apart for easy cleaning and they are pretty strong, as you can cut through pennies with them. The amazing trick only works if the penny is made of copper though. (Nowadays a lot of pennies are no longer made of copper)

My only clothes left from America.

Ok, here is the last photo. The only clothes I have left from America. A pair of “And1” shorts and a basic T-shirt. My style has changed over the years being abroad and some clothes have also worn out.

Well, I hope you enjoyed all of these photos and stories. If you made it here, I’d also like to thank you for reading everything or at least looking at the pictures. Go ahead and sign up if you would like to be emailed when new blogs are posted below:

Mountains

On every mountain there are bumps and bruises. In every mountain there is a story. A personality, and a peak, where wandering minds can start dreaming.

Mountains in Italy

Some hang high in the sky, with lots of similar neighbors lying by.

Sexten Dolomites of northeastern Italy

Others like to stand out with a couple of towering friends. Looking like battlements, waiting for some risky settlements.

A Japanese mountain waiting for the fall.

Still some lie in the distance, alone, waiting to be climbed.

Some guy climbing

So climb them, rock after rock and ridge after ridge. Learn everything about their personality and listen closely to their story.

Olympus Mars is the highest point on the surface of Olumpus Mons which stands about 24km high, compared to about 5km for Mount Everest on Earth. It is only about 500km diameter at the base

Ascend higher and higher, go to outer space. Have a look at your own face. when you compare the distance to the stars. See how it towers above mount Everest.

The town of Nesna - population 1,902.

I climbed a mountain once, it overlooked a small town. Usually on the streets there weren’t that many people around. Yet, the greatest thing about the towns features, were the steps and minutes, until you were at the base of the mountain and its baaing creatures.

The first plateau of Hammarøytinden, a mountain in northern Norway.

Only a thirty minute mountain hike. A great place to sit on a bench, have lunch, overlook the town one last time. Before you will continue and see what else you can find.

The second plateau of Hammarøytinden, a mountain in northern Norway.

About forty minutes later, make it to the second plateau. Walk to and fro, but be careful about the distance. It looks like it should take two minutes to get to the end, but it will take forty more minutes to get there and back again.

The third and final plateau of Hammarøytinden, a mountain in northern Norway.

If you dare, continue, up higher and higher, hopefully you won’t tire. By the time you reach the end, it will have been three hours and another three before you see the ground again. From this peak, look out and seek. You will see many islands, and one island in the furthest distance. It is Traena, the last island you will see before you reach Iceland.