We came over here with two suitcases and carry-ons.

A big part of the move for us was a great opportunity to reset and live into our values. I'm still grateful for that chance, and have been thinking about and tracking all our purchases as we bring them into the house but I think the surprising part is that the 'set up' part of reseting is taking much longer than we expected. Now that we've re-established some kind of normalcy and level of comfort at home, I feel like I can finally reflect on this process a bit.

In some ways, Thailand is different than back home, things are done differently, and just take longer in general and take longer to figure out with the cultural and language barriers. In other ways, we have personally changed our lifestyle so we have different resources than we might have if we just tried to replicate our life in Minnesota.

I remember the exhaustion of learning everything new from last time I was here but I didn't realize how exhausting it would be to start over from scratch, even if it's a really cool experience. There are lots of fully furnished condos in Chiang Mai but we didn't want to find a tourist-oriented house with tourist prices. So we found a little neighborhood with an large unfurnished rowhouse, and we have been steadily filling it to a level of comfort that we basically arrived at today, meaning, somewhere to sit, somewhere to sleep, somewhere to clean and cook and somewhere to put things down. It's so strange to be in this phase of mandatory consumption. Thai kitchens are much simpler than we're used to and usually freestanding, so we had to buy an entire kitchen (fridge, counter/table, sink set, shelf, and propane stove - the final missing piece). But we're getting there! It's a relief to know that we may be able to slow down again soon, in the meantime we've been trying to relax and create and relish all the sweet moments of beginning again.

If you can take a minute, slow down, go somewhere quiet with someone you love and listen to this Iron and Wine cover of the classic "This Must be the Place." It has reached us perfectly in this time.

This must be the place!