This is our website which has our updates and pictures of our trip abroad during 2004-2005.
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- Ricoy Update No. 8
- Ricoy Update No. 7
- Ricoy Update No. 6
- Ricoy Update No. 5
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- Ricoy Update No. 3
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Tom and Ronit Ricoy
Friday, March 25, 2005
Ricoy Update No. 9
Hello Again!
You know it's a good day when you have no idea what day it is and it doesn't really matter... This is the first week of our travel that has been that way and it's wonderful! If the computer date is correct, today is Good Friday, so Happy Easter!
It's been a while since our last update and we've had our ups and downs, but we've got some new directions to share: We're on our way home (briefly, in order to get student visas), but first we're soaking up the sun in Thailand. Then we're returning to Spain -- a summer study program in Salamanca and the fall semester in the Canary Islands (off the coast of Africa but part of Spain). Uncle Sam is making the loans and Tom is completing his degree while I also further my Spanish studies and work on designing our future home. When things weren't working out, we returned to our goals and dreams discussions, considering that unpleasant restrictions were impeding "Plan A," and we came up with a very exciting "Plan B."
Much of both Plan A and Plan B derived from discussions Tom and I had in which we put it all on the table -- all kinds of dreams and goals, big and little, realistic and not-so-realitic, important and just-kinda-fun. Then we looked at them seriously through the lens of our values and priorities and we found that after nailing down the big and important ones, it was still possible to fit in quite a few of the other ones, the kinds of things you normally wouldn't think possible, but really turned out to be quite possible. Tom jokes that he has to be careful what he wishes for aloud, because I'll take him seriously and start brainstorming ways to make it happen (except that I'm not yet on board with his Antarctica idea...), but he also says he loves it! (And one thing we love about each other is that we actually do make it happen, not just dream about it.) Out of those discussions came the travel year, our volunteer commitments, our decision to leave CA for an acre in TX, Tom's commitment to getting his degree, and so much more -- big things like these, but little things too. Though this year hasn't turned out quite as expected, we're fulfilling a lot of dreams and goals right now. We're also learning lessons about how to stay positive and find a Plan B when Plan A doesn't work out.
Right now I am experiencing a specific dream come true. One day last year I told Tom that one of my dreams was to live on a beach and to be able to hear the ocean waves crashing on the sand as I fell asleep and as I awoke. Obviously that's not financially possible in the U.S. and it's certainly not something I need, but it was a dream. "Even a month," I said, "anywhere in the world." Well, here we are in Thailand doing just that. All that stands between the porch of our $12 per night bungalow and the ocean is 20 feet of sand and a palm tree!!! I love it!!! There's no hot water (but the weather is hot), it's a tiny room with a little fan, and the toilet doesn't flush -- we pour buckets of water down it after use. But it is better than a luxury resort away from the beach. It is my dream come true. (And it doesn't hurt that there's a woman giving really good Thai massage on the beach for $5 immediately to our right.)
The truth is I'd been down and stressed out lately. I knew (and know!) how much I have to be grateful for, but that only made me feel guilty about my feelings. It was difficult to see physical limitations getting in the way of our long planned, saved-for, and dreamed-of backpacking round-the-world adventure. There were various other personal stressors in our lives and the lives of people we care about. Plus it's just difficult to be in pain all the time and discouraging to see relapses (accident injuries I'd expected to be healed by now) -- problems resurface and/or get worse when I thought I was past that. And the limitations that aren't going away sometimes make us fearful for the future and for other dreams and plans we have (pregnancy, holding or carrying a child, etc...). We are trying to trust God for the future -- He has been so good to us -- but trusting is sometimes easier said than done. I've found a good doctor in Madrid and she said that, given the nature of my injuries, my symptoms and relapses are understandable and will improve slowly but may not heal completely. She has been able to help me with treatments and physical therapy. (Though she's not covered by our travel insurance. Another stressor.) Anyway, recently, after losing a couple of days to a debilitating headache, wearing a neck collar and a knee brace and being pushed around in the wheelchair by my husband-turned-pack-animal (since he is carrying both our packs now), reality set in (duh) that I was not in shape for our budget backpacking globe-trotting adventure and that all of our re-scheduling (in hopes that I would be in a few months) was not sufficient. The trip, as we planned it, was just not feasible, for a variety of factors. Initially this was a big disappointment, but then we came up with...
Plan B: While the reasons for the changes derive from various difficulties, we revisited those goals and dreams discussions and we're really excited about our new plan, which includes aspects of Plan A plus other dreams and goals.
For one things, Tom has really gotten motivated working towards his degree. He started working in high school and was a CEO by the age of 26, so even though he took a college course here and there, he never pursued the degree. Last year Tom started his A.A. Business degree on-line and he's close to completing it (with a 4.00 GPA adds his proud wife). Our plan was that he'd complete the B.S. after we got home and settled, usually taking just one, sometimes two, classes at a time. That would take 6 years or so. Instead, we are re-focusing our plans to allow Tom to fast-track that goal. He is going to start an on-line B.S. degree program (Southwestern College, B.S. in Computer Programming Technology -- he actually loves that stuff) in May. Like the A.A., they will send him his books anywhere in the world and he can log on to turn in work. (We'll need to get him a new laptop and take it with us, though.) Between July and December, we will also spend 6 months as Spanish students in Spain. This will allow Tom to fulfill his elective credits with Spanish.
While Tom is devoting his energies to school (with a more-than-fulltime school schedule), I will also study Spanish, since it has long been a goal to become truly bilingual. This is true for both of us, and we want our kids to be bilingual English/Spanish as well. (Tom was joking, I think, that maybe we should come here to Thailand too and they can also learn Thai! Tom has been carrying around the Thai phrasebook and using Thai whenever and wherever he can. For now, I'm sticking to English and Spanish.) I'm also going to do a lot of research, learning and designing as I want to design our future home. We want to build a home on an acre outside of Austin, near Lake Travis. (My mother designed two hours and worked with the builders, supervising everything and doing some work herself. The first one was when I was 9 years old and I remember drawing architectural designs, just like Mom, as a kid, but I'd shelved the idea until Tom and I had the dreams discussions and now it's actually our plan.) There are various volunteer opportunities for me as well when we are living in Tenerife, but I will wait and see how I'm feeling (since healing is very high on the dream and goal priority list, so I don't want to overdo) before I commit.
In order to proceed with our plans, we need student visas. That requires a 45-day trip back to the U.S.A. We'll be back for part of May and much of June. During that time, we'll stay with Tom's mom, visit my grandma, take our stuff from the CA storage unit to a TX storage unit so it will be waiting for us when we move there) and see my parents either in CA or TX. Just a few weeks ago I was telling Tom how much I'd like to see my grandma, as well as my parents, but we didn't have any plans to return this year, and now even that will work out -- another wish come true.
If you're going to be in Southern California around the end of May, let's get together! (We'll plan a group dinner or something as the time gets closer and/or we can go out for coffee individually.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All of the above I wrote in my notebook yesterday (sitting by the beach) and am typing it in now at an air-conditioned Internet Cafe. Tom just got back from doing a beach dive (diving is on Tom's dream list... in the midst of some of these discussions, he got his PADI certification when we were engaged). I noticed this morning how LOUD the ocean was today -- perhaps because it's windier. It's amazing to be so close to the ocean and to be aware of its strength. This part of Thailand was not affected by the tsnami and all we see is beauty, but the power of the ocean is evident.
Well, we ask for your continued prayers for HEALTH and SAFETY. I was really sick our first two days in Thailand and we'd like to avoid any more illnesses as well as avoiding avian flu, diseases, accidents or any other scary things the advisories warn of. However, I'm mostly referring to the health issues we've been dealing with from the accident and for safety in general. We're also doing a "cleansing fast" next week which hopefully will help Tom's stomach (a long-term problem he deals with) and is supposed to improve our overall health. (It'll be an experience, anyway!) It would be great if you could also keep my family (especially my mom's health) and the Perez family (especially that Lucy would be immediately admitted for the needed tests in Puebla) in prayer. We pray for family and friends regulalary, so please let us know if there is something specific we can pray for.
As I said, we've had our ups and downs, but we feel really blessed and we are doing really well. Let us know what's going on in your lives too!
Love,
Ronit (and Tom)
You know it's a good day when you have no idea what day it is and it doesn't really matter... This is the first week of our travel that has been that way and it's wonderful! If the computer date is correct, today is Good Friday, so Happy Easter!
It's been a while since our last update and we've had our ups and downs, but we've got some new directions to share: We're on our way home (briefly, in order to get student visas), but first we're soaking up the sun in Thailand. Then we're returning to Spain -- a summer study program in Salamanca and the fall semester in the Canary Islands (off the coast of Africa but part of Spain). Uncle Sam is making the loans and Tom is completing his degree while I also further my Spanish studies and work on designing our future home. When things weren't working out, we returned to our goals and dreams discussions, considering that unpleasant restrictions were impeding "Plan A," and we came up with a very exciting "Plan B."
Much of both Plan A and Plan B derived from discussions Tom and I had in which we put it all on the table -- all kinds of dreams and goals, big and little, realistic and not-so-realitic, important and just-kinda-fun. Then we looked at them seriously through the lens of our values and priorities and we found that after nailing down the big and important ones, it was still possible to fit in quite a few of the other ones, the kinds of things you normally wouldn't think possible, but really turned out to be quite possible. Tom jokes that he has to be careful what he wishes for aloud, because I'll take him seriously and start brainstorming ways to make it happen (except that I'm not yet on board with his Antarctica idea...), but he also says he loves it! (And one thing we love about each other is that we actually do make it happen, not just dream about it.) Out of those discussions came the travel year, our volunteer commitments, our decision to leave CA for an acre in TX, Tom's commitment to getting his degree, and so much more -- big things like these, but little things too. Though this year hasn't turned out quite as expected, we're fulfilling a lot of dreams and goals right now. We're also learning lessons about how to stay positive and find a Plan B when Plan A doesn't work out.
Right now I am experiencing a specific dream come true. One day last year I told Tom that one of my dreams was to live on a beach and to be able to hear the ocean waves crashing on the sand as I fell asleep and as I awoke. Obviously that's not financially possible in the U.S. and it's certainly not something I need, but it was a dream. "Even a month," I said, "anywhere in the world." Well, here we are in Thailand doing just that. All that stands between the porch of our $12 per night bungalow and the ocean is 20 feet of sand and a palm tree!!! I love it!!! There's no hot water (but the weather is hot), it's a tiny room with a little fan, and the toilet doesn't flush -- we pour buckets of water down it after use. But it is better than a luxury resort away from the beach. It is my dream come true. (And it doesn't hurt that there's a woman giving really good Thai massage on the beach for $5 immediately to our right.)
The truth is I'd been down and stressed out lately. I knew (and know!) how much I have to be grateful for, but that only made me feel guilty about my feelings. It was difficult to see physical limitations getting in the way of our long planned, saved-for, and dreamed-of backpacking round-the-world adventure. There were various other personal stressors in our lives and the lives of people we care about. Plus it's just difficult to be in pain all the time and discouraging to see relapses (accident injuries I'd expected to be healed by now) -- problems resurface and/or get worse when I thought I was past that. And the limitations that aren't going away sometimes make us fearful for the future and for other dreams and plans we have (pregnancy, holding or carrying a child, etc...). We are trying to trust God for the future -- He has been so good to us -- but trusting is sometimes easier said than done. I've found a good doctor in Madrid and she said that, given the nature of my injuries, my symptoms and relapses are understandable and will improve slowly but may not heal completely. She has been able to help me with treatments and physical therapy. (Though she's not covered by our travel insurance. Another stressor.) Anyway, recently, after losing a couple of days to a debilitating headache, wearing a neck collar and a knee brace and being pushed around in the wheelchair by my husband-turned-pack-animal (since he is carrying both our packs now), reality set in (duh) that I was not in shape for our budget backpacking globe-trotting adventure and that all of our re-scheduling (in hopes that I would be in a few months) was not sufficient. The trip, as we planned it, was just not feasible, for a variety of factors. Initially this was a big disappointment, but then we came up with...
Plan B: While the reasons for the changes derive from various difficulties, we revisited those goals and dreams discussions and we're really excited about our new plan, which includes aspects of Plan A plus other dreams and goals.
For one things, Tom has really gotten motivated working towards his degree. He started working in high school and was a CEO by the age of 26, so even though he took a college course here and there, he never pursued the degree. Last year Tom started his A.A. Business degree on-line and he's close to completing it (with a 4.00 GPA adds his proud wife). Our plan was that he'd complete the B.S. after we got home and settled, usually taking just one, sometimes two, classes at a time. That would take 6 years or so. Instead, we are re-focusing our plans to allow Tom to fast-track that goal. He is going to start an on-line B.S. degree program (Southwestern College, B.S. in Computer Programming Technology -- he actually loves that stuff) in May. Like the A.A., they will send him his books anywhere in the world and he can log on to turn in work. (We'll need to get him a new laptop and take it with us, though.) Between July and December, we will also spend 6 months as Spanish students in Spain. This will allow Tom to fulfill his elective credits with Spanish.
While Tom is devoting his energies to school (with a more-than-fulltime school schedule), I will also study Spanish, since it has long been a goal to become truly bilingual. This is true for both of us, and we want our kids to be bilingual English/Spanish as well. (Tom was joking, I think, that maybe we should come here to Thailand too and they can also learn Thai! Tom has been carrying around the Thai phrasebook and using Thai whenever and wherever he can. For now, I'm sticking to English and Spanish.) I'm also going to do a lot of research, learning and designing as I want to design our future home. We want to build a home on an acre outside of Austin, near Lake Travis. (My mother designed two hours and worked with the builders, supervising everything and doing some work herself. The first one was when I was 9 years old and I remember drawing architectural designs, just like Mom, as a kid, but I'd shelved the idea until Tom and I had the dreams discussions and now it's actually our plan.) There are various volunteer opportunities for me as well when we are living in Tenerife, but I will wait and see how I'm feeling (since healing is very high on the dream and goal priority list, so I don't want to overdo) before I commit.
In order to proceed with our plans, we need student visas. That requires a 45-day trip back to the U.S.A. We'll be back for part of May and much of June. During that time, we'll stay with Tom's mom, visit my grandma, take our stuff from the CA storage unit to a TX storage unit so it will be waiting for us when we move there) and see my parents either in CA or TX. Just a few weeks ago I was telling Tom how much I'd like to see my grandma, as well as my parents, but we didn't have any plans to return this year, and now even that will work out -- another wish come true.
If you're going to be in Southern California around the end of May, let's get together! (We'll plan a group dinner or something as the time gets closer and/or we can go out for coffee individually.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
All of the above I wrote in my notebook yesterday (sitting by the beach) and am typing it in now at an air-conditioned Internet Cafe. Tom just got back from doing a beach dive (diving is on Tom's dream list... in the midst of some of these discussions, he got his PADI certification when we were engaged). I noticed this morning how LOUD the ocean was today -- perhaps because it's windier. It's amazing to be so close to the ocean and to be aware of its strength. This part of Thailand was not affected by the tsnami and all we see is beauty, but the power of the ocean is evident.
Well, we ask for your continued prayers for HEALTH and SAFETY. I was really sick our first two days in Thailand and we'd like to avoid any more illnesses as well as avoiding avian flu, diseases, accidents or any other scary things the advisories warn of. However, I'm mostly referring to the health issues we've been dealing with from the accident and for safety in general. We're also doing a "cleansing fast" next week which hopefully will help Tom's stomach (a long-term problem he deals with) and is supposed to improve our overall health. (It'll be an experience, anyway!) It would be great if you could also keep my family (especially my mom's health) and the Perez family (especially that Lucy would be immediately admitted for the needed tests in Puebla) in prayer. We pray for family and friends regulalary, so please let us know if there is something specific we can pray for.
As I said, we've had our ups and downs, but we feel really blessed and we are doing really well. Let us know what's going on in your lives too!
Love,
Ronit (and Tom)
¶
4:49 PM
