Somewhere far above Vietnam, I sit in the tail end of an Airbus A340-400 watching Mamma Mia! on my in-seat entertainment console. I have left behind Thailand, which faces an uncertain future as factions vie for political power in the capital and ripples from the unrest and the global economic crisis wash up on the country's shores as diminishing prospects for a stable and prosperous future. I'm headed toward an American that less than a day ago elected Barack Obama as President, opening a hopeful new era in my home country. As my taxi pulled away from the hotel off of Petchburi Road where I first encountered Bangkok nine and a half months ago, my boyfriend of the past 15 months stayed behind and hailed his own taxi to return to his family's home on the other side of the city. We will be apart for a minimum of six months and quite likely as long as 10 months.

It has been a momentous day on many levels.

I have already chronicled the changes in my life that brought me to Thailand, settling in Phuket to work as editor of a fortnightly English-language newsmagazine. I suppose this post opens a new story, the beginning of another adventure.

Whatever. I'll try not to pontificate as much this time around. Keep it light. Learn to write like a blogger rather than a print journalist filling space. Work on suppressing my Protestant tendency to explain myself.

So I'll wrap up this first post of a new adventure with a list of impressions:

• The best friends I leave behind in Phuket are Thai people. To a large degree, I strived to go native in my style of living and my personal habits while in Phuket. Living with Duk helped with that, especially since he's very serious about Thai traditions and lifestyles. I learned so much about Western as a result. Perhaps I learned some of the nuances of Thai culture that many Westerners miss, too.


• The most important thing I did in Phuket, and the task that taught me the most about the world and about myself, was to build a strong, happy team among the Thai editorial and production staff at the newsmagazine. In hindsight, I improved many things during my brief time working at the newsmagazine, but building such a good staff, to my mind, is the greatest accomplishment. When I started, I would never thought I had a clue about how to manage a staff despite rather formidable language and cultural barriers.


• Looking at Phuket over the past few weeks as I contemplated leaving -- and at Bangkok during the past few days as I finished up all my business in Thailand (for the time being) -- I could marvel both at the vast cultural differences between the East and my native West and at the ways Phuket and Thailand have become a generally comfortable home for me over the course of nine months. Only after I had checked in at the airport today and gone through passport control for my departure processing did I realize that I could return quite easily and live happily. I would not have thought so only two months ago.