I have an amazing opportunity to live, work, and study in Thailand, but I need your help!  The Speak-Easy Cafe & Tutoring Center plus We Are Backpackers Homestay, opened in Bangkok in January of this year by former San Diego resident Aaron Weise, is in need of a live-in manager ASAP, and I am excited to be filling this position because it represents an amazing opportunity for me in terms of personal growth and adventure, a well as contribution.  However, I need your help to raise money for the costs associated with relocating!

Why I Am So Excited About This Opportunity

Personal Growth

I have barely travelled out of the country before, and I know that living overseas and being immersed in a foreign culture will be one of the most amazing personal growth opportunities I have ever experienced, hands down.  Here are some of the educational opportunities that I am excited about pursuing:

Language - I have always loved the study of languages, and this will be my first opportunity to learn one in an immersive environment.  Being fluent in more than one language is valuable to me because of the intellectual flexibility of having a different set of concepts with which to perceive the world, and the cultural diversity of being able to relate to and communicate with people with different backgrounds, as well as the economic value of being able to serve as an intermediary.

Bodywork - I have long been a skilled intuitive bodyworker, and my favorite form of bodywork to both give and receive, as well as the one modality that I have had a small amount of formal training in, is Thai massage.  I am eager to take advantage of this golden opportunity to furthering my knowledge of this healing modality while residing in its native land.

Martial Arts - The native Thai martial art, Muay Thai, has spread around the world, yet living in Thailand provides a unique opportunity to study this and other martial arts.  As martial arts have been a lifelong passion of mine, this is an opportunity that I am very enthusiastic about pursuing.

Career

This transition will not only be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for personal growth, it will also help me to advance my career in numerous ways.  This is how I plan to enhance my professional development as a Thailand resident:

Tutoring - ESL teaching opportunities abound in Thailand and provide an almost-guaranteed income source.  In addition to pursuing such opportunities as necessary, I plan to re-focus on building my online tutoring business, which has been on the back burner in recent months as I have been focusing on establishing a tai chi school.  Thus working in Thailand will just be a matter of doing things I have already been doing and merely shifting the emphasis towards work that is location-independent, which better suits my long-term lifestyle goals anyway.

Tai Chi - For the last four months I have been primarily focusing on establishing a tai chi school in San Diego, and I don't intend to let this experience go to waste.  The Speak-Easy is located in a mixed Thai and Chinese neighborhood that has no local martial arts schools, and has space that can be used for teaching martial arts classes.  Though I am not counting on teaching tai chi to be a primary source of income right away, I do intend to continue teaching in whatever capacity I am able, as determined by local interest and my own communication ability, as a mode of continued personal and professional development.

Writing - In addition to online tutoring, I will also re-focus my efforts on freelancing as a writer and 
editor, so that I can take advantage of Thailand's much lower cost of living by earning in dollars as much as possible.  I will also take advantage of the decreased financial pressure, career path recalibration, and comfortable living arrangement to give higher priority to my personal writing goals in terms of blogging, which I pursue primarily as a mode of personal expression and idea development, and secondarily as a mode of influence and earning potential.

The Help I Need

I was not planning for an opportunity like this to come along, and when I heard about it I was financially unprepared to make an overseas transition.  After extensive research I arrived at the following figures for my personal cost of relocating:

personal financial obligations to be finalized: $500
passport, visa, plane ticket: $1,000
financial cushion to get established and cover living expenses and worst-case contingencies: $3,000

Any funds raised above this amount will be graciously accepted and will go towards paying off the dental expenses I have incurred over the last two and a half years of oral surgery and extensive orthodontic work so that I can come closer to living debt-free and increasing my personal freedom, as well as capitalizing the business that I will be taking an interest in and helping to manage.

About The Speak-Easy

In 2015, South East Asia's 10 most popular countries will be entering a unified treaty called ASEAN (similar to the EU), in which the English Language will be in much higher demand.  The Speak-Easy exists to provide better communication through conversation. We believe this will be very helpful for the whole of business, commerce, and tourism.

The Speak-Easy Cafe & Tutoring Center plus We Are Backpackers Homestay is actually three businesses in one.  Occupying all four floors of a four-story building in downtown Bangkok, it consists of a cafe plus living quarters on the first floor and ESL tutoring center on the second floor, while the third and fourth floors are occupied by dormitory space.  All three of these businesses are fully equipped and operational, but the venture has abundant room to grow into its potential.  The owners, Aaron Weise and his wife Niddy Hung, have already invested substantial capital in the building's acquisition and renovation, as well as equipment.  They are both currently working outside jobs in order to cover ongoing living expenses as well as further capitalize the business, and need full-time help managing the business while it is taking root.

Before moving to Thailand to start the Speak-Easy, Aaron was the facilities manager for the Red Lotus Society, a spiritual community in San Diego.  His vision is to create not just a business but a spiritual center and home to a community of travelers from around the world.  You can become more acquainted with the Speak-Easy in its current form through its Facebook page and Airbnb profile.

I will be able to contribute not just labor to this business, but also passion, commitment, and the expertise in marketing and organization that I have gained from the various businesses I have been involved in over the years.  I have always been dedicated to personal development and non-standard education, and this project is a natural extension of my trajectory of personal growth.  Aaron and I have discovered that we have a spiritual kinship and a high degree of alignment in our personal values, and there is every indication that our partnership will serve the highest good.  Though he has largely paved the way for my own transition by relocating 14 months previously and demonstrating what is possible, it still represents a vast leap of faith for me, and I trust completely in the Universe to support me in my path, and also in the value that I will be able to provide.

Thank you so much for your support and your contribution to making my dream come true!