I have been feeling a real lack of control lately, something which I am not used to. Since Marcus is the one with the job and we rely on the company to provide alot of what we need over here in Thailand, it is all up to him to get everything arranged. Simply things like our company car, which should have been provided the very first week we got here, but we are now into our sixth week and still no car. And not only that, I have been informed that we will be getting the bosses old car and he is getting the new one, WTF! It is such bullshit. We have been renting a hire car for the past 5 weeks with our own money, which we then are supposed to hand in all of our receipts to be reimbursed. But the problem there is that we are still waiting on the money from July's receipts to be paid and now we are handing in Augusts and our credit card is working overtime. We came here with a big pay increase with the plan to live cheap and live well. So far we have spent all of our savings, our pay is incorrect and it turns out that it is not so cheap to live over here. Quite disappointing really. And the currency exchange is so confusing, I have no idea of how much I spend every week and since we eat out every night the money just flys out of my purse. Then there is all these deposits we have had to leave everywhere, on the car, on the apartment, on our new house, on Judd's kinder, it all adds up.
My point is that I usually have some sort of control over getting results out of people, but over here I have no pull what so ever. I cant contact anyone to demand payment, I cant argue with the company over rent and Marcus' pay. I just have to nag my husband, and expect him to stand up to these people and demand some action, which of course he will not do. And this all puts strain on our relationship as well, who wants to be married to a stressed out nag? The frustrating part is that the excuse everyone gives is "This is Thailand, nothing moves fast over here!" What bullshit, when the Thais want money they don't fuck around, their hand is out quick smart and expect to be paid and then they fall into the whole 'lost in translation' game where they pretend they cannot understand you and in the end you cant be stuffed arguing and just pay up.
I cannot wait to learn Thai.
I would love to be able to email the "boss" and ask all the necessary questions, but then it makes Marcus look bad as his silly wife is becoming a pain in the ass. I am frustrated and cranky, especially when I speak to all these other expat women who have the whole package handled and paid for by their companies, and we just get dumped and expected to handle everything ourselves. I should have pushed Marcus to demand more from the contract before he signed, as his excuse now is that once a contract is signed there is no more room for negotiation. I agree but only to a certain extent. I should have printed out all their emails and then sat down and compared the initial offers to the final contract, coz in the end even the Germans pulled the 'lost in translation' game on us and we were so keen to get going we signed too quick. But I guess everyone learns from their mistakes and after 12 months when it is time to sign again I will be having a hell of alot more to do with it, and there will be no signing until this "wife" is happy.
Now don't get me wrong I am really enjoying being here, but I just want things to run smoothly and I hope that we wont have to argue about money over here, really there should be nothing to argue about.
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