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I spent one year in Thailand teaching
at the Ayuthya Teacher’s College. A Thai teacher, who had studied
in Michigan, arranged for one of his ‘best’ students to
live with me. We had a nice little house on stilts, just a short walk
from the college. Songlag was a very bright, atypically extroverted
young lady who spoke good English, and it was wonderful to have her
with me.
Songlag and Me in Thailand |
My Peace Corps experience was a very good one. Everyone was friendly
and welcoming. I loved Thai food.
Even so, I decided to leave after a year, to join my friend and
fellow Ayuthyan teacher (at a different school), Stephen Krichels,
in an extended, adventurous trip back to the States. |
Traveling home after Thailand. India |
Once back in the States, we lived in Maine for about five years,
on beautiful land that Stephen bought.
Bob Narcissi visited once.
Steve Krichels and me in Maine (1972) |
We went our separate ways in 1976, and gradually lost touch with
each other.
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I went back to art school, eventually moving to Ohio and getting
my MFA in painting.
In 1981 I moved to Albany, New York, where I met my current husband,
Joe Galdi, a neuropsychologist who had also recently moved to New
York from Ohio.
Me and Joe around 1985
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I worked as an exhibits curator for a museum in the area. However,
as research funds in Joe’s field were drying up around that
time, we moved around quite a bit, including to New Hampshire, Michigan,
and South Dakota. In New Hampshire, I taught ESL to three young
boys who had been orphaned and adopted by American families, two
from Cambodia and one from Vietnam. In Michigan, I taught drawing
at an arts center.
A painting of one of the kids in Thailand |
Then, while Joe was working at the state psychiatric hospital in
South Dakota, I got interested in psychology and decided to go back
to school.
I later went to graduate school at the University of Minnesota.
Joe was in Wisconsin by then, so we continued a long-distance relationship
for years, as I plodded along and procrastinated with the dissertation.
Completed in 1995, I moved back with Joe who was by then living
in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area, working at the Center for Forensic
Psychiatry.
I did a two-year post-doc fellowship in neuropsychology at Mott
Children’s Hospital.
For the past five years, I too have been working at the Forensic
Center, have an office across the hall from Joe’s, and do
the same work, which is doing forensic evaluations of defendants
referred by state courts. We live in a small village, Britton, about
20 minutes from work. We never had children, so have built our family
around cats. Currently, we have four (Mitzi, Zilly, Sweet Boy, and
Shy Boy) running the show.
After 24 years together, Joe and I finally got married last December.
We live a pretty quiet life, usually just relaxing or puttering
around the house and yard on weekends. |
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