Category Archives: Living Abroad
- March 26, 2010
- Ecuadorian Markets– also posted in Ecuador, Food, Travel Guide
There are many differences between the grocery stores that Americans generally frequent and the markets here in Ecuador. This article aims to highlight these differences.
- March 9, 2010
- 10 Nuances of Living in Quito– also posted in Ecuador, Travel Guide
I have been abroad in Quito, Ecuador for just over 2 months now and have put together a comprehensive list of occurrences that are definitely different here. These are general differences between Quito and the United States; ones that anyone from someone looking to move here or a tourist may be interested in, especially women.
- November 3, 2008
- Voting Abroad
This year I am in Argentina for our impending, incredibly important, presidential election. Thankfully, our Board of Elections came through on my absentee ballot. I successfully received my request for an absentee ballot and the absentee ballot itself, sent by snail mail through the notoriously suspicious Argentine postal service to this small Argentine town. I [...]
- October 8, 2008
- TEFL Graduation: The life beyond– also posted in Guest Posts, Teaching English, Working
Chapter 5: TEFL Graduation I was once, long ago in Santo Domingo, told by a more experienced expat; that TEFL for survival is a path many have taken in their early years in country. For a while now, after four years as a TEFL, I have been considering my options. Translation work with my wife [...]
- September 10, 2008
- “Free” Education in Argentina?– also posted in Argentina, Guest Posts
Does the U.S. really want free education at the university level? Many Americans would have a knee-jerk reaction and say “yes, I’m swimming in debt from my child’s pre-school bills already, not to mention the $100 list of mandatory school supplies.” Free university education would relieve the American public of a rapidly increasing financial burden, [...]
- September 3, 2008
- Old Mate Man
“How are you doing today?” This question comes from a short, pudgy old man standing in his yard by the sidewalk, his final tufts of hair thinning as he speaks. He wears ordinary clothes, sandals that have seen better days, and only a few good teeth. His german shepherd, the size of a small bear, [...]
- August 31, 2008
- Silent Conversations– also posted in Argentina, Guest Posts
The indications of my nationality are not erasable, despite efforts to be inconspicuous. I’m the only foreigner in a small Argentine town with “USA” practically tattooed on my forehead, evident from the way I walk too fast while drinking a soda to the way I make strained eye contact to better understand people. Every day [...]
- August 29, 2008
- TEFL Survival– also posted in Money, Teaching English, Working
Chapter 4: TEFL Survival Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) is not a bad way to survive in the third world,considering local wages, local expectations of life quality and local work conditions, TEFL isn’t a bad alternative. However, if your plan is to stay and live in another country, at some point you may [...]
- August 27, 2008
- “What happened to all of your indigenous people?”
… asked a 10-year-old boy at a primary school in rural Argentina about Native Americans. (I was in the middle of a presentation in Spanish about the U.S. to a roomful of kids.) This is a very astute question, but not one I expected. I was prepared to answer all kinds of inquires about regional [...]
- August 21, 2008
- Brian’s least favorite things about living in Uruguay
Classism – Typical of virtually all of Latin America, Uruguay is built on hundreds of years of precedent maintaining the landed classes authority. Be it the favoritism for monopolies, harsh taxes on the middle class, or welfare payments which dwarf minimum wages, the institutionalization of class has created an entirely different worldview. At times it [...]
- August 19, 2008
- Brian’s favorite things about living in Uruguay
I asked my friend Brian, owner of El Diablo Tranquilo what his favorite and least favorite things about life in Uruguay were. These are his five favorites. We’ll finish up with the negative in a few days. Opportunity – Not only the specific opportunity we found of putting a hostel in Uruguay, but the wide [...]
