As we reported earlier, our camera was stolen recently.

You can probably imagine that it’s kind of hard to make a show about living abroad without a video camera.

And so much has happened! Laurene quit her job, Ryan and I took a boat ride on a lake named after a guinea pig, Ryan and Freddie went to the coast, I found a job, Laurene started looking for other jobs, Ryan got thrown into a jail on wheels, the boys went on an Indiana Jones adventure in the jungle, the World Cup began. And so on. All those little things like Life.

While the powers-that-be behind Jet Set Zero have been researching every possibility to get us a new camera as soon as possible, they’ve encountered headaches and hurdles like customs, duties paperwork, and exorbitant shipping costs.

Enter creative solution #1: Find a courier to fly down with the camera.

I jumped on the horn (ok, the internet) and contacted my best friend Amy Cao, a food writer and blogger in NYC. Would she be available to fly down to Quito with the camera on a moment’s notice? An email response from her later, it was a done deal.

She arrives tonight into Quito, and the show will go on!

Food writer Amy Cao arriving in Quito soon!

As a waitress

In a cocktail bar

That much is true….

I knew that teaching English this time around just wasn’t going to do it for me (Like Freddie, I previously taught English in Korea). I was looking for a different experience in Quito. When the opportunity to waitress at a popular Vietnamese restaurant called Uncle Ho’s came up, I knew the fun quotient had multiplied so I hopped on board.

My job consists of meeting people from all over the world and hearing their stories, all the while eating delicious curry and drinking fresh juice (passionfruit and strawberry, anyone?). What more could you want?

In my next post I’ll share more on how I got my job and let you in on my number one tip for finding work abroad.

I quit my job yesterday. I went to by boss’s office to talk to her about everything that had been happening and we didn’t reach an agreement. So I quit.
Now I’ll be looking for something else to do.

Hier j’ai donné ma démission. Je suis allée voir ma directrice dans son bureau pour parler la situation, et nous ne sommes pas parvenues à un accord. Alors j’ai salut, et bon courage. Je suis donc en recherche d’un autre travail.

Sometimes it’s just guns.

Kidding.

Kind of.

The hunt is on for a job in Quito. After applying for a mysterious Magician’s Assistant post found under Quito’s Craigslist, I sat back and tried to work some mental magic and will the magician to respond. Laurene and Freddie have both gotten jobs teaching English, but try as I might, I couldn’t motivate myself to apply for teaching jobs. We recently met a bartender who had partied with Guns N Roses when they played in Quito recently, and I had seen some places who were hiring bartenders. Except I don’t know how to tend bar. Right.

Rabbits out of hats, Getting sawed in half = I'm in!

My day had started out pretty good- I slept until noon since I have become an insomniac since living here (along with half of our apartment) and have trouble falling asleep before 2 or 3am. My recent obsession has been researching shamans in the Amazon and contemplating going to live in the jungle to learn from them. Other than that, I had lunch with a new friend who took me to a local hotspot for wealthy Quitenos and we feasted on the Ecuadorian version of sushi. Things were looking up. (more…)

After a long hard month of looking for work in Ecuador I finally landed a gig teaching English.  Up to this point I had sent out countless emails to schools and recruiters, had interviews but had yet to get any type of solid job offer.  Everyone would say, “Oh this looks wonderful, your CV and experience are exactly what we are looking for, we will give you a call!” and my phone never rang.  On Tuesday, I had an interview set up with the school that a friend of mine was working at and the interview was lukewarm at best.  The woman I met with who was also the director was dealing with a horrible case of sun poisoning and was a little reluctant about hiring me because I wouldn’t be around all year which is understandable.  I left the school feeling a little irritated since it had seemed like a done deal from speaking to her on the phone and via email and walked the 30 minutes back to my apartment when there I saw it, about 5 blocks from my house, an English school.  I decided since I was dressed for an interview and had all my documents in order that  I would march into that school and demand a job.  I walked into the building, asked for the school director and saw him in about 5 minutes time. He looked over my stuff, seemed pleased and told me he would call me the next day. Lo and behold, he called me that same evening at dinner and the next afternoon I was teaching at a university which was coincidentally one of my goals for the year. Lesson learned: if you shake enough trees something is bound to fall out .

(Version française plus bas)

Private tutoring can pay well, but at what cost?

At the cost that your student lets you down without any warning. Most of the time, private tutors don’t sign a contract. And, if there’s no contract, there can’t be a breach of contract.

Apartment complex for the expat' community.

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