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!

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.

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.

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.

I’d been dragging my heels about going to Laurene’s school to meet her boss – a position opened up at her school to teach some evening classes at $4/hr. But for whatever reason, the thought of teaching for a few bucks an hour made me cringe, even though it would actually be enough to live on.

What really made me hesitate was imagining spending another two full months in Quito, choking on the pollution and constantly watching my back. But I bit the bullet and went looking for Laurene’s school at dusk, couldn’t find it because it was so far, and felt the whole time like I was going to get mugged. I hated the feeling of having to be hyper aware and suspicious of everyone that passed me. It started to sprinkle – naturally – so I finally called her and she gave me directions. But after a few more minutes, I just gave up and decided to retrace my steps back to the apartment.

I had walked farther than I thought and it was now dark. Walking alone in the dark is a big no-no here. I made my way to the grocery store near our apartment and spent $7 on ingredients to bake a chocolate cake, which I had been craving ever since Laurene made one for Freddie’s birthday. Spending seven dollars bummed me out even more though, since that’s the equivalent of 4 meals here and I clearly don’t have a source of income at this point.

After wandering fruitlessly in the dark, glaring at every stranger who passed with a “Don’t Mug Me” stare, and spending money I don’t have to make a cake, I couldn’t get my apartment key to work in the gate because it takes both hands and an intermediate level of coordination. Plus the overhead light is on a sensor and turns off after 3 seconds, so I’m fumbling with my key in the pitch black darkness with my arms full of eggs and groceries, cursing my non-luck. The key wasn’t cooperating and I couldn’t see anything so I was trying to picture the lock in my mind’s eye and mentally beseech it to open. Again my mental magic wasn’t working and I stood there in the dark struggling for several minutes.

The light that leaves you in the dark

It all kind of added up to one of those screaming-into-the-pillow moments. In fact I did consider screaming just to make myself feel better, but then I figured my neighbors would likely think I was being mugged, so I swallowed my angst. It occurred to me to be annoyed that I hadn’t bought more ice cream but since I had finished my last tub of ice cream within 2 days, I was trying to wait until next week to buy a new one. I eat grilled cheese sandwiches every single day (sometimes twice a day), put butter on everything I eat without fail, and eat ice cream by the tub, so it’s only a matter of time before I balloon.

I made the cake disappear!

The upside is that maybe the magician – if he ever calls – will teach me how to make the would-be muggers, exhaust-spewing buses, and extra pounds vanish into thin air.

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.

It happened to me two weeks ago. My Brazilian student was offered a job and took it. One morning, I received an email saying she was starting her new job the next day and could no longer take French classes. I was happy for her, but at the same time I had just lost a considerable source of extra money.

To my surprise however, one lost, ten recovered! In the past week I have had four people interested in my French tutoring services without even my lifting a finger. Two of them saw an add I posted two months ago at the AFV headquarters, the French Association in Saigon. I still can’t believe how lucky I am. It seems you really need to stay three months somewhere to network more or less intentionally and eventually get job offers! At least for French teaching!

* * * * * * *

L’INCERTITUDE DU TUTEUR

Donner des cours privés peut rapporter gros, mais à quel prix?

Au risque que votre étudiant vous laisse tomber sans prévenir. Car la plupart du temps, les tuteurs privés ne signent pas de contrat. Et s’il n’y a pas de contrat, il ne peut y avoir rupture de contrat.

C’est l’infortune qui m’est tombée dessus il y a quinze jours. Mon étudiante brésilienne a reçu une offre d’emploi et l’a acceptée. Un matin, j’ai reçu un e-mail me disant qu’elle commençait son nouveau travail le lendemain et qu’elle devait donc arrêter les cours des Français.

J’étais ravie pour elle, mais cela représentait aussi une perte de revenus additionnels considérables.

A ma grande surprise cependant, une de perdue, dix de retrouvés! La semaine dernière j’ai eu pas moins de quatre personnes intéressées par mes services de tutrice de Français, sans même que je lève le petit doigt. Deux d’entre eux ont vu l’annonce que j’ai postée il y a deux mois au QG de l’AFV, l’Amicale des Francophones du Viêtnam à Saigon. Je n’en reviens pas de la chance que j’ai. Il semble qu’il faut vraiment rester trois mois quelque part pour se créer un réseau plus ou moins intentionnellement et que pleuve les offres d’emplois! Du moins pour l’enseignement du Français!

J’AI TROUVE DU TRAVAIL!!!
Au cours des trois prochains mois, je travaillerai à mi-temps dans une crèche-maternelle. De 7h30 à 13h. Wouhouh!

Trying to imagine how the next three months at the day-care center will be like.

Having escaped near disaster in Tokyo the team begins to recover in Seoul.  Is traveling while working possible?  Yes.  Is it easy?  No.

This is it, let’s crack the seal on Season 3: Seoul.  About freakin’ time, if you ask me.  It’s going to take me a while to catch up with the crew’s adventures, but hopefully you won’t find them any less entertaining now than they were two months ago when they actually happened.

Besides having new adventures in Korea we’ll be shaking up the format slightly with Season 3, adding a “Previously On…” segment to highlight interesting episodes which tie into the story, and making some changes to the overall editing style.  Shout out if you see something you like (or don’t like)!  We do pay attention, even though we can’t do much to fix things on our budget…

This episode features some new music, too: “This Uphill Battle is Going Downhill From Here” by Behond! True Believers.  They’re a local Northampton, MA “band” but they don’t have a website.  Actually, they don’t even really exist, but they sound good none the less.  I’m hoping to make use of some more of their music soon.

On Friday a new teacher arrived.  He observed a single day of classes.  The next day he got up and promptly bought himself a plane ticket home and took off a few hours later.  He was in Korea for less than 24 hours.  That, in fact, is how awesome my job is.

My coworkers at Queequeg have made the experience human and
memorable. I was lucky enough to work with a diverse and generous group
of people, who surprised me constantly with their talent and warmth.

Thanks for the experience and I hope that this project honors it.