Teaching Abroad

A few months ago I signed up for an international school placement service, it was tons of paperwork and a couple hundred dollars and then when I finally had access to the "vacancies" I found what I had hoped not to find: there were only two art positions- both in the middle east. I was primarily interested in teaching in France or Spain, my boyfriend is French and we were hoping to find a way that we could relocate together, and since we are both at least semi-fluent in both French and Spanish- full disclosure, I'm the semi-fluent- France and Spain were ideal.

In the meantime I decided to work on my semi-fluency and move to Chile with him while he finishes his MBA. I will have time to re-build my portfolio since living in New York and working at a Charter School made it virtually impossible for me to make art. So while I continue to check for vacancies (now there are none), I am researching alternatives. Teaching English abroad is what everyone is doing, so unlike 20 years ago when the market wasn't flooded with people much like myself (but usually 5+ years younger) you could make a decent living; now you can barely get by, and the conditions are, unfavorable. I've done a lot of private tutoring while living in London and when I was a student at NYU, it is not as awful as being a substitute teacher.

Ideally I still want that position at an international school, although I have expanded my horizons slightly, I have added Argentina to the list of possible countries I am willing to live in after Chile. What I have been hearing from friends and friends of friends, is that these positions are available, but only if you're there, in person, in the country, knocking on doors. If this is true, and I suspect it probably is, I will have to make it big as an English teacher in Chile, or live incredibly frugally. And I thought my days of peanut butter and jelly were over.

This picture is from my recent Mt Kilimanjaro hike; here my friend Schuy and I are at the summit with our guide Gerard. This is the main reason I don't have the money to live abroad teaching English for more than a few months.