speak the english

Felix · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: speak the english

since i count on you guys to know things like this, and because i'm incrasingly desperate for ideas in the way of what, exactly, to do with myself-

what are my chances, as an american halfway to a bachelor's degree, of getting hired someplace in korea or india to teach english for the summer?

Felix · Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2008 6:15 am

Felix · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 7:25 pm

so as to reinvigorate this topic-

is there.. anyplace i could expect to be hired to teach for the summer? i'm really desperate for any alternative to this cushy, $11/hr state job in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

Felix · Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2008 9:48 pm

fuck it. i was already planning to waste a couple grand with one of these immediately after graduating next spring; i'm financially okay enough (as long as i can successfully sublet the last couple months of my lease) to do it this summer instead.

and then maybe i'll go teach in korea after i've actually got the BA.

Felix · Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 3:48 pm

somebody tell me because i have no idea- after playing around with various air travel websites, the best price i seem to be able to get on a round trip to any major city in continental europe is right around a grand.

is this acceptable?

Felix · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:34 am

having compared prices between bradley in CT versus JFK, it seems like i'd definitely be saving money no matter what kind of favors i've got to call in to get driven into manhattan, so there is that.

you said $700 to london is pretty dirt cheap; should i consider a round trip at a grand to be a deal, then?

Felix · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:55 pm

Felix · Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:54 pm

oh my god i'm fucking eight hundred and thirty dollars poorer and i'm going to europe

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:05 am

guys am i kidding

i'm going to be fucking couchsurfing(dot com) in europe for two months

wow

any of you in continental europe with above-average amounts of local pride and hospitality want to put me up for a week? i still have to figure out which five countries i want my eurail pass to apply to, and based on whether i go with the 8-day ($470) or the 10-day ($520) train pass.. i am going to have to pick approximately two cities per country to spend a week or so in each.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:16 am

ok guys at this point i'm pretty much married to france, germany, and switzerland, leaning towards amsterdam, and can't for the life of me decide yes or no on italy.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:35 am

so i know i'm the only one posting in this thread but i need some serious help with italy.

i am half itatlian.

never, in my life, have i cared much for italian persons or italian food.

i have an unbelievably difficult time telling myself "i will not visit itatly on this trip."

somebody help.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:11 pm

greece is.. too far out there. i don't want to have to account for that much travel time, nor do i want to feel so isolated from the rest of the trip.

i have heard from most people that switzerland and austria are in most respect interchangeable for a trip like this. so i guess i'm flexible on that one.

i could certainly do, like, florence (milan?) and venice in italy. i still haven't figured out where i want to go in the south of france - i'm sure i'll get too much advice on this, if anything - and i can't decide whether i'll actually enjoy amsterdam, which is frustrating because there's nothing for me to do between now and june but change my mind about that every day.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 2:56 pm

ok, current itinerary:

1. paris
2. lyons, nice, or marseilles (possibly 2 of 3)
3. milan or florence
4. venice
5. zurich or vienna
6. munich
7. berlin
8. amsterdam
9. bruges

and back to paris.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:15 pm

it's not.. too touristy? i feel like venice is already enough of a concession to out and out sightseeing.

(not the act thereof; the place itself)

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:14 pm

in some respects, i don't doubt you.

on the other hand, i can't shake the idea that i'd like to actually see.. life, rather than see sights. and i just can't imagine that i am an italy sort of person.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 5:31 pm

that's exactly it; i think of myself as wanting to see REAL ____ LIFE (maybe even in the interest of getting myself a new REAL LIFE) but italian doesn't enter into that equation for a minute.

i could probably be talked into rome. i am probably being talked into rome.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:07 pm

okay let's see here as a response to the last two (very generous and very much appreciated) posts:

1. i am a miserable linguist (despite being a linguistics student); the only non-english language i have ever managed to learn with any success is latin, which equates to my being able to functionally understand most any european language but not come close to speaking or writing them in most cases. believe me, i have been trying. i will keep trying.

2. my eurail pass doesn't cover the UK, so i won't be headed up there anyway. it covers ireland, so in theory i could hop into GB if i felt like it, but.. same logic as with greece; i don't think i'll be going, and besides the pound would ream me worse than the euro. likewise i'm afraid i'll miss scotland.

3. fucking fine i'm already sold on rome are you happy

4. owing to any degree of disgust with the culture in and around which i have grown up (not to sound elitist / deliberately contrarian; i'm exaggerating on purpose in order to make a point, see: why i want to take this trip in the first place), re: drinking- i do not do it. i smoke pot about six days a week, adding up to something like a gram per every three or four weeks, which i am afraid makes me not very much fun. two months in europe may yet make me go back on this (and, for that matter, vegetarianism); such as i am, though.

5. i've been wearing the same shoes and jeans for years/months (respectively) already. no plans to stop doing this i assure you.

6. for better or for worse, i am easily most excited for france.

7. keep talking to me about vienna > zurich.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:36 pm

yeah, i don't drink soda either. we'll see i guess.

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:02 pm

i was thinking about spain and then i really thought about it and i was like "man they are just not in the right direction of anything and their history is so damned self contained i mean how long did they fight themselves for, i don't know any spanish culture".

Felix · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:44 pm

current, revised itinerary:
1. paris
2. marseilles
3. rome
4. venice
5. vienna
6. munich
7. berlin
8. amsterdam
9. bruges

and i can fit a tenth city in there.

Felix · Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 12:29 am

can't go to the UK :(

Felix · Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 1:09 am

can't go there either, unless i feel like throwing in another $100 at least in and out of prague from, say, vienna.