Pay for a native English speaker teaching at an institute tops out around 25 pesos an hour.  Most schools will offer around 20.  Private tutoring and lessons are more lucrative, but are very hard to come by and the competition is fierce.  The school I’m teaching at pays 25 pesos an hour (little more than $8 USD).  Hours vary, but I’ll probably end up with around 20-25 a week once I really get going.  If I work 25 hours a week at 25 pesos, I’ll be making 2500 pesos (about $833 USD) a month.  Princely living this isn’t.

All in all though, it can definitely be done.  I’m living in an admittedly more expensive area of the city (I like the nightlife, what can I say?), but if you split an apartment with a roomie and make an effort to cook at home or eat at restaurants only for lunch, you can do fine.  I’ve been bleeding some money these first two months, but that’s because I was establishing my budget and where I’ll be working.  If you bring some savings down, you can definitely enjoy yourself.

I promise to return to my regular adventures next post, but I was tired of seeing all these people telling students my age that it can’t be done.  It can be done, and I’m doing it.  So if you’re reading this and debating whether or not to take the plunge, go for it!

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Thus far, I’ve had plenty of adventures adapting to life down here.  I’ve gotten myself out of my single-room dimly-lit hostel into a nice apartment in Palermo (negotiated with a broker who spoke ZERO English!), made it through my TEFL certification course despite the best efforts of crazy old man Fred, eaten the best steak of my life at La Cabrera, and been hired at Euro Trust Capital only to quit three days later.  Quite an eventuful first couple of weeks I must say.

Initially I was just glad to get here and off the plane, but then I remembered I couldn’t check in to my hostel until 10am.  I ended up sleeping in the airport for six hours, just like old times when Davy and I went biking.  The hostel was an interesting experience, mostly because I was given the “hippie” room.  It had a hippie license plate on the door, and the walls were covered with pictures of the Beatles, flower paintings, and lots of hippie lyrics.  I felt like I was sleeping in John Lennon’s meditation room or something.  But all of the people living there were really nice, and I got some serious Spanish practice in since none of them spoke English.  The apartment I’m currently in is in Palermo, a real young neighborhood with lots of boutiques, restaurants, and bars (that never close).  I negotiated the whole thing in Spanish, which I’m kind of proud of.  We’re going month by month and the rent is real cheap for the area.  I’m real happy with it, and I’ll probably post some pictures for you guys soon.

I got here on Friday the 22nd, and the following Monday I started at Bridge TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) for the second portion of my TEFL certification.  My instructor Karina was great, though being told that I was teaching a class on Tuesday was pretty scary.  My experience with the course was great though, all of the students were great and my classmates all were helpful.  Well, scratch that, everyone but Fred.  Fred was a real character that had come over from Brazil, after he had already been kicked out of Bridge’s program there.  He couldn’t take criticism at all.  He would flip out and attack people if they questioned any of his teaching methods.  And they were terrible.  He taught a whole class on a train robbery.  I can’t think of any situation where our students would need to know how to successfully rob a moving train.  I learned a ton, especially about teaching a live class.  It’s pretty intimidating at first, but you get used to it real quick.  We had a Fred meltdown on the last day, but it all ended well; we got certified and the certificate is a good thing to have on my resume.

To celebrate our graduation I went out to La Cabrera with two of my classmates, Jo and Kelsey.  We’d heard all sorts of good things about it, and if you don’t know Argentina is known for having some of the best steak on Earth.  And I’ve got to say, after eating at La Cabrera, I’m inclined to agree.  Best steak I’ve ever had, bar none.  And I’m pretty much exclusively a carnivore.  They knows their meats down here.  Oh, and the steak only set me back the equivalent of $20.  Can’t argue with that.  I can’t wait to try the other famous parillas around town, and keep you guys posted on where to go when you come to visit me.  And I do expect all of you to visit, by the way.

Lastly, Euro Trust Capital.  I hardly knew ye.  They advertised on Craigslist looking to hire “Financial Advisor Trainees” so I shot in an application.  I hear back from them, and give it a try.  Replace “Financial Advisor Trainee” with “Financial Cold Caller” and you’d have it about right.  Direct sales over the phone to our “clients” in Europe who had never heard of us and didn’t want anything to do with us.  Sorry, but not what I signed on for.  We parted ways after three days.

So here I am, a little over three weeks in and riding a roller coaster.  I’ll keep you guys updated on all my experiences down here, but I wanted to throw this up as primer.  Feel free to comment or shoot me an email, I’d love to hear from you guys!

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