So Jason left yesterday, and the very same morning I spoke to his landlord and agreed to keep the flat for one more month. I handed over the pesos, and now am suddenly a Bogotá resident. It feels good!
They charge 600,000 pesos, which is around 130 quid, for the month. Seemed pretty reasonable to me -- until an Irish guy told me I should be paying half that. Well, I'm happy for now, because I have a place to myself in a cool location, and I can always re-assess when the month is up.
I have been looking around at various options for teaching english. I don't really need to work, since staying in one place is more or less cheaper than moving around, but I thought it might be fun. A couple of TEFL courses are offered here, running for a month or two, and certainly look comprehensive, but they cost more or less the same as they would in the UK -- from 600 to 1000 quid. A hefty chunk of travel budget right there.
Moreover, it appears that a native speaker, especially one with a University Degree, can more or less walk into private tuition type jobs. The Irish guy mocking my rent is doing this, at about US$10 an hour, which ain't bad really. My question is, do I want an excellent TEFL qualification which will prepare me and allow me to travel the world teaching English to groups of adults or children? Or do I just want to kill a month or two in Bogota? I guess in reality, the latter is the case.
I really must go and buy a jumper. It gets pretty cold here in the evenings! I think that is why I like the weather here so much: there is always a slight cold edge to the air, like a sunny Spring or Autumn day in England. Although the weather patterns are all mixed up, another expat told me: the rainy season is supposed to be way over, but yesterday the wind was strong enough to blow the parasols away in Juan Valdez!
So that's it. After 8 months of travelling, I am now settling down for a while. For how long, I really don't know. One side-effect is that my blog entries are going to be become a whole lot less interesting, and probably less regular. Another is that now that I have a permanent address, I also have a permanent phone number! It's 33 44 323 -- this, from the UK.
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2 comments:
Congrats on your new pad. It must feel nice to be settled after so long travelling.
Don't slow down blogging Paul ! What's life like in Bogota ? What are those Bogotan kids into ?
If you're still not mobile by then, I'm celebrating my 30th in Quito, Ecuador, on the 27th August. And you're invited :-)
hey paul, good blog ...and I wasent mocking your rent, I was just saying that for half that you can get a place with two poodles thrown in for free that will shit on your bed without charge....and I doubt you'd get a tefl course here thats worth the ffort or cost unless its with the British council...being Colombian, many schools have reputation of making up their accreditation, or else accreditating themselfs with foreign universitys and associations that have never heard of them.....
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