Hey, I am moving down in 2 months and have some questions

[Vilma]

About places to live, I'm sure there are more "autenthic" places in this city to live than Palermo or Recoleta but I would like to point out that these are not tourist places.
I think in my building I'm the only foreigner. At least so far I have not seen / hear anyone who would look like tourist or out of place. At the pool everyone else speaks local spanish, so does in the elevator etc.
These may be a bit upper class areas but definetly not tourist.

About the nightlife I can't say anything. I have not really tried that out much.

 

[JG]

For a change all of the answers seem quite good.
I wouldn't come to BA before you have guaranteed jobs. No, you DO NOT want to live in downtown. Wait until you get jobs to decide where you are going to live. Do you want to travel for an hour to get to your schools? The night life won't be too long a cab ride from where you live.
I don't know what their current policy is, but Washington Mutual allows me unlimited international withdrawls without charging for each transaction. There are foreign transaction fees , but they are small compared to what other banks charge.
Do not arrange for an apartment before you see it. I just thought of something that might interest you. Foreigner and even locals can have a very difficult time renting an apartment in BA. Very often in order to rent an apartment, you must pay a year's rent in advance.
The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

 

[LiXueLee]

While you may start with a school, there is no guarantee that a school is where you will stay. Many who teach English here, and many of the most lucrative jobs, are with large multinationals who contract with agencies to send private tutors to those companies. If you end up going that route, you put in a lot of miles around the city and will most likely be taking a lot of buses and the SubT.

Until you know that you are happy with your employment, and until you know for sure what you are going to require in terms of transportation, I would not rent anything long term.

We moved here a couple of months ago and are really happy that we did not try and tie anything up from a distance because we have completely rethought our housing strategy since arriving.

A note about Recoleta, where we have lived in two different apartments over the last two months: it is a neighborhood with a lot of retired people. I'm 42, and I feel like a teenager around here sometimes!

Also, rentals for foreigners are at an all time high now, having risen considerably over the last couple of years. With the world economic crisis, I think you will see fewer travelers, and some price decreases in the months ahead. I don't think it makes sense to lock something in during high season at an astronomical rate.

Mich
www.micheleandtom.com

 

[halYEM]

mich -

thats really useful advice and im enjoying your blog. thank you.

 

[halYEM]

also, do you know how to go about getting hooked up with those agencies that send you out for private tutoring? im all for what is most lucrative.

 

[LiXueLee]

I'm sorry, but I don't have more information on the specifics of the English teaching gigs!

My brother and his friends say that once you get here and start teaching you become part of network, and you just ask around. In general, they say the jobs break down as follows:

1) Going to companies for regular private tutoring. (I call the women who own these agencies my brother's pimps!) This is fun and you have high level functional clients who don't want homework, they just want to work on relevant English during tutor time. It's pretty easy. Traveling requirements suck.

2) Many of the private grade schools here are 1/2 day in Spanish and 1/2 day in English. A lot of these schools will hire English teaching assistants or some will even hire teachers directly to teach English. These are generally 1/2 day gigs.

3) Working in a language institute teaching English.

Hope this helps!

 

[Zenobia]

I've been searching for a teaching job, too. Most of the places I've seen are located in Microcentro, so if you're going to be working there, Recoleta is closer than Palermo. Good luck!

 

[ghost]

oh and also, any ideas on opening up a bank acct?

gotta put my money somewhere, right?

Maybe if your are comming to teach, you should do some research first. All of your questions and some you have not even thought of yet have been addressed on this forum............... many, many times. Look around. And you can pretty well forget about the bank account, unless you have a DNI. Good luck.