Squem
Emma Cresswell Joined: May 25th 2008
Logged in: December 16th 2011
Logged in: December 16th 2011
Having been travelling on and off since I graduated in 2006, I decided it was time to settle down for a bit...
I arrived in Argentina in July of 2008 looking for work as an ESL teacher. Once the job was secured I got a little bit comfortable... and this blog has gone from being a travel blog to a space to recount the ups and downs of my life as una inglesa en Buenos Aires...
Travel Blog Posts
At the Equator
Once I'd collected my bags at the airport, only slightly worried that history would repeat itself and I'd be left without my bags, I made my way to the taxi rank. I had told Michelle that I would make my own way to their place, and I was expecting to be ripped off by the taxi drivers, as had happened the last time. But no, the first taxi offered to take me at the "proper" price and off I went. He had the radio tuned to a local sports station and he filled me in on what I had missed during my flight. When I took off Uruguay were winning 1-0 and ended up winning 3-0. Once back at Michelle's I settled back in, and over an early dinner we planned the rest of my stay. ... read more
Cuenca, main plaza
When I started planning this trip to Ecuador I knew I wanted to go to Cuenca. Don't ask me why, or how, I just knew. I guess I'd heard or read about it at some point, anyhow, I wanted to go. As it turned out, it wasn't that difficult to get to from Puerto Lopez, time-consuming yes, difficult no. The first part of the trip was by bus from Puerto Lopez to Guayaquil. I had thought about spending some time in Guayaquil, but everyone I had spoken to said it wasn't worth it, so I didn't. The bus ride to Guayaquil was uneventful. Whilst waiting for the bus to arrive I saw, or rather, heard a big group of Brits arrive. I would be lying if I said that I was thrilled. Don't get my wrong, ... read more
Los Frailes
Michelle had another friend visiting her that week too, and as Sam was only in Ecuador for one week we decided to head straight for the beach. Michelle and I had done all the booking when I got to Ecuador, and following recommendations from José, Michelle's husband and some of his friends, we decided on Puerto Lopez. We also decided to fly instead of getting the overnight bus. It made sense, Sam had spent all of Friday flying down from Detroit, and we didn't think she'd want to jump straight on an 9 hour bus... and to be fair, neither did we! So instead it was a 30 min flight to Manta followed by a 2 hour drive to Puerto Lopez. I was a bit worried about the accommodation. Along with flying instead of getting the ... read more
View from the roof of the Centro Cultural
...a trip to the centre of the earth... Due to Argentina being in the southern hemisphere, July is the middle of winter. Whilst my Facebook feeds are full of people talking about their summer holidays, here in Buenos Aires it's freezing. To rectify this matter, I decided to use my two week long winter holiday to head further north in search of the sun. I had decided to visit Michelle, who I had last seen in 2008, when I spent July 4th with her family at their cabin on Lake Michigan. () When I moved to Argentina in July 2008, Michelle moved to Ecuador a couple of months later. Fast forward 3 years she is now married to José and they're processing his paperwork to get him his green card into the States. This meant that ... read more
Iguazú Falls
Retrospective blog #2 I went to the Iguazú Falls back in December 09 when my Dad and his wife came to visit me... but I never got round to blogging about it. To be fair, even if I had blogged about it straight away, there wouldn't have been much I could say about it... the scenery is stunning, and it's a place where pictures speak louder than words... (and even then pictures struggle to capture the true beauty of the place). We flew up for a long weekend as I was still teaching and couldn't get any time off. Alex, my then next-door neighbour who is also a travel agent, arranged the excursions for us, ensuring that we would see both sides of the falls (the Brazilian and the Argentinian). The weather when we arrived in ... read more
La Cumbre
It's been a while... It's been a while since I wrote my last blog, but also since I had a holiday. Nearly a year. That's about to be rectified as I'm heading off during the winter holidays. However, I took advantage of one of Agentina's many bank holidays to go away for a long weekend. Given that Argentina created more bank holidays last year, so that this year there is at least one bank holiday a month, you would have thought that there would be plenty of opportunity to travel or escape. Don't get me wrong, it's extremely easy to get away for the weekend, but I'm more hesitant to do so. There are various reasons, finding someone to look after the cats is the main one, but work has a habit of getting in the ... read more
Las Cibeles
As I awoke from an impromptu siesta I started thinking about the Christmas weekend I have just experienced, and how it was so very different from last year... December 2009 Two days after school finishing for the holidays and only slightly hungover, I was making my way to Ezeiza, the international airport here in Buenos Aires. The temperature? A balmy 33º. My destination? Madrid, Spain followed my a connection to London, England: home. I was going home for the first time in 18 months. Fastforward about 18 hours, and after the most turbulent-hit flight of my life, an extremely sleepy Emma hears over the tannoy as we land in Madrid "bienvenidas a Madrid, dónde la temperatura es menos ocho y las condiciones.... " I never heard what the conditions were, as my brain went into overdrive. ... read more
Looking from the mirador in Trancoso
What's this?? Two blogs in one week?? Fear not, I'm not ill... I'm now on my summer holidays, and have decided it's time to do some retrospective blogging. In my previous blog I gave a very quick run through of some of the major events in the last 18 months, but to be fair, there was so much I missed out. So I've decided over the summer to look back in more detail over some of the things I've done and share them with you all. As some of you may have noticed, the location for this blog is dfferent to usual... Brazil For various reasons, I hadn't done any real travelling since my weekend to Carmelo for a visa run . In the Argentine summer I had gone back to England for Christmas, and since ... read more
Delta 1
So, I can't even remember the last time I wrote one of these.... The last 18 months have been hectic to say the least. I've been studying for the Delta (Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults). I didn't have to. But it was the right decision. It was my way of deciding that I'm in this teaching business for the long run. I've just finished the 3rd and final module, and now am waiting for the results, having passed the previous 2 modules. Apart from studying work has been getting busier and busier. The school is also an IELTS centre, and has been steadily promoting the exam. Some of the teachers are examiners, testing the candidates on speaking and writing. Others, myself included, are clerical markers, which means we correct the listening and read... read more
Carmelo
It’s that time of year again… when my visa runs out and I have to leave the country. This time it was kind of special, as it’s almost a year since I set foot in Argentina. On the 15th of this month, to be exact. This is actually quite an achievement for me. I realised earlier today, that the last time I spent one whole year in a country was, well, years ago… I think I worked out that it was 2003… says a lot. So yeh, my visa was about to run out, and the easy option is a short hop across the river to Uruguay. Annoyingly for me, my visa had to run out the week before our winter holidays start. Otherwise I could have killed two birds with one stone, and spent some ... read more
Where I'm from 
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Where I've been 
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