The Great Apartment and Job Search of 2011 (or How To Succeed In Cuenca Without Really Trying)

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After moving from the horrible Casa Naranja to the lovely Posada del Rio last Monday morning, we settled into our room, looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.

We moved to Cuenca with the idea that we weren't on an extended vacation. We wanted to be able to find a way to both immerse ourselves in the community, and sustain ourselves without depleting our savings too badly. Obviously, you can't help spending some money when making a move like this, but a semi-permanent apartment, jobs, etc. were all part of our plan. But how to do it?

The first couple of days were spent canvassing the city and hitting as many English-friendly places as possible. Carolina, the English-language bookstore; Cafe Austria, the German-owned cafe; Cuenca Condos, the expat-centric real-estate site; Inca Bar, where we watched the Super Bowl with many Americans. We would check out the bulletin-board for listings, talk to the owners/employees, strike up conversations with people next to us... basically, anything that might yield information. We found several notices advertising apartments that seemed promising.

However, we found that looking for an apartment in Cuenca without a phone and solid knowledge of Spanish is a significant disadvantage. We spent a lot of time in telephone booths with Chris trying to communicate with the person on the other end while ignoring Justin's annoying questions. We were able to see a couple of apartments... one was in the right price range, but was dank and under-furnished; one was beautifully finished and furnished, but expensive and small. Ben, an employee of Cuenca Condos whom we met at the Inca Bar, was nice enough to try to help us out, but our low price-point coupled with a large group that had come into town a few weeks ago and gobbled up apartments made things difficult.

Jobs also presented a bit of a problem. While there seems to be options at some of the local universities for people with Masters degrees, the colleges are on break and there were no guarantees. TOEFL certification seemed standard at English-language schools and they were pretty staffed up anyway. And it's hard to work at a bar without a bit of Spanish. Justin suggested that maybe he work the street corners, but unfortunately, Chris has a bit of a jealousy problem.

All of this didn't spell disaster, but made us believe that it might take a while before we got settled.

Thankfully, Chris had signed up for an e-mail list called GringoTree, which sends out listings of interest to expats in the Cuenca area. On Tuesday, there was a posting for teachers for the Asian-American School , which included an average monthly Ecuadorian wage and a free apartment. Although he figured they were getting inundated with resumes, Justin threw one together and sent it off.

When he went in for an interview the next day, everything seemed to go pretty well. Plus, Mary, who with her husband Francis run the school (both are very nice, but neither are Asian or American, which is a bit confusing) had an idea... she indicated it was her preference that Chris fill the other teaching job. That would mean double the wage, a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom apartment to themselves, and a workday that only ran from 8:30 to 12:30 every day (or about 20 hours a week). When Justin mentioned this to Chris, she was excited by the idea. She went in for an interview the next day... everything went smoothly, except for Francis' confusion as to why an M.B.A. would want this job instead of making a fortune in the U.S. (we told him our parents were a bit confused as well).

By Thursday evening, we each had a job and a free apartment and a way to extend our visa past the six months we have now. All that was left was to see the place. Thankfully, it was nicer than the other places we looked at... spacious, centrally-located, on a quiet cul-de-sac. We later found some drainage/hot water issues, but those should be sorted out quickly.

Tomorrow morning, when the alarm goes off at 6:30 and we're surrounded by 60 2- to 6-year-olds that we're supposed to help teach Language & Math (Justin) and Art & Science (Christine) we may feel differently, but as of now, things seem to have come together pretty well.

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Comments

[Z]

?
do they know that Justin can't add?