It is February 10th.
I feel the need to record my random thoughts today.
On December 28th, I moved into a small apartment by the sea on the Eastern coast of Spain. The idea was to A) have some time to unwind after the high-stress work I was doing; B) hang out in Europe to see if I could dig up another contract here (and therefore get to see more of the place); and C) Have a study retreat. I've been trying for a while now to get certain IT certs done but life kept interfering. I figure with two months in a quiet, relaxing place where I don't know anyone I'd get some actual studying done. And I have.
I like it there, but it's a town filled with mostly old expatriates. Fun fact: The Costa Blanca region of Spain is a popular retirement location for elderly English and German people. I like what I've seen of Spain (which admittedly isn't much) but it got boring pretty fast -- plus it actually gets surprisingly cold there in January. At night it would get below freezing sometimes; I actually had to go ask my landlady for a space heater. So I said "Screw it" and decided to seek out warmer weather.
I decided on South America, but nowhere I've been before. I've always wanted to go to Brazil, so I found the cheapest flight I could get and off I went! So far, I've seen Sao Paolo and Porto Alegre. Sao Paolo had much better nightlife, but there was a generally much cooler vibe in Porto Alegre. Sao Paolo is a fairly dangerous place, too; I went to a party and saw the girls were putting on their jewelry at the door. My ex-workmate told me that girls have to stash their jewelry to avoid getting robbed. Lots of street kids running around, too; I'm told that if you go anywhere near them they brandish a knife at you. I was also told that you shouldn't be non-Brazilian and walk down certain streets because you risk getting kidnapped. What they do is drive up next to you in a van, five guys drag you in, one guy puts a gun to your head & demands you withdraw $1000 from the nearest ATM machine. Then they grab it and drive off. Fucking crazy, right? My last day in the town, I walked down one of those streets. Got a few funny looks and a couple of dirty ones, but no one tried anything. Plus it rained for 2 of the 4 days I was there, which cut into my activities. I seem unable to escape bad weather.
Porto Alegre is a lot nicer. As soon as I got into town, I smelled barbecue *everywhere* - now THAT'S how you welcome a weary traveller into your city! The climate's better and it has more of a New York vibe, that thing where people generally seem to believe, "We're all pretty cool and we're all in this together (more-or-less), so no petty drama is allowed." I didn't really party there, but I hung out, had a few laughs and saw some awesome beaches. I hate swimming at the beach, but I never get bored with walking along the shore. Yeah, I had some barbecue too. There are tons of neat little markets where they sell all sorts of things. Of course, I didn't buy anything because my Portuguese is awful and I couldn't have haggled BUT I got some nice pics. There was also a cool little pre-Carnaval festival there, but I didn't get its name or anything. I didn't go to Rio, but maybe on the next trip.
Right now, I'm in a hotel in La Paz, Bolivia. I'm crashing here overnight because of some issue with my connecting flight. Plus, hey, when will I get another shot at seeing Bolivia? I'm also trying not to panic, because I just checked my savings account online. This trip ended up costing WWAAAAAAAYYYY more than I budgeted for it. Between that and the other bills I've had to pay recently, plus rent on two places (my place back home & the apartment in Spain) I'm gonna be hurting pretty bad financially in a couple of weeks. That's got me frightened because job-wise I don't have anything lined up for when I get back, and since I was consulting in Europe I may not be eligible for unemployment in the US. I've got a couple of job leads in Europe but they're starting to feel the pinch of recession there too, so I expect to face some stiff competition.
Damn, damn, damn, damn! Nothing is ever easy, is it? I'm at a loss for what to do here, so if anyone's got some advice I will gladly listen. What will I do when I get back to Spain? My original plan was to rent the place through mid-March, visit my European relatives one last time, then fly home & figure out my next move. Now, though, I'm unsure. I guess I could fly to Egypt and join the protestors there or something. There's always the military, if I'm really desperate or hard-up -- though I'm not sure if they'd take me now since I'm over 30. Grad school? Maybe, but I'd rather not be MORE in debt from student loans than I am now.
About that protesting stuff: When I was in England, there were massive student protests there. The year before, all that Iran uprising stuff started with angry young people. Now you've got the riots in Tunisia and the protests in Egypt, plus less-reported stuff happening in Yemen and Sudan. I found an article that might provide a common link for all of that. It's from BusinessWeek, so they naturally try and sneak in the free-market bullshit that Business always likes to hear -- after all, low taxes + weak environmental regs + weak labor laws = BIG-ASS PROFITS, damn the social consequences. Still, the point they make is valid: these recent uprisings can be traced back to the sharp spike in youth unemployment that we've seen in the last decade. So, while I'm not in that target demographic anymore, at least I'll have some company if I do become an unemployed bum. Maybe we'll even start a few uprisings ourselves. We can only hope...
On December 28th, I moved into a small apartment by the sea on the Eastern coast of Spain. The idea was to A) have some time to unwind after the high-stress work I was doing; B) hang out in Europe to see if I could dig up another contract here (and therefore get to see more of the place); and C) Have a study retreat. I've been trying for a while now to get certain IT certs done but life kept interfering. I figure with two months in a quiet, relaxing place where I don't know anyone I'd get some actual studying done. And I have.
I like it there, but it's a town filled with mostly old expatriates. Fun fact: The Costa Blanca region of Spain is a popular retirement location for elderly English and German people. I like what I've seen of Spain (which admittedly isn't much) but it got boring pretty fast -- plus it actually gets surprisingly cold there in January. At night it would get below freezing sometimes; I actually had to go ask my landlady for a space heater. So I said "Screw it" and decided to seek out warmer weather.
I decided on South America, but nowhere I've been before. I've always wanted to go to Brazil, so I found the cheapest flight I could get and off I went! So far, I've seen Sao Paolo and Porto Alegre. Sao Paolo had much better nightlife, but there was a generally much cooler vibe in Porto Alegre. Sao Paolo is a fairly dangerous place, too; I went to a party and saw the girls were putting on their jewelry at the door. My ex-workmate told me that girls have to stash their jewelry to avoid getting robbed. Lots of street kids running around, too; I'm told that if you go anywhere near them they brandish a knife at you. I was also told that you shouldn't be non-Brazilian and walk down certain streets because you risk getting kidnapped. What they do is drive up next to you in a van, five guys drag you in, one guy puts a gun to your head & demands you withdraw $1000 from the nearest ATM machine. Then they grab it and drive off. Fucking crazy, right? My last day in the town, I walked down one of those streets. Got a few funny looks and a couple of dirty ones, but no one tried anything. Plus it rained for 2 of the 4 days I was there, which cut into my activities. I seem unable to escape bad weather.
Porto Alegre is a lot nicer. As soon as I got into town, I smelled barbecue *everywhere* - now THAT'S how you welcome a weary traveller into your city! The climate's better and it has more of a New York vibe, that thing where people generally seem to believe, "We're all pretty cool and we're all in this together (more-or-less), so no petty drama is allowed." I didn't really party there, but I hung out, had a few laughs and saw some awesome beaches. I hate swimming at the beach, but I never get bored with walking along the shore. Yeah, I had some barbecue too. There are tons of neat little markets where they sell all sorts of things. Of course, I didn't buy anything because my Portuguese is awful and I couldn't have haggled BUT I got some nice pics. There was also a cool little pre-Carnaval festival there, but I didn't get its name or anything. I didn't go to Rio, but maybe on the next trip.
Right now, I'm in a hotel in La Paz, Bolivia. I'm crashing here overnight because of some issue with my connecting flight. Plus, hey, when will I get another shot at seeing Bolivia? I'm also trying not to panic, because I just checked my savings account online. This trip ended up costing WWAAAAAAAYYYY more than I budgeted for it. Between that and the other bills I've had to pay recently, plus rent on two places (my place back home & the apartment in Spain) I'm gonna be hurting pretty bad financially in a couple of weeks. That's got me frightened because job-wise I don't have anything lined up for when I get back, and since I was consulting in Europe I may not be eligible for unemployment in the US. I've got a couple of job leads in Europe but they're starting to feel the pinch of recession there too, so I expect to face some stiff competition.
Damn, damn, damn, damn! Nothing is ever easy, is it? I'm at a loss for what to do here, so if anyone's got some advice I will gladly listen. What will I do when I get back to Spain? My original plan was to rent the place through mid-March, visit my European relatives one last time, then fly home & figure out my next move. Now, though, I'm unsure. I guess I could fly to Egypt and join the protestors there or something. There's always the military, if I'm really desperate or hard-up -- though I'm not sure if they'd take me now since I'm over 30. Grad school? Maybe, but I'd rather not be MORE in debt from student loans than I am now.
About that protesting stuff: When I was in England, there were massive student protests there. The year before, all that Iran uprising stuff started with angry young people. Now you've got the riots in Tunisia and the protests in Egypt, plus less-reported stuff happening in Yemen and Sudan. I found an article that might provide a common link for all of that. It's from BusinessWeek, so they naturally try and sneak in the free-market bullshit that Business always likes to hear -- after all, low taxes + weak environmental regs + weak labor laws = BIG-ASS PROFITS, damn the social consequences. Still, the point they make is valid: these recent uprisings can be traced back to the sharp spike in youth unemployment that we've seen in the last decade. So, while I'm not in that target demographic anymore, at least I'll have some company if I do become an unemployed bum. Maybe we'll even start a few uprisings ourselves. We can only hope...