Well dear readers, how long it has been since last I talked to you. Apologies to my small and no doubt dwindling faithful band, it´s sometimes difficult to dredge up the inspiration to write chatty posts with the occasional burst of wit when sometimes, even here, nothing much really happens.
Not that this is meant to be me complaining, because it isn´t, but I want to write a bit about how difficult it is to make ends meet here... for to dispel the myth that the Third World is cheap. Here isn´t. This is, I think, largely because of two factors ' lots and lots of products are imported, not just luxuries,making the place a kind of caribbean iceland, and the government has artificially fixed the rate of exchange with the dollar, meaning that the strong pound cannot be as devastatingly expensive as it is elsewhere.
I earn approximately 1,325,000 bolivares a month. This high'sounding number translates into a little over 300 Sterling, which is less impressive. Of this, approx. 400,000 goes on rent, and i have to spend 3 to 4 thousand a day on the subway and internet fees to talk to you fine people. Since I borrowed 800,000 bolivares from my company to pay the initial deposit on my house, I also have to repay 160,000 a month towards that.
This leaves a little under 170,000 a week. A meal out can cost 20,000 a day, or submitting to the drudgery of my self'made rotation of spaghetti and chicken, spaghetti and ham, spaghetti and egg or plain spaghetti for a week will cost about 100,000 to 120,000 if luxuries like coffee and ice cream are to be paid for. Then, to do anything fun, like go to a movie or a nightclub, costs 15,000 to 20,000, just for entrance, not drinks.
Should you overindulge and fail to get up at 530 AM in time for a class, that´s 22,000 off your salary for registering a ´TDG´ (Teacher Didn´t Go). This also moves you further along the conveyor belt to being fired (I skipped a class on Friday to go to the beach, but don´t tell anyone....)
Needless to say, it makes up for a rather poor existence, or else one supported by occasional use of the international Nationwide debit card. I didn´t expect to get rich here, but living on the breadline wasn´t really what I thought a professional job entailed.
Abonnieren
Kommentare zum Post (Atom)
4 Kommentare:
Good to catch up on your blog, Niall.Remember, despite the best efforts of parents and friends, the most meaningful lessons in life come from your own experience, not other people's. Or "it's all character building". And "this, too, will pass". Stick in there. How quickly can you finish your contract, though?
We are enjoying relative calm after a frenetic friends and family fortnight round the period of Aidan's wedding. We enjoyed catching up with Dermot and Catherine. I am now able to return to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "Living to tell the tale", which again reminds me of the vastly different culture in which you are living. The world has changed in the fifty years since the descriptions given in much of the book but there is no doubt that attitudes and mindsets are so different from our own. As ever, I shall persevere and finish the book but, as often happens, I am becoming increasingly irritated with the translator, who seems to get carried away with his own erudition. I read a sentence and then think "What on earth is he trying to say?". Do you find this problem with translations?
Your description of the cost of living is interesting. Do you find yourself dividing figures by 10 to make them more manageable or are you happy now to talk in thousands?
What are the weather conditions like?
I couldn't possibly comment on graduate salaries, Niall...
Hi Moira
Contract is for three months although I didn't actually sign anything. I'm in no hurry to leave though. It's difficult, but so was life at home. And there are lots of interesting things still to do here, including making a real effort with Spanish
Weather is usually pretty hot but today saw torrential downpours. Classes get cancelled when this happens, so there is a silver lining.
I find Marquez fascinating. Try and read his book about Simon Bolivar, who is worshipped as a kind of God here. I do think that translations can be very irritating, but having had to do it myself I can appreciate the real difficulty they present!
Glad to hear the wedding went well.
Since when has ice cream been a luxury? Ask Dermot. He will tell you that it is a basic daily (at least twice) requirement.Glad to see that you are transmitting again.Keep your chin up.
Kommentar veröffentlichen