AW sighting in Europe

[Jackal]

I've been living in a city in Hungarian for the past couple months. I've begun to forget a lot about what America is like.

The other day, I heard the loud voices of American women on the tram. I rarely hear any English-speakers in my city, so I turned to look. The two white American girls were the flabbiest creatures I've seen in months. They were like blue whales among barracuda. I'd forgotten what most American women look like.

There are some fat Hungarians, but not too many. I've lost a lot of weight living here myself. The lifestyle here is simply healthier mentally and physically. It's so easy to use public transportation to get around here.

I have no intention of ever returning to America if I can help it.

I was sick a week ago and I went to the doctor. The doctor's visit was free and I had to pay only $15 for 3 different medicines. In the US, you could easily pay that much just for your copayment.

God bless the EU!

[jamesbond]

I've been living in a city in Hungarian for the past couple months. I've begun to forget a lot about what America is like.

The other day, I heard the loud voices of American women on the tram. I rarely hear any English-speakers in my city, so I turned to look. The two white American girls were the flabbiest creatures I've seen in months. They were like blue whales among barracuda. I'd forgotten what most American women look like.

There are some fat Hungarians, but not too many. I've lost a lot of weight living here myself. The lifestyle here is simply healthier mentally and physically. It's so easy to use public transportation to get around here.

I have no intention of ever returning to America if I can help it.

I was sick a week ago and I went to the doctor. The doctor's visit was free and I had to pay only $15 for 3 different medicines. In the US, you could easily pay that much just for your copayment.

God bless the EU!

I love that line, "The two white American girls where the flabbiest creatures I've seen in months." So you don't miss American women do you? Who would, when your in a country where most of the women are fit, attractive and friendly! Avoid American women like the plague!

[Grunt]

Right on man, American females overseas stick out like a sore thumb.

I remember when we were in Kherson, Ukraine at an Irish Pub called John Howard's. We were out front on the deck and some American skank tart sat down at the table behind us. Dont know if she recognized me as an American or not but she started talking to her Ukranian girl friends. The Ukrainian girls were very polite and their english was good, but the American skank was brash, loud, bragging how "Im gonna be RICH after I get out of college!" and you could see the pained looks on her "friends" faces at such comments. Nothing about family or quality of life, just money money money, like something from a bad cartoon.

That was prolly 5 years ago now, and I doubt very much that American skank has anything near the power or money it expected. But, I did marry a lovely Ukrainian girl! So alls well that ends well.

[Mr S]

Jackal, what do you do for work there to get by? How are the woman there? Easily datable or doable, or do you have to work at it a bit? I'm looking for a change of scenery in either 10/11 when my Philippines work visa runs out. I've had enough of Asia for a while and would like a change of scenery if I can financially get by in "select" country. I just feel like dating some white chicks for a change with decent attitudes, I'm kinda over the whole "exotic Asian" experience. Being white myself, and ok in the looks and personality department, as well as educated, I would like to see if foreign white woman would be interested in me or not. I want to experience dating woman from other cultures, not just Asia while I'm still relatively young. I never had much luck dating or hooking up with white chicks in America, but pretty much dated every other race there, go figure!

[Jackal]

Jackal, what do you do for work there to get by? How are the woman there? Easily datable or doable, or do you have to work at it a bit? I'm looking for a change of scenery in either 10/11 when my Philippines work visa runs out. I've had enough of Asia for a while and would like a change of scenery if I can financially get by in "select" country. I just feel like dating some white chicks for a change with decent attitudes, I'm kinda over the whole "exotic Asian" experience. Being white myself, and ok in the looks and personality department, as well as educated, I would like to see if foreign white woman would be interested in me or not. I want to experience dating woman from other cultures, not just Asia while I'm still relatively young. I never had much luck dating or hooking up with white chicks in America, but pretty much dated every other race there, go figure!

I teach English. The women are not easily dateable if you do not speak Hungarian, and learning the language is hard work. In general, outside of Budapest it's very hard to meet people if you don't speak at least tolerably good Hungarian. You'll be limited to the handful of expat women in whichever city you're living. This is why I'm now really trying hard to the learn the language because I really like it here otherwise.

So I'd say Hungary is one of the most difficult countries to socialize and date women in because the language is quite tough. Most expats leave after a year or so because of this. I'm here because I'm a strange guy, the locals have been very nice to me, and this place seems to fit my personality.

The women are probably easily dateable if you speak good Hungarian. I'll tell you when I get there.

Slovakia or Poland might be better choices for somebody who is undecided. And they speak Slavic languages there so if you decide to go to another Slavic country you'll recognize at least a few words.

Hungarian might have distant connections to other languages, but as a practical matter, it won't help you understand any other language. However, they have borrowed the Slavic word "kurva" (bitch, whore). So "kurva" is the universal word of Eastern Europe.

[Mr S]

I guess that may be more of a stop over place for me in the future, just for visiting if I ever get around to it. I'm not good with audible learning, and thus languages have been my weak point, even mastering the English language properly has been a challenge for me. If I wasn't such a voracious reader, I don't know where I would be.

If you have a Mp3 player try downloading this Pimsleur Hungarian language course. Its their level one and I'm sure it would help you a lot as they are one of the top language learner companies. You just need to download a bittorent software like vuze or bitlord. You can also use the Opera browser as well, but I have better speeds when using the other two. I use vuze since I use a Mac and it works well, no problems.

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1921117

I've downloaded most of the major language courses for future keeping just in case I decide to travel or work in one of them, and these language courses could be a godsend for me!

I guess when you are living in a country that has some relative economic success, the woman don't want to generally bother with a communication barrier. At least it looks like Ukraine and Russia are going to be going through some deep economic shit in the next few years, so the girls will be looking overseas once again I predict.

Why did you pick Hungary initially? Did you take a TEFL course there or something? Can you save any money there or is it just month to month survival? How many hours do you have to work there to get by? Are there privates available readily? Any much more pay per hour/month for individuals with an education masters? I don't have any problem finding work to pay my monthly expenses in Philippines, but can't really save any money here either, so long term its not a viable option to remain living and working here.

[Jackal]

Thanks for the link.

If you get a job working for a public school which will provide you with an apartment, then you can save some money if you live cheaply (which isn't too hard here, especially if you're not in Budapest).

Maybe you could also save some money if you worked at a private language school, but then you have to be very careful. At these schools, the types of contracts and methods of payment vary widely. So you have a greater chance of getting screwed if you're not careful. You'd also probably have to work at several language schools to get by. Whether the school you work at will help you with a lot of the necessary paperwork is another important detail worth considering. Having to wait in long lines for hours only to realize that you didn't fill out a form correctly or are actually in the wrong line is not fun.

I don't know what they pay at private language schools here. You'd have to research that online. At public schools, teachers make somewhere between 150 000 and 200 000 HUF (after taxes), depending on the school and your experience (I'm not sure exactly how they calculate this). I'm not sure if a masters degree would get a foreigner more money in the public school system here, although it would certainly look good on your resume.

At public schools, teachers usually work 20 hours a week in the classroom, although they also have to spend time planning lessons and grading papers. They also have to cover for other teachers lessons sometimes without additional pay and have to attend some school events (not too hard: wear a suit and show up).

No, I took my TEFL course back in the US. I came here because I felt that Hungary is the most developed of the former Soviet Bloc countries and my observations of the cities here have confirmed this. Most things feel pretty normal to me here, except for the language.

I've heard that ESL teachers make the most money in Korea or possibly in some of the Arab countries.

[Winston]

If you're looking for girls, I heard that Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania are good. The women there tend to be approachable and like meeting interesting strangers.

Otherwise, you'll have to try and break into cliques like in the US.

If you want practical information on ESL jobs, it's probably best to ask on the forums of ESL Cafe (http://www.eslcafe.com) and also read the journal reports for each country there.

[Jackal]

If you're looking for girls, I heard that Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania are good. The women there tend to be approachable and like meeting interesting strangers.

Otherwise, you'll have to try and break into cliques like in the US.

If you want practical information on ESL jobs, it's probably best to ask on the forums of ESL Cafe (http://www.eslcafe.com) and also read the journal reports for each country there.

Why are the "journal reports" for different countries on eslcafe? I couldn't find them. Did you just mean the job listings for each country?

I'd say that the women in Hungary are interested in meeting strangers, but generally only strangers who speak Hungarian--or possibly French or German. The women here are nice, but most are not capable of having a relationship in English.

The problem here isn't cliques. The problem is the language barrier. They might have nothing against you, but just simply can't talk with you.

[Winston]

If you're looking for girls, I heard that Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania are good. The women there tend to be approachable and like meeting interesting strangers.

Otherwise, you'll have to try and break into cliques like in the US.

If you want practical information on ESL jobs, it's probably best to ask on the forums of ESL Cafe (http://www.eslcafe.com) and also read the journal reports for each country there.

Why are the "journal reports" for different countries on eslcafe? I couldn't find them. Did you just mean the job listings for each country?

I'd say that the women in Hungary are interested in meeting strangers, but generally only strangers who speak Hungarian--or possibly French or German. The women here are nice, but most are not capable of having a relationship in English.

The problem here isn't cliques. The problem is the language barrier. They might have nothing against you, but just simply can't talk with you.

W: I guess those journals, or trip reports, were removed, probably because many people used them to bash school they didn't like. They were there long ago though. Now there are only forums there.

Here is a list of job links that they have though.

http://www.eslcafe.com/search/Jobs/