IL Magazine: Discover the Greatest Retirement Town +6 More SUBSCRIBE NOW AND SAVE 35% about subscribing to International Living Magazine If you are thinking about teaching English overseas, Cuenca in Ecuador has got to be one of the easiest places to start your career. Imagine sitting back, relaxing and sipping freshly ground Ecuadorian coffee in your favorite little haunt. The sun is shining—as it does every day. Smartly dressed locals are strolling around...
My second cup of coffee is half gone as I fill in the last square of the Sudoku. The LA Times crossword has already been vanquished. Now it's time for Eduardo, my first student of the day, to join me. He's a few minutes late (as usual). But I don't mind. When you teach English online to students via Skype, everything is easier.
As I'm sure you know by now, you already have a skill that can easily translate into a steady income in a foreign country...English. In fact, thousands of people just like you have already used the fact that they speak English fluently to become English teachers in exotic new countries. Here's why you should join them: In nearly every country on the planet there's a huge number of people who want to learn English.
Work doesn't start until nearly 8.00 a.m. but I'm an early riser so I like to get up around 6.00 a.m. I'm greeted by the sun shining in my window.
Gliding between the jagged peaks of the French Pyrenees in my chairlift seat, I took a deep breath and tried to relax. It wasn't the soaring height of the peaks that made me nervous, or the prospect of swishing down them on my skis. It wasn't the weather, either—blue skies stretched from peak to peak. Nope, everything on the slopes was perfect.
They say you can tell a lot about a person by the way they finish this sentence: Life is a ________. For a lot of people, it might finish with the words a “grind” or a “battle” or a “race.” That’s often the everyday reality of living in the rat race. But I’ve always had the same ending to that sentence: Life is an adventure.
"Can you meet me at Puro Cafe at noon?" asks my husband, Mark. The times and locations of our rendezvous may change, but my response is always the same—yes! Who can say no to meeting for coffee at one of the quaint sidewalk cafes in picturesque Cuenca, Ecuador with its cobblestone streets, majestic churches, and irresistible Old World charm?
I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel severals time a year to places like Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, and Mexico. You might wonder how I became so lucky? Well, seven years ago, I came to Mexico to teach English as a second language. This allowed me to fulfill my dream of living abroad and immerse myself in another culture.
The sun is out and brilliant blue skies with white fluffy clouds—that you can almost touch—overlook my morning jog next to the Yanuncay River. The linear trails, three blocks from our condo, are immaculately groomed with colorful flowerbeds and towering Eucalyptus trees that give off a familiar scent reminiscent of my childhood in California. Along the way fellow joggers greet me with "Buenos Días."
"I came to Panama 10 years ago on vacation and never left," says Carl Conway. "I was drawn in by the sunshine and blue skies...the warm water and sandy beaches...the palm trees and bright flowers...it was a tropical paradise." Now age 43, Carl enjoys a rich and laidback life in the rural town of Santa Fe in Veraguas Province of central Panama.