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Gizza job.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:50 / 08.07.03

Okay, so I'm in Barcelona, which is all well and good. However, I've drawn a bit of a blank on the job front.

(A word of warning: I don't have a degree or any kind of teaching quals. The good people of Catalunya seem to regard this as a barrier to my working as a teacher of English, or any other damn thing. Some of them laughed. Actually, most of them laughed. Mention TEFL, therefore, and I will have to kill you. It's this whole big thing.)

I've explored, and continue to explore, the obvious avenues, and am still between careers. I have quite a lot of experience, but it's mostly light industrial related or on the thumb-sucky side of IT. I can fix things, clean things, and don't mind getting my hands dirty. I can also paint/draw a bit, get nekkid in an artistic context, make very pretty beadwork*, and write stuff. Can you help? Any suggestions** welcome.

Also, I'm considering selling my pretty beadwork around town. Can anyone advise me on the legality or otherwise of flypitching in Barcelona? Am I likely to get arrested or beaten up by rival traders?

*It really is very pretty beadwork.

**Unless they involve hanging around the docks with a sign saying "Get it Here!"

21:05 / 08.07.03

are you in contact with any parts of the expat community? While I realise working for a cartel of anglophones might not be ideal they do tend to have a good handle and some influence on the job opportunities for mainly english speakers in Barca...

I'm not sure if that's in anyway helpful or something that you haven't already tried...

01:43 / 09.07.03

i have no advice other than to say I'm just very jealous of your even being in Barcelona. What a place to be impoverished and begging for a living. Why am I in Ohio? That's my question, but probably would require a different and very boring thread, so please ignore.

Will you be there long? Hablas castillano o catalan?

Are there any jobs that require eating paella all day long?

Less searchable M0rd4nt

05:55 / 09.07.03

sleaze: Not really in contact with expats. All the people I met through my language course have moved on or gone home, and I don't really fancy most of the expat socail clubs. (Bridge. Eughhh.) I've started hanging round a couple of anglophone watering holes, though.

alas: Yeah, I'm a jammy git, all right. This is an okay place to be unemployed: great weather and loads of stuff you can see for free.

Hablo un poco castillano. No hablo catalan. And sadly there does not appear to be much call for career paella-eaters round here.

07:44 / 09.07.03

Go to Els Encants on the Plaça de la Glòries. You can hawk your wares there. There's usually a few unofficial people milling about the periphery.

You might also try here and here - not sure how helpful they'll be though.

08:05 / 09.07.03

I would love to suggest something, Mordant, but based on my profession, I can't as I value my life too much...

Still, hmm, expat cafes not too bad... what about expat communities on the web? Sometimes they're helpful.

13:36 / 09.07.03

If you can't teach officially, put fliers up in local schools offering to help English students cheat.

Desperate Spanophones(?) will be lining up outside your door.....

pointless and uncalled for

18:30 / 09.07.03

From what I saw, Barcelona was fairly decent for flypitching, or indeed flytipping if you can turn it into a commercial service.

Other than that it really does depend on how "artistically" nekkid you are willing to get.

Even at the most "artistic" level, I doubt that any art student would be averse to painting oil-based gothporn for a change. So perhaps you should see if you can find anyone who works in a seat of larning to help you out.

Crudely put, but worth considering as if said by someone more eloquant than I.

20:05 / 10.07.03

Could you go and pick oranges (for money to get by on), while exchanging stories with your colleagues and soaking up the local culture? Or is this long term employment (if so don't know).

21:06 / 10.07.03

If you can't teach officially, put fliers up in local schools offering to help English students cheat.

Spinning off this, you could always offer to help people practice their English in exchange for a meal or a small quantity of cash.

08:02 / 11.07.03

Is there an English language paper or magazine in Barcelona that would take articles/reports? (I think there's one in Madrid - dunno the story about submissions). Not really an income, but the contacts could be useful.

Unexpected stuff can turn up tho'. I had luck in getting a job in a bar near Valencia - the owner was looking for someone who didn't speak Spanish, as an amusement for the locals...

Anyway, good luck!

Less searchable M0rd4nt

17:19 / 22.07.03

Thanks for your input.

Am investigating the legal position re: teaching English without any quals. Doesn't look like there's any problem, so I'm gonna bung up a bunch of fliers round the local campus and hope for the best. (Suggestions as to good teaching materials would be appreciated, BTW.)

Fly-pitching: yes, it's a possibility, but the local plods take a dim view and have a nasty habit of moving you on and taking all your stuff. There's a sort of unofficial market in one of the big parks on Sundays, so I've started going to that with my pretty beadwork.

Getting nekkid: I'm looking into it. Will ask around and start haunting art departments.

Oranges: They do not grow oranges in Barça, unfortunately.

Writing: There are indeed English-language publications in the area. I'm investigating submissions policies and getting a feel for the kind of things they want.

I'm thinking seriously about doing some sort of street theatre, human statuary or whatnot. For this I would need a licence and I'm not sure how to get one or how much it costs. Still, it's something to mull over.