Word for the Travel Wise (11/24/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Whether you’re in search of postage in Nicaragua to send a postcard back home or surfing the web for some new stamps to add to your collection here is a Spanish word that might make your hunting easier. That is if the person you’re dealing with doesn’t speak English or your native tongue.

Today’s word is a Spanish word used in Nicaragua:

timbre – postage

Amerispan, Cactus Language and IMAC are all good starting points to learning abroad. A free membership at Spanish Unlimited gives you the opportunity to learn a new word everyday by email, gain pen pals and hear audio of the words. Their website is actually a good resource tool for many different Spanish related topics. I won’t even begin to list some of the texts out there that could further your studies because there are entirely too many. If you know of some language books that would be useful please feel free to list them.

Past Spanish words: escalar, cercano, realidad, enfermo, jalar, isla

Surfing Nicaragua

by Erik Olsen on

Just a month or two ago we did a podcast with a good guy named Josh Berman. Josh is one of the writers of several guidebooks to places like Belize and Nicaragua. In fact, he is also recently the author of a how to live abroad in Nicaragua book. The reason I bring all this up is that Josh talked a lot during our interview about the surfing in Nicaragua. Now, we’ve mentioned Nicaragua as one of the top global surf spots in several posts past, but Josh was adamant that Nicaragua is the place to be now, and that means now, since it won’t take long for Americans and other to swarm that place and make it a tourist nightmare, stripping the place of its authenticity. I was lucky enough to pass through Nicaragua years ago on my trip through South and Central America, and at that time it was hardly the kind of place that average tourists would enjoy. I liked it because it was rough around the edges…actually it was rough right down to the center…but that was fine by me. It made the place more interesting. Personally, I’d love to return, and so I figured I’d peek around a bit to see what people are writing today. Here, for example, is a fine site about surfing there. As well as a site dedicated entirely to surfing in this wee CA country. And finally, a piece in the SF Chronicle about surfing throughout the region.

Gadling Podcast: Joshua Berman

by Erik Olsen on

The whole guidebook writing thing has long intrigued me with its double-sided nature. On the one hand, being in a foreign locale, and having your job consist of reporting on the food, lodging and fun in that place seems like a dream job. On the other hand, spending an entire day peeking under mattresses and checking the cleanliness of bathrooms, well, I don’t care WHERE you are, that can kind of get old.

Well in today’s podcast, we talk about the job of writing guidebooks and a whole lot more. Out guest for today’s podcast is guidebook writer Joshua Berman, the author of several guidebooks in Central America as well as a brand-new book called Living Abroad in Nicaragua, released by Avalon Publishing this month. I’ve blogged about the Living Abroad series before, and I have to say it is a very handy guide for those who are considering making a move to any of the various countries for which there are books. But Joshua is also the writer, or co-writer, as the case may be, in two other guidebooks from Moon Guides (also under Avalon Publishing) Moon Guides Nicaragua and Moon Guides Belize. he also runs the wonderful Web site stonegrooves.net which chronicles his recent travels with his wife as a volunteer worker in places like India and Pakistan.

So turn up the speakers or put this thing on your ipod and take a listen.

Listen to Gadling podcast

Working Abroad or Trying…

by Adrienne Wilson on

I don’t know what I was looking for when I
clicked on the work abroad link over at Road Junky. I’m certainly
not searching for work internationally, not now at least. And I confess there have been times where I looked and
applied to teach English in China or Korea without even thinking twice. Strangely enough I didn’t made it too far with
the process considering I never obtained a TEFL to actually make it happen, but
I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one whose applied on a whim.

What I did find were a couple people’s
tales of their failed attempts in landing work overseas. One gentleman calls himself the "Worst Businessman in the World" as he shares the sad
details of his attempts in the export biz in India and blames his failures on the country as a whole. However, the
reality of his poor, comical situation was he didn’t do the market research. Another traveler in Nicaragua tries to find bar work, but ends up being the
stereotypical drunk at the bar spilling his sick, sad, sob stories to the bartender and anyone else who will hear them.
Lastly in one other tale a traveler scores the opportunity to teach English in Taiwan only to find he couldn’t face the
frightening 4 year-olds on a day-to-day basis.

Check out all
three in full for a good laugh or share your own failed job stories right here.

Word for the Travel Wise (03/03/06)

by Adrienne Wilson on

Sometimes I wish I could kick myself
over and over for not having taken advantage of the opportunity to explore Nicaragua while I was bumping around Costa
Rica. For one Nicaragua is Costa Rica’s northern neighbor and now a lot further away from my home base in Florida. My
reasons for not going at the time are quite simple. My travel partner and I knew little about Nicaragua and hadn’t
planned much on exploring the country seeing our trip to Costa Rica was already a huge turn-around from the Thailand
one we had planned for months. We heard of some of the difficulties getting around Nicaragua and the scarce amount of
ATM’s and these two things also gave us reason to refrain from all the incredible wonders the country has to offer.
Yes, silly I know.

Today’s word is a Spanish
word used in Nicaragua:

cercano – (pronounced
ser-ka-no) nearby

Certainly one must see the significance in knowing such a word. If you know
a decent amount of Spanish already you’ll be able to ask where un hotel, un albergue juvenil, or even where an
ATM can be located cercano or nearby. I’ve always fancied broken Spanish or Spanglish, but that’s just because
I’ve been a little lazy at learning Spanish myself.

As you begin to plan your first or next trip to Mexico,
Central America or South America think more about making the lingo part of one of your pastimes in addition to your
research on the country so you won’t regret missing something later. Amerispan,
Cactus Language and IMAC are all good starting points to learning abroad. A free membership
at Spanish Unlimited gives you the opportunity to learn a new word
everyday by email, gain pen pals and hear audio of the words. Their website is actually a good resource tool for many
different Spanish related topics. I won’t even begin to list some of the texts out there that could further your
studies because there are entirely too many. If you know of some language books that would be useful please feel free
to list them.

Past Spanish words: escalar