Scarlett

My son teaches English in Japan. Tokyo.
He could not speak Japanese when he went there, he has a BA from a University.
You can go online and see job listings for English teachers in other countries. Just google it because I cannot think of the name of the site .. but he got his first job, while here, he was hired while here, and lived in a school provided apt. He now rents a house in Tokyo..which gives one more freedom to leave the job without having to give up where you are living too.
You could also try finding American/English speaking hostels that might hire you to work the desk. Try Hostelling International for places to stay (cheap) and ideas for work.
Babysitting for Americans is an idea.
The Best of luck to you, what an Adventure you will have !!

Operaman

Don't listen to all the naysayers. Your young GO FOR IT! Whatever way it turns out you will have some great memories and you can tell everyone that you tried (and hopefully succeeded) when everyone tried to tell you to stay home and play it safe. Get out there and do it!

Skyshroud3

Okay, maybe I should explain my situation a little more clearly.

I'll admit, I don't have much of a plan to speak of. My plane ticket to Europe was a birthday present, as is $1000 of the cash. I was basically told to schedule the flight in the next month, or I wouldn't get to go. Not willing to pass up such an opportunity, I began talking to everyone I know, reading every book I can find, and pouring most of my free time into researching online, trying to come up with a good strategy for survival while I'm there.

I'm not going into some uncharted wilderness, and I do have contacts throughout Europe. Also, my father is a Dutch citizen, so much of my family lives in Holland (which is fortunate because I am flying into Amsterdam), and they've offered to give me a place to stay if I ever need it. I'm also considering applying for dual citizenship in Holland, but I've yet to research the requirements.

Also, $1500 is what I have right now, but I can easily get more. It's just a matter of selling my car (I'm just not looking forward to having to buy a new one when I return. This one's so close to being paid off!), which would supply me with an almost immediate $2000. Should that fail me, my return flight is open-ended, and I can schedule an almost immediate departing flight easily, and for free.

What I'm saying is, I'm not worried about wether or not I'll be able to make it. I've got my wits about me, if nothing else, and I'm not going to do anything that would keep me from being able to get back home. I appreciate the concern of everyone who has cautioned me about my hasty departure, but I'm sure I will be okay.

Aside from that, thanke are in order to everyone who replied! I'm already getting some leads and making plans. Thank you very much!

cigalechanta

Sky, have a wonderful time, stay safe, have great adventures and let us know where you went , what you saw, so those of us tied here can enjoy your amazing trip.

Randy

Skyshroud, there is a lot of great advice for you here. I think you have a great goal and I wish you much success. I must admit that being over sixty I am a little jealous of your youth and enthusiasm.

I also feel that a lot of people here who have replied to your post are truly concerned and deep down inside want you to make this happen. Please keep us all informed so that we can all share your future success.

Riffic

Do you have any foreign language skills? If so, I would start in such country first.

Then, my recommendation would be to go a city with a big University and post signs to give cheap english language lessons. At the very least, I think you could bring in 10 Euro/hour doing this (since language schools charge at least 40-50 Euro here in Munich). Plus, this would be tax free.

Here are two good links to expat life in Munich (toytown is much better than the 2nd site), where you will find that conventional jobs for expats can be quite a chore to find.

www.toytownmunich.com

groups.msn.com/americansinmunich

All things aside, be advised that you can legally stay in a European country (and I think this means in Europe in gneral) for only 3 months without a residence permit. Also, certain countries such as Germany and Italy 'require' you to register your whereabouts with the local police if you're making an extended stay. Of course, this is difficult to enforce, with the non-existent border crossings to check your passport often, but if you become badly sick or have a run-in with the authorities after 3-months, you may find yourself in some hot water.

I think there is nothing better than living abroad and immersing yourself in another culture, so best of luck to you!

flanneruk

Like the others, I really don't want to dampen your ardour, but:

1 Riffic's suggestion is illegal. You cannot, without the appropriate visa (which an American with no skills can only get through things like BUNAC), work for money inside the EU (except on some foreign military bases and the like). Period.

If you're caught, you get deported, and risk being registered as a deportee.
And, though it may not matter to you, working without paying tax is also illegal. It can get you into jail.

2. On arrival in Amsterdam, if you're allowed in (with only $1500 and no confirmed return date, that's a real 'if') you'll be given leave to stay within Schengen for 90 days. You cannot return anywhere in Schengen for another 180 days after that. Residence permits etc are a secondary issue: on day 91 you can't apply for anything because you're an illegal alien

3.You should be asking all this on the Lonely Planet site, where they talk of little else, and where there are real experts on the subtleties of how Schengen works (consensus opinion: Don't try messing with it). You should have researched Schengen by now anyway.

4. Remember that in 10 weeks' time pretty well everywhere in Eastern Europe with any capacity for offering jobs will be in the EU.

5. The underlying assumption in all this is that you have no skills. If that's not true - if you're a plumber or carpenter for example - there's a thriving illegal market in London that the authorities make next to no attempt to attack (because they'd get lynched by the taxpayers if they did)

6. Everything on this board would be a waste of energy if you had a Dutch passport, because you'd then be as employable everywhere in the EEA - EU plus a bit - as any Brit or Irishperson. You'd have unlimited right to remain in all 25 countries, subject only to whatever bureaucracy each country imposes on its citizens. How you've spent all these months and not gone about getting one beggars belief. Can you really not postpone your journey until you've got one?

Enjoy your holiday. Don't do anything illegal. Europe is awash with illegal immigrants, a lot poorer and more desperate than you. They charge less and take far greater risks. Competing with them for jobs is impossible.

ThinGorjus

You are thinking of selling your car, which is almost paid off?????? If I were your mother I would slap you silly.

Do you really think the Netherlands will grant you dual citizenship in TWO WEEKS????????

Why don't you just visit your relatives for a few weeks, maybe take a side trip to Paris or London???

You don't have to work your way illegally across Europe. My god, many of us here have seen the world (I have been to 25 countries) and have done it the level-headed way.

Scarlett, I didn't know your son taught English in Japan. What school does he work for???

rex

Your second post puts everything in a different light - - you have a support infrastructure IN Europe, I am guessing that you have parents who are willing/able to continue to (at least in part) "look after you" as their dependent upon your return, and maybe what you mean is "working"... in various places, some of which might be "around the world - - as opposed to actually circumnavigating the globe.

You clearly do NOT need a rail pass of any kind. You need to stay put - - at first in Holland - - and working on that dual citizenship thing sounds like a great idea. I am not encouraging you to mooch, but ideally you have the same amount of money in your pocket after three weeks there as you did when you arrived. While I understand the issue of not advising you to work illegally, I wonder if your family can help with jobs that no one cares about. I mean, the Dutch people (at least some of them) want/need someone to babysit, mow grass, wash cars, right?

Then I think that BUNAC sounds like a great idea. I looked into it for one of my daughters for summer 2003. You could work in the British Isles, as long as you can support yourself for the few weeks it takes for them to help you find a job (you could almost commute from Amsterdam, if you can't find cheap housing in London, Cardiff, wherever you're supposed to wait/check in with them). They can also place you in Australia/New Zealand.

One fork in the road is whether you want this life-expanding experience to be heavily English-dependent, or are you going to expand your skills in (one? multiple?) other languages? Maybe it's because I speak German, but it looks like to me that Dutch is the easiest language in the world for an English speaker to learn - - it practically IS English. Admittedly you might not be able to go far with it, but it is always easier to learn a third language after a second (or maybe you have some other second? or third?) - - additionally, it might be of some limited value in palces like South Africa or Indonesia where there are vestiges of Dutch colonialism. BUNAC has programs in South Africa, though there are no PAYing jobs, only volunteer.

In case it's not clear what I meant in an earlier post, I was expressing a concern over the temptation into prositution or (relatively) unsafe sex (everything is relative). Now it seems like you are not the profile for which this admonition would apply so much - - but the advice is still real, for anyone reading this.

Nothing would be better than to read about how this turns out for you.

Scarlett

Sky, I hope whatever you do, you will keep in touch here so we can follow your travels or at least have a great time reading the report! Good luck and have a great time! It is sooo true, travel is the best life experience a person can gain and you will be a totally different person after this trip!
Hi John!
My son now works for what is called a Studio in Tokyo-they teach through Drama. For those of us who are slightly dramatic themselves, it would be a delightful job. He teaches young'uns English through plays,writing stories, poetry, and song. One of his co-workers was the location director for the Last Samarai and they have an impressive alumni list of actors and playwrights.
So while the hours are long and can be annoying (teach a 3 year old Japanese baby to sing without crying for its mama) he loves the job and the place.
Are you thinking of going to Japan?

carrolldf

A couple of people have mentioned trying to work on a US base in Europe. Unless you already have a government military ID card, simply being a US citizen will not get you on the base or post.

Additionally, most of the unskilled jobs (such as working at Burger King or in the Base Exchange) are taken up by either military dependents or local nationals. The Status of Forces Agreements (SOFA) are usually very restrictive on who is allowed to work at the bases. You would still require the work permit from the host nation.

Germany especially has really tightened up who is allowed to work at the bases. I work for a company which does a lot government contracting in IT. It sometimes takes us months to get a person approved to work on a government contract in Germany and there are very stringent requirements for the positions we have over there. A lot of the jobs which are the same ones we have people filling all over the world, have more stringent requirements in overseas locations because we otherwise cannot get approval from the host nations.

ThinGorjus

Scarlett, I have been to Japan twice. 10 years ago I applied for a job with GEOS teaching English in Japan. They would not tell me what city I would be placed in until AFTER I signed my one-year contract. I thought that was very shady. I am glad I did not take the job anyway. It was just a whim. I hated my job in NYC at the time and I was having trouble with my cheating Portuguese husband.

My cousin, who is a student at the University of Leeds, did what skyshroud plans, but in Peru. The differences are that my cousin stayed put in Lima whilst she worked at a posh clothing boutique OWNED by friends of her parents. She also stayed at their luxurious home, taking trips throughout Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. This all worked out because she had a stringent support network. She also had everything planned out before she arrived in Lima.

When I was 17, I travelled from Vienna-Salzburg-Garmische-Zurich-Dijon-Paris-London by train by myself. It was very scary and everything had been planned out in advance and paid for by my father as a graduation present. I could not imagine having to look for work along the way too. It was bad enough that many people in Europe do not speak English outside of the large cities. I met backpackers along the way, particularly an American couple who would perform impromtu puppet acts and pass the hat around for donations. They didn't mind sleeping on benches or in a tent because they had each other for support. That is what love does.

I just can't believe skyshroud will have success by himself, especially trying to find multiple jobs throughout his travels. Cheers.

JoeG

Skyshroud3,
Here's another possibility for you to make your money and hence your time in Europe stretch.
There's an group called World-Wide Organization of Organic Farming (WWOOF). They provide you with a list of places around the world which you contact directly and make arrangements to work for them - mostly in exchange for room and sometimes board. The work schedule is limited to something like 30 hours a week which still gives you free time to do other things.
Right now my 24 year old son is in Hawaii just finshing his first month of a three month stay. He arranged 3 different jobs before he left. So far it seems to be going really well. He just graduated from college and yes I would have preferred that he got a real job right away. However he's financing this with his own money and heck - he's old enough to make his own decisions.
JoeG

carrolldf

I was re-reading my earlier post. I want to clarigy my statement "It sometimes takes us months to get a person approved to work on a government contract in Germany and there are very stringent requirements for the positions we have over there." The approvals which take months to obtain are approvals by the German government, not the US government.

Scarlett

JohnG,
I cannot remember the site my son used, but he went directly to schools looking for English teachers, not to the people that you used.
They still do that way of hiring to this day and it is kind of scary but a lot of people do it. Once my son had a job in Japan, it was easier to look for another job, a year later.

artlover

Just want to wish you good luck and add... I've done things in my life I've regretted, but travelling when I was young (and able to "rough it" a bit) is not one of them. I'm so glad I did this, and think you will be too.

Also, it's good that you have family in Holland and also, I didn't have a contract in Germany before I went and got the job, (infact, I was surprised they let me have it with my anti-war activities), but things may have changed since then.

Have the time of your life--you won't regret it!