I am roughing it in NYC after 3 years living in Europe. With a recent masters completed, I’m looking for an architecture job, staying on friend’s couches, eating terribly to save money. Meanwhile, I have the opportunity to teach English in Belize (I have experience teaching ). The rent is paid, the salary is more than sufficient to live and save. Plus, my long term girlfriend is there teaching Spanish and the long distance is taxing. The job is not in Belize City mind you, so factor out any ideas of high crime and violence. Factor in a chill job situation with weekend excursions to the jungles, Mayan ruins or turquoise beaches.
Why did I come to NYC? Opportunity. And it’s the closest thing to living in a European city that the US has to offer. I wanted to get my career back on track and thought this place was the best option. Plus I’m American and I thought it made sense to come back to the states after so much time abroad. With four years professional experience in various studios, I wanted to resume working to get licensed, maybe even Leed certified. But as you know, New York is tough, degrading, and so far the offices I have approached are barely giving me the time of day. Most of my arch friends say it took them months and months to secure a decent job in the city. I’m 30 years old.. not getting any younger. Do I really need to be roughing it like an early 20 something at this point in time? Apparently that’s what it takes to make it in NYC.
So if I did go to Belize, the architecture career would be put on hold. But it would be a good time to study for my exams, with all the down time I’ll have. What would you do?
Go to Belize (not Brazil!). Hands down. Plus: spending time with your girl. Plus: having a paying job. Plus: experiencing a spendid place to live. Not that NYC is bad, but NYC without a job (which is hard to come by these days, it seems), and with your girl thousands of miles away, seems like a hardship to me...
At least I didn't scare you by mentioning Chagas disease, malaria, the 8,000 parasites most of you get from barefoot contact with soil, leptospirosis, tuberculosis or dengue hemorrhagic fever.
My absolute favorite and particularly common Central American disease is leishmaniasis.
[...image removed by editor...]
Those parasite-infections-transmitted-by-sandfly-bite lensions are going to leave wicked awesome scars!
What, moving to a foreign country, particularly Belize, has numerous considerations with one of them being health and access to healthcare.
If you don't want to consider or casually ignore that everything in Belize will inject worms into your skin when it bites you, your "chill job situation with weekend excursions to the jungles, Mayan ruins or turquoise beaches" will actually be a horrendous tropical nightmare filled with worms, diarrhea and crunchy ulcerative sores. You can't even go to the beach barefoot in Belize lest you want to catch creeping eruption (worms crawling in your skin!).
GO TO BELIZE. Stop festering in NY and go there. Your career may take a different trajectory. I was in a well paid job with a well known firm in London and I quit it to go to Africa and I've not looked back. I'm doing work there I'd never have had the opportunity to do. You may start teaching English in Belize, but something might tweak and you could end up back working as an Architect. And your girl is there too? Its a no-brainer man. I hope you're packing your bags as we speak.
Belize it or not, it will work out for the best. (You get that pun for free)
As for this nonsense about worms or parasites? Don't listen to that bollocks. You're as likely to die of depression in NYC as you would of parasites gnawing on your flesh.
those images are disgusting... i suppose one should always keep health implications of a foreign country in place, like not moving to Chernobyl? but i have friends who have visited Belize.
those images are borderline skinhead intimidations and needs to be taken out from this forum. the idea behind those post are quite stupid and deeply racial..
to the original question, if i were you, i would go. i stayed in new york on and off since the early 80's. that city can be very depressive if you are down and out on its sidewalks and dark apartments. belize 'is' a beautiful country with beautiful mayan descendant people.
no, it is not a riot. why? what do you mean by it anyway? it is just infantile (regarding F.T.B's comment above "is this an archinect riot? it has been edited out since by either the poster or an adminstrator)
it took fifteen years by the 'members' of archinect community to make this one of the best and credible forums & (pt 2) in the discourse of architecture. please don't take this disrespectfully and piss all over the place because you can until it gets noticed. you not only will waste your credibility but lower the bar for yourself and others.
Uhh, I don't understand the hubbub about posting relevant medical information about choosing a particular place to live. And this isn't even particularly common knowledge —as in need to Google— as most people who live south of the 30°0′N parallel are all decently knowledgeable about the diseases that biting insects spread, particularly mosquitoes.
Was it graphic? Sure. Was it racist? I have no idea where you got that from.
Most of these diseases are particularly common in lowland areas with heavy precipitation which is conveniently the entire Yucatan Peninsula including parts of Mexico, all of Belize and the northern half of Guatemala. These diseases, however, are not common in coastal areas or at elevations above 3000'.
And if you're going to study Mayan ruins, you ought to probably study the decline of the Mayan civilizations. (Time for some actual Googling!) And one probable interconnected reason for the decline of the Mayan civilization is that they were afflicted by heavy droughts and hemorrhagic fevers.
P.S.; These diseases are practically mentioned at the end of every single nature documentary about the forests of Central America. You'll also find many ex-pats in Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica et cetera who complain about being "pregnant with botfly babies" all over the internet— like here, here and here.
i might be going to belize. my girlfriend is already there, i got a job teaching there but i never heard about belize. what are the local diseases there and how they may effect my health? will maggots come out of my head? nothing else is important in my life right now other than disases in belize..
blah blah blah link to yucky photo (warning: gross)
that's it! No big deal. There's providing information, and then there's being a shock jockey.
Anyways, speaking of Brazil, they got people eating dogs! Here's an image of a dog about to devour a baby (warning NSFW, gross, guts, nightmares tonight)
so, buckle up and use your occasional brilliance wisely. otherwise you will repulse people and in return they will dump you or close their ears to what you have to say. think about other possibilities a situation can be answered or explained with, and try to understand that not everything asks a statistical question and have only one answer. develop an idea than a voice with point of view, not a verifiable numbers list all the time.
Wow. It's nice to come home (temporary home that is) and see my post blown up. Thanks for all the great support. I'm curious to know what F.T.B said, as well as JJames' other images.
@J. James R.: I thought your reaction was clearly rather "crude", to say the least. You made it seem like Belize is nothing much except one big health risk, just as "any foreign country" generally is. It would be just as silly if someone from Belize posted the question in reverse on their local version of architect, and only received a reply along the lines of "NYC is bad for you. You'd either die from a crack addiction or you'll get shot when someone is robbing you (again). Unless you'll get eaten by giant killer rats first, that is. I know that to be true because I saw a documentary on NYC on Discovery Channel. Anyway, have fun, this is just common knowledge to inform you about NYC, unbiased"...
Brooklyn or Belize, help me decide.
Brooklyn or Belize, help me decide.
I am roughing it in NYC after 3 years living in Europe. With a recent masters completed, I’m looking for an architecture job, staying on friend’s couches, eating terribly to save money. Meanwhile, I have the opportunity to teach English in Belize (I have experience teaching ). The rent is paid, the salary is more than sufficient to live and save. Plus, my long term girlfriend is there teaching Spanish and the long distance is taxing. The job is not in Belize City mind you, so factor out any ideas of high crime and violence. Factor in a chill job situation with weekend excursions to the jungles, Mayan ruins or turquoise beaches.
Why did I come to NYC? Opportunity. And it’s the closest thing to living in a European city that the US has to offer. I wanted to get my career back on track and thought this place was the best option. Plus I’m American and I thought it made sense to come back to the states after so much time abroad. With four years professional experience in various studios, I wanted to resume working to get licensed, maybe even Leed certified. But as you know, New York is tough, degrading, and so far the offices I have approached are barely giving me the time of day. Most of my arch friends say it took them months and months to secure a decent job in the city. I’m 30 years old.. not getting any younger. Do I really need to be roughing it like an early 20 something at this point in time? Apparently that’s what it takes to make it in NYC.
So if I did go to Belize, the architecture career would be put on hold. But it would be a good time to study for my exams, with all the down time I’ll have. What would you do?
Go to Brazil. For sure.
Lonely gf needs to be serviced. If you don't do it rusty will.
NYC's all right is you like saxophones.
Go to Belize (not Brazil!). Hands down. Plus: spending time with your girl. Plus: having a paying job. Plus: experiencing a spendid place to live. Not that NYC is bad, but NYC without a job (which is hard to come by these days, it seems), and with your girl thousands of miles away, seems like a hardship to me...
[...image removed by editor...]
Enjoy maggots living in your skin in Belize.
Yeah James. That's totally going to happen to me. God that's foul.
Botflies are relatively common in Belize.
At least I didn't scare you by mentioning Chagas disease, malaria, the 8,000 parasites most of you get from barefoot contact with soil, leptospirosis, tuberculosis or dengue hemorrhagic fever.
My absolute favorite and particularly common Central American disease is leishmaniasis.
[...image removed by editor...]
Those parasite-infections-transmitted-by-sandfly-bite lensions are going to leave wicked awesome scars!
James, I'm flagging both these posts. Hope other do as well.
Dumb.
What, moving to a foreign country, particularly Belize, has numerous considerations with one of them being health and access to healthcare.
If you don't want to consider or casually ignore that everything in Belize will inject worms into your skin when it bites you, your "chill job situation with weekend excursions to the jungles, Mayan ruins or turquoise beaches" will actually be a horrendous tropical nightmare filled with worms, diarrhea and crunchy ulcerative sores. You can't even go to the beach barefoot in Belize lest you want to catch creeping eruption (worms crawling in your skin!).
GO TO BELIZE. Stop festering in NY and go there. Your career may take a different trajectory. I was in a well paid job with a well known firm in London and I quit it to go to Africa and I've not looked back. I'm doing work there I'd never have had the opportunity to do. You may start teaching English in Belize, but something might tweak and you could end up back working as an Architect. And your girl is there too? Its a no-brainer man. I hope you're packing your bags as we speak.
Belize it or not, it will work out for the best. (You get that pun for free)
As for this nonsense about worms or parasites? Don't listen to that bollocks. You're as likely to die of depression in NYC as you would of parasites gnawing on your flesh.
those images are disgusting... i suppose one should always keep health implications of a foreign country in place, like not moving to Chernobyl? but i have friends who have visited Belize.
those images are borderline skinhead intimidations and needs to be taken out from this forum. the idea behind those post are quite stupid and deeply racial..
to the original question, if i were you, i would go. i stayed in new york on and off since the early 80's. that city can be very depressive if you are down and out on its sidewalks and dark apartments. belize 'is' a beautiful country with beautiful mayan descendant people.
.
jjames..have you ever traveled anywhere? left your town..or the computer you post all your google searches from?
no, it is not a riot. why? what do you mean by it anyway? it is just infantile (regarding F.T.B's comment above "is this an archinect riot? it has been edited out since by either the poster or an adminstrator)
it took fifteen years by the 'members' of archinect community to make this one of the best and credible forums & (pt 2) in the discourse of architecture. please don't take this disrespectfully and piss all over the place because you can until it gets noticed. you not only will waste your credibility but lower the bar for yourself and others.
Uhh, I don't understand the hubbub about posting relevant medical information about choosing a particular place to live. And this isn't even particularly common knowledge —as in need to Google— as most people who live south of the 30°0′N parallel are all decently knowledgeable about the diseases that biting insects spread, particularly mosquitoes.
Was it graphic? Sure. Was it racist? I have no idea where you got that from.
Most of these diseases are particularly common in lowland areas with heavy precipitation which is conveniently the entire Yucatan Peninsula including parts of Mexico, all of Belize and the northern half of Guatemala. These diseases, however, are not common in coastal areas or at elevations above 3000'.
And if you're going to study Mayan ruins, you ought to probably study the decline of the Mayan civilizations. (Time for some actual Googling!) And one probable interconnected reason for the decline of the Mayan civilization is that they were afflicted by heavy droughts and hemorrhagic fevers.
P.S.; These diseases are practically mentioned at the end of every single nature documentary about the forests of Central America. You'll also find many ex-pats in Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica et cetera who complain about being "pregnant with botfly babies" all over the internet— like here, here and here.
i might be going to belize. my girlfriend is already there, i got a job teaching there but i never heard about belize. what are the local diseases there and how they may effect my health? will maggots come out of my head? nothing else is important in my life right now other than disases in belize..
PS: i don't know how to google.
this is how irrelevant you are..
James, Just use this format:
blah blah blah link to yucky photo (warning: gross)
that's it! No big deal. There's providing information, and then there's being a shock jockey.
Anyways, speaking of Brazil, they got people eating dogs! Here's an image of a dog about to devour a baby (warning NSFW, gross, guts, nightmares tonight)
See? that wasn't hard.
so, buckle up and use your occasional brilliance wisely. otherwise you will repulse people and in return they will dump you or close their ears to what you have to say. think about other possibilities a situation can be answered or explained with, and try to understand that not everything asks a statistical question and have only one answer. develop an idea than a voice with point of view, not a verifiable numbers list all the time.
Here's an image of a dog about to devour a baby (warning NSFW, gross, guts, nightmares tonight)
YOU MONSTER. THAT WAS AWFUL.
TRIPLE FLAGGED.
Wow. It's nice to come home (temporary home that is) and see my post blown up. Thanks for all the great support. I'm curious to know what F.T.B said, as well as JJames' other images.
i was gonna ask if this was the start of an archinect riot, but accidently erased it and never got back to it.
If I were you R+R, I would go somewhere where there is architecture work, and take the lady too. Your story seems like a real corssroads
This thread has got to be a joke, right? There is no way anybody can be choosing between Brooklyn and Belize.
@J. James R.: I thought your reaction was clearly rather "crude", to say the least. You made it seem like Belize is nothing much except one big health risk, just as "any foreign country" generally is. It would be just as silly if someone from Belize posted the question in reverse on their local version of architect, and only received a reply along the lines of "NYC is bad for you. You'd either die from a crack addiction or you'll get shot when someone is robbing you (again). Unless you'll get eaten by giant killer rats first, that is. I know that to be true because I saw a documentary on NYC on Discovery Channel. Anyway, have fun, this is just common knowledge to inform you about NYC, unbiased"...
nice, rusty!
Belize, no question.
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