Job Discussion Forums

[Kymro]

I live in Szczecin.

P.m. me if you have any q's about the city.

[Kymro]

[Kymro]

My opinion of Bell is that they are a 'sound' organisation, i.e. you will get paid.

Having said that, as far as Szczecin is concerned, they only appear to employ inexperienced teachers, (because they're cheap), those who used to work there left because they had to take a pay cut, and you could probably earn more elsewhere.

[sharter]

Look I just think 2,400 ZL in awful. Maybe Bell will pay you on time, but you'll still struggle.

Kymero you're right to a certain extent...if you look, you can find cheap stuff. Taxis aren't necessary until it's the middle of night and minus 10 and you're waiting for a night bus/tram that ain't turning up. I chose the smoking at random....your vice might be an English newspaper (30Zl) or a bag of weed (120 Zl), it was just an example. Most TEFLers are single when they arrive and eating out is a.) easier and b.) less wasteful, unless you really do want to eat cabbage every day for 4 days etc. Eating out is getting expensive in and a round any Stary Rynek in Poland. Yep you can find cheaper places, but they're generally desperate, dirty and full of arthouse students....(yawn).

The dating's the expensive thing. 2 tickets to the cinema....60Zl gone and you haven't had a drink or dinner yet. Polish women do expect you to pay....that's the deal. You get to bed a beauty and she gets a 'rich', western boyfriend. You're rich because you've got a job....she's generally a student. (Sorry to the grown ups on the forum).

Then down the line you have kids and Poland's real fun when you're teaching 40 plus hours a week in the middle of that winter....

Anyway...am rambling now....2,400 I simply couldn't survive even 2 weeks on that and I don't live like a king. I just like to eat sitting down, in a place with clean toilets. I like to buy clothes that won't lose colour or shrink immediately. I like to live/stay in places that don't have the old style beds and huge pillows. I also like places that have hot water all day. I know something about hotels as I've stayed in them for many weeks every year in Poland since my divorce in 2003.

[justflyingin]

4000 zl in 4 days sounds like a lot to me as well. Maybe he was having a party and paid for a bunch of people to live wild for the time???

Electrical goods have come down tremendously since we've come. You can find things much more reasonably than you used to (i.e. irons, microwave ovens, laptops). You can always add to this amount private lessons. You WILL get asked, probably, if you stick around a place long enough.

We don't need many clothes. There are great used clothing stores (and awful ones). The clothes are mostly from western Europe. Sometimes even they aren't cheap, but definitely reasonable as long as you don't think they are yard sale prices.

You can eat at TGIF's --a sandwich platter for under 30 zl/ and the fajitas are around 50-60 zl plus drinks and appetizers (if you really need that--they serve a generous sized portion). Blue Cactus, the last time we went was 2/100 zl for their fajitas (have to admit it was a couple of years ago) and it was more than we could eat, so we brought the leftovers come.

We don't "do alcohol", so we save a bunch of money there. But stick some fajita seasoning packets in your suitcase or buy a bottle of fajita seasoning mix from Costco or Sam's, and you're set. It's cheap to make them--a couple of chicken *beep*, onions, peppers--all of which are reasonably priced, and add the tortillas (the most expensive thing there) and you've got tremendous fajitas for a fraction of the cost of eating out. (That's just advice about fajitas.) I refuse to go to a restaurant and pay someone anything for a pile of mashed potatoes and cabbage and a little piece of meat, whether breaded chicken breast or pork chops. That meal is too inexpensive to make at home and I won't pay someone to make it for me.

You can learn to eat much more inexpensively. Just look at how the Poles eat (the ones who have families), and learn from them. ??

2400 zl/mo. isn't a bad start. Learn to save. Read PF blogs and become a penny pincher (okay--a zloty pincher) and don't "nickel and dime" your money away and you'll be okay.

What is okay for one person is tragically short for another. Asking strangers if "something is okay" is pretty much asking for a variety of answers. For example...I used cloth diapers, took our two little ones to Wendy's back when we could all four eat for $8.00 because it was 3.99 for adults and the kids were so young they could eat off our plates (it was their mexican salad bar), shopped only thrift stores and yard sales, didn't go to malls, and basically lived and stayed close to home (this was while my dh was working on his PhD and he was only working part time). My friend, who was a nurse, husband an accountant suffered serious shock when she began to live overseas and had her salary cut. When we moved here our salary went up. So, it's all perspective.

Let us know if any of us can help.

[elblagskich]

[realtimerrr]

Watch out for Bell Educational Trust. Told me I had contract and to go out and incur over $2000 in physical examination and visa expenses, proceeded to mess up my visa application royally - in part through honest but staggering mistakes -and then refused to compensate me even partially for my expenses. They also promised me I would be teaching about 25 hours per week, but the contract I received said normal working hours will not regularly exceed 48 hours per week!!!!!!!!!! Bell also said that I would be officially employed by a Saudi company but refused to give me any contact information for them so that that company is completely in the dark as to Bell's incompetence and dishonesty. Bell kept stressing I had to be ready to go ASAP, to have my bags packed and to be ready to depart at any moment, so I canceled my Thanksgiviing and Christmas plans. Also drove 1100 miles round trip to Miami to get an expedited passport and 1200 miles round trip to DC to walk my visa through by hand - only to find out that Bell had dropped the ball completely and later some heated words canceled my contract. AVOID BELL LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bje]

Put this on the KSA board so people teaching at Bell there can respond. Poland is quite a different context within which Bell operates.

[scottie1113]

I have been working for Bell in Gdansk for 2 1/2 years and have nothing but good to say about it. There is absolutely no connection between the six Bell schools in Poland and Bell in Saudi Arabia. I wonder why this was even posted on such an old thread.

[PolandNeedsPies]

Bell give you the papers to prove you've paid tax if you hassle them. If you don't hassle them, you don't get the papers. What this means regarding whether you / they have paid any tax in that case, who can say?

More importantly, they're in trouble in Poland. Staff laid off all over the network. The Warsaw school has moved location 3 times in a year chasing lower rents they may be able to afford