43yr old divorcee, looking for home to buy and work

Hi all.
I'm Claire, 43, recently divorced and have a small lump sum with which to invest in property for me to live in.
I am tentatively looking at Poland, with a view to maybe renting with another english speaking lady for 6-12 months and seeing what my options would be. I am intending to buy a small flat outright and maybe work 3 days a week, possibly from home, maybe proof reading english documents or something similar.
Can anyone offer me any advice whatsoever?
Please feel free to email me, and I can add you to my MSN also.
Many thanks Claire

claire welcome to the forum

unfortunately a small lump sum wont get you much anywhere you would really want to live.

whats your idea of small?

Hi Bubbawoo
Thanks for the reply.
My lump sum is approx 50k.
I got my half share of the house after my divorce, and you can't buy a shed for that back in the UK.
I know it's not a huge ammount but I was told I might be able to buy a small flat, or even buy a half share of a house that's split into 2.
I have looked at some house prices but need some advice.
Thanks for saying hi.
Regards Claire

so lets say that the average sqm price in the tri city is in the region of 5k - 7k zls. your 50k GBP will get you somehwere in the region of 35 sqm - a 1 room apartment.

if you look at satellite cities in the same region you might be able to get something for 3.5k - 5k zl which will get you something larger. the market is changing in poland at the moment so keep an eye on prices

what sort of advice are you looking for?

Thanks again.
I'm looking for good Polish property websites and maybe an english speaking lady to lodge with for some months, if I do decide to progress to actually living in Poland.
Most or my research will be web based, essentially I need to know where to look about all aspects of living in Poland.
Thanks again
Claire

this thread lists some good polish real estate sites

http://www.polishforums.com/look_on_internet_polish_real-20_18451_0.ht ml

check it out and if you cant find what youre looking for then ask more questions and somebody will answer

Thanks again
xx

Hi Claire, I'm an expat living with my partner in Warsaw. I found work very easily teaching English and native English speakers are extremely in demand over here. you can check out the Berlitz website to start with as they usually look for teachers. I work in a little kindergarten a few hours a week and top it up with private lessons which give me freedom to work around my social life. If you are coming to warsaw, feel free to email me (serenasinbox@hotmail.com) and I can show you a little of warsaw
We also(my boyfriend and I) also have an apartment for sale - email me if you want more info.
anyway, good luck with your search and your new life!
Serena

[quote=serenaj]Hi Claire, I'm an expat living with my partner in Warsaw. I found work very easily teaching English and native English speakers are extremely in demand over here. you can check out the Berlitz website to start with as they usually look for teachers. I work in a little kindergarten a few hours a week and top it up with private lessons which give me freedom to work around my social life. If you are coming to warsaw, feel free to email me (serenasinbox@hotmail.com) and I can show you a little of warsaw
We also(my boyfriend and I) also have an apartment for sale - email me if you want more info.
anyway, good luck with your search and your new life!
Serena

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Thanks Serena I have emailed you, hope to chat soon.
Claire

hi i am looking to invest in the tricity area-maybe we can help each other-pm me

Hello Claire,
I agree with serenaj, English teachers are in demand and it is a great way to get to know Polish people. I recommend doing a TEFL (Teaching,English as a Foreign, Language) course before hand, there are on-line TEFL courses. As it is extremely difficult to proof read if you do not speak both languages.
I would also recommend working for a year and getting a mortgage? perhaps contact a mortgage adviser here in Poland.

This I find is true but if you go out a little from the bigger cities, the price drops dramatically and the English schools are more hungry for native speakers.
I recently moved back to Poland and I love living here, you did not state your reason for picking Poland, so I will assume you have never been here and recommend you come over for a holiday and pick up a few polite words.
If there is any more information please contact me.

None of the online course are worth the paper they are written on. To get a decent job you will need a CELTA. Those take four weeks of full time study and are best done in Poland because they are cheaper here.


Rubbish. I work as a full-time proofreader for an American law firm. I do not speak Polish.


Unlikely to be possible. When a self-employed person (which is what all teachers and proofreaders are) wants to get a mortgage, banks want to see financial records for the previous two years.


The problem is that outside the big cities, the pay is far lower than in the big cities. Another problem is that there is bugger all to do in small cities. And, if you don't speak Polish, there's no social life either.

I used to work with a TEFL and so do many people I know, agreed it is not sufficient but it can get you a job in Poland, CELTA is also a very good option.

I assume that your translations are a heck of a lot better than the stuff I was asked to proof read, usually directly translated from polish, word for word. Don't appreciate your attitude either Harry.

It was possible for me, I made a deal with my boss for a contract. I see you have nothing positive to say just nit picking.

It is the same in most countries, I did not assume that I was talking to an alien.
And although the pay is lower the cost of living is also lower, people are friendlier and if you are bored it is because you are being boring.

Of course a CELTA is not needed to get a job teaching EFL here. Provided you want to work for Berlitz and earn a pittance. If you want to work for the better schools and make the better money, you need to get a CELTA. I do have a vague clue what I’m talking about here, what with having worked in TEFL in Poland for eleven years, managed a school, done recruitment, prepared a school for PASE inspection, etc.


Most of what I read has been written in English by a Pole. The written translators in this country have got a awful lot better over the last decade.


Cry me a f*cking river.


I know information you don’t and advise the original poster of that, so I must be nitpicking. A standard work contract is a bad idea because it brings with it stupidly high levels of ZUS payments.


Ever lived in a small Polish town? I lived in one of 13,000 people and one of 100,000 people. There was bugger all to do in either.

Oh, today's youth.

When I was your age... ;)

I can't be bothered with you. you are nothing

Wow. Snappy comeback! Do you accept commissions to write speeches or only do off-the-cuff stuff?

I hope you have a great time and get settled in very well. A word of warning to the wise, there seems to be some non Polish living in Poland who think they are better than everyone else (rejected by their own).
I wish you all the best in the future.
Life can be very good here in Poland, I think you need to be content with yourself, no matter where it is you live.

Nice of you to narrow that definition down so it can most certainly not apply to me (I'm most certainly not better than Poles and was invited to come here by 'my own', then I stayed because I like it here despite the invitations of 'my own').

Got to agree with you that life can be very good here in Poland. However, I do think that perhaps you, with a Polish partner who can make language/culture based problems disappear, are underestimating the problems which a non-Polish speaking Brit may face. Especially in a small town. In Warsaw almost everything is possible without speaking any Polish. In, say for example, Radom, things are a lot more difficult.

I am a foreign national who also holds Polish citizenship and my Polish isn't exactly perfect. I live in a small farming village south of Tarnow with a population not exceeding 2,000 people and there is plenty to do here. Everyone has their individual definition of 'enjoyment' and you must define for us what yours is. For example, I enjoy mountain biking, photography of nature, camp fires, skiing, dancing, conversation, hiking, swimming, and much more. Life is great here. How can you possibly be bored in towns with populations smaller than what you had mentioned?

Hi,
Glenn here. Seems that Harry is turning out to be a right know-all.
My sister has gone back now so if you want to meet up for that coffee and a chat, I am available. You can also give me your views on my project.

Regards, Glenn.

Hi Glenn,

I would like to meet up with you very much for coffee and a chat. Would you believe i was just in Tarnow yesterday? I went to a bank on ul. Krakowska near the bus station, then to "Swit" and a nearby bicycle store, then to see a Notary Public, and later munched down two delicious chicken kebabs. How would you like to come to my village and see what I have done here? There are daily buses going from the bus station in Tarnow and I'm only 30 km south. A one way ticket will cost you 5.90 zloty. I'll give you more information in private after your reply, ok? :-) If you want, you can even bring friends along and crash here overnight. I have 3 empty rooms with beds. We can have a campfire, grill some parówki, and down some brew.

Cheers,

Scorpio

That would be a little too small for me. I live in a town 30 Km from Krakow population 20,000, but each to their own.

I agree, I do some times miss the buzz of London for example, but I would never live there again.
I also think there are huge differences between towns and there are some I couldn't live in but I really enjoy where I am. Heads still turn when I speak Polish badly with my Irish accent but it is getting better. And I genuinely find people very helpful, more so than in the big cities, that's my experience.
scorpio and Avalon, if you are evr in and around Krakow, drop me a line and we could get together, right now I am doing work to my house but in the not so distant future you would be more than welcome to stay.

What the Kurwa you looking at? I understand and can talk i just avoid saying things like "can i have 2 kilos of potatoes" its more of a case of tak , nie ja resomium.

SeanBM, thanks for the invitation! Actually, I think it would be a great idea for those of us on Polishforums to get together for a weekend somewhere (my place ? -hint hint) for a grill, beer, and nice chat. What do the rest of you think?

Excellent idea, Just for the first time and for ease perhaps it ought to be a public place.
And secondly I got drunk the other night and insulted a member of the Polish Forum, so I wish to apologise first.
Best regards

Fair play to you John.

We all do things we things we regret. Thats part of life.

SeanBM,

Great! How about you take this topic and create a new thread about it in Polish Forums? I think we are 'invading' and 'altering the subject matter' of this original thread a bit. :-)

BTW, I live 30 km south of Tarnów and 80 km south-east of Kraków, and Glenn lives around the Tarnów area I believe. Anyone else living in this general region?

Again, I'll leave it to you SeanBM, to start a new thread on this! :)

Cheers,

Scorpio

Thank you for your kindness, I woke up yesterday, hung over to bitz, turned on this forum, only to feel worse at what I had wrote. And then crawled back to bed.
Irish Flue.

There's a website devoted to getting ur regrets out in the open. I taught it to my Gimnazjum group a couple of days ago.