great updates, thank you!

I'm so excited to hear from those that are making this happen! I'm still working on disengaging from my former life while trying to get a foothold in this new one. I did order some cards and have made a few calls.

Hope to see you on the road someday soon!

Inaguration Work +

This is something I came across from the EFtours website for anyone interested in DC work .. this could lead to other things also the website has plenty of openings in the Boston area .. they deal primarily with students. I have an interview with then in NOV. but my interview is in ROME... yeahhhhhhhhhh They have needs for tour Directors in Europe but in most cases you have to apply in the country that they need Tour Directors for .
In any case this is the info I got from them

Do you want to help students have an unforgettable class trip to Washington D.C. during the 2009 Presidential Inauguration? EF is recruiting Tour Directors for our Smithsonian Student Travel tours to DC in January 2009! As an EF Tour Director you will have the opportunity to lead a group of students and their teachers on Smithsonian Student Travel tours through DC during this. Tour Directors are responsible to reconfirm all pre-booked tour arrangements, manage the tour itinerary, supervise the tour logistics (i.e. hotel check-in and activity coordination), give interesting and educational coach commentaries, control on-tour payments and paperwork, lead walking tours, offer suggestions for and organize free-time activities, solve on-the-spot problems, and upload photos and captions daily for EF’s state of the art TourLink service. You must be knowledgeable about the DC area and major sights, as well as the history, culture and current developments (please note that we book local DC city guides to lead a 4-hour guided sightseeing tour of DC) Tour Directors work with EF as independent contractors. Inauguration tours require a commitment to work during the following dates: January 17th – 21st, 2009. Training days will be provided in the fall and early winter. Additional tour directing opportunities are available during March, April, May and June in DC, as well as other major east coast cities. Interested candidates should email their resume and cover letter to ea.tourdirectors@ef.com. Additional details and a copy of our application form will be sent to all inquiries. To learn more about Smithsonian Student Travel please visit www.smithsonianstudenttravel.com.

If anyone has any other job opportunities we should post them here for all .. I understand its hard to share jobs available until we get one of our own lol but hey it all comes around ..
Joe M

so this is tour directing

WOW. 46 people on the bus. Maybe 5 figured out that I dont know everything that is going on and everybody is having a good time. the driver is excellent, the tour goes out 2 times a day for 6 weeks. there is no mapping on my part. There was just no time. I have FOUR step on guides that are on for more than half of four days out of 7, so I just do big introductions then take tedious notes for a few hours while doing a little commentary and making sure things are clarified when they need to be. I pass the candy, carry the trash can, make small talk, learn names (and use them a lot), and make terrible jokes. I get all pumped up in the morning, eat for free during the day and have a drink for free at night. I made friends with another tour director who is running the parallel tour and she hooked me up with notes. its still hard. there is a man with alzheimers on the bus who is travelling by himself. he got lost today with 45 minutes before we needed to board a ferry to get off marthas vineyard. I ran 2 miles in about 11 minutes trying to find him. couldnt do it!!! I boarded another bus from the same company and searched the town for 3 or 4 miun until we found him at which point we went towards the ferry station as I grabbed the mike on that bus and told them all to look out the door side and try to find the woman that he was with who at that point, must have been hiding in the bushes. they roared!I gave him a big hug and he suddenly looked so relieved. The job is really hard, but the next two tours will be so much easier. sorry for the bad editing, but I have soooooooo much work to do...and wanted to write because I was thinking about you all today.

connecticut here we come!!!

greg

Em's site added to Einstein's home page...

Hi all, I added Em's site to our Blog list on the home page...see below the pictures. Now you can access her site right from here by just clicking on it. If anyone else has a site or a blog to add, add it or let me know and I will do it.

Mr. Peanut, Tour Director in Training?

Hello my friends,

Miss Emily and I interviewed this week for Travel Adventures, a youth/student tour company! Upon clearing a credit & background check, we will train with a seasoned director to Chicago as well as an in office training session. At least we'll finally get some experience! If your interested in how to do a group interview (we had a 3 person committee), give me a call! We took some names and kicked some A@#*! Or is that N@#*s? We interviewed for 40 minutes! Lots of scenario questions. Use your ITMI student tour materials and go this website for some additional materials. Click on link below:

http://tourmarm.blogspot.com/search/label/StudentTours

Hope you guys get yourself a p.o. box # before creating your biz card. Glad Alice forwarded the info we gave her...Vistaprint.com provides great service at the right price. Here is the sample of our design, we created a photo composite of from previous trips as the background.



We also have our homepage website ready for you to access. The site will link you to a site menu where you can view images and download photos from our "Public Folder" Note the image number you might want to download to save yourself time. Hope you enjoy! Click on the link below:

http://homepage.mac.com/emilyhoward/Menu33.html

You guys are awesome! Keep at it! We'll see each other in Texas...

Mr. Peanut

how to post

Michael asked how to post. While I am the least knowledgable about these things, I can offer you just click on the new post tab. Would love to hear where others are in this process. Michael, do you think there will be work at the inaugeration for people that are not DC certified? Like some simple meet and greets? I'd love to find a way to be there.

Oh, the places we will go!

Just tuning back in to Einsteins Escorts. Congratulations to all of you brave souls jumping into your great new adventures! I'm so impressed and absolutely encouraged by your stories, I hope everyone keeps writing. I've sent out a few resume's but finding I really need to complete phasing out of my current position as a nonprofit ED before I can fully engage in the new. This will be my last week in my office so I will follow up with more tour operators after that. I am very grateful for this blog to keep a community that is pursuing this work. While my friends and family are supportive, there's a certain amount of disbelief when I tell people of my choice to do this. I'm still in the "I think I can, I think I can..." stage and glad to hear of those that are making it happen! See you in San Marcos! Toni

Holy Crap!

Hi all. I just received a call 1.5 hours ago from a company that does fall foliage tours. Im leaving for Boston TOMORROW!!!??? to take a tour starting in 2 days. I dont even know how many I will do yet... wish me luck!!! I am so jealous of you alice! Ive got 46 hours to prepare!!!!

Update...

Hi everyone,
I hope you are all busy sending out resumes like I am.
I ordered business cards: Go to vistaprint.com and you can order 250 for FREE except after you pay for shipping and other charges including an electronic version of it to include with your emailed resumes, it will cost you about $30.00. Not bad for free stuff, right? LOL They have lots of designs and choices.
Everyone should post your card here when you get it so we can see.
Anyway the good news is...I got a job! It's two one-week tours of New England fall foliage, back to back, leaving from and returning to JFK. Dates are 10/8 and 10/15, so I have plenty of time to learn what the hell to do! As of now I sleep with my ITMI binder, hoping to absorb what's in there by osmosis. I am also mapping and routing and researching and filling out those annoying charts!
So good luck everyone, it REALLY can happen!
I hope you all know that you can post on this blog too, you don't just have to reply to my posts.
When you sign in you click on "New Post".
See you on the road, or in the airport, or at the train station or somewhere in the world!
Love, A.