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What's it like where you live?


Sivin

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So I'm starting to wonder that I may not want to live in my current country for the rest of my life. There's a lot of reasons, and I assure you this isn't some kind of reaction to the future president or any of that stupid stuff people like to declare. I'm becoming increasingly more sure that this simply isn't the best place for me, again, for a variety of reasons.

I think I have a fair bit to offer the world, and after I'm done making some money for the next year or two I have to decide if I wanna do that in America or somewhere else. I don't take this lightly, and I know that the grass is rarely greener. Again, I cannot stress enough that this is not a decision I'm exploring lightly or in fact even committed to at this time. But the more I think about it, the more I think that America is not the best fit for Sivin and as such other options deserve exploration at the very least.

I've spent quite a bit of time over the last few weeks doing research on various nations' immigration policies, economies, laws, and infrastructure but there's something that I can't easily research without directly asking a lot of people.

What's your country like? As a citizen, as a man or a woman, as a person. Not as a billboard or an immigration site. Not as a patriot shouting from the rooftops about how you're #1! Just, what's it like to live there? Do you feel like you like your neighbors? Do you feel that your government respects you? Does your job pay you enough to live comfortably? Is the water you drink safe?

I know it's a very broad question, and it's meant to be. I'd love to get a real breakdown from some of you on what you may like or dislike about your country. I'm not gonna go rushing off to the French embassy or anything based on this board, but I'm nonetheless curious about what you guys might have to say. I'm not trying to get you to write a fifteen page dissertation on the pros and cons of Geneva or anything, but any opinion would be of great interest to me.

So what's your country like? And thank you for answering if you so choose.

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Pros:

  • Small. 
  • Marmite.
  • 2000km from our nearest neighbour, which means we're the place to be if WWIII breaks out.
  • A good deal less racist than our nearest neighbour.
  • General lack of corruption (we don't mind incompetence in systems, but we don't do corruption). 
  • ACC means you don't have people threatening to sue others every five seconds.
  • Pretty scenery.
  • "Free" Health-care (at least by US standards).
  • A functioning welfare state.
  • Temperate climate.

Cons:

  • Small.
  • Marmite.
  • 2000km from our nearest neighbour, which means books and stuff are expensive.
  • We're a dairy farm with a country attached (****ing Fonterra).
  • A national inferiority complex - we're obsessed with what the rest of the world thinks of us.
  • An insidious anti-intellectual streak.
  • ****ing John Key.
  • No-one else cares about the sports we care about.
  • Public transport is crap.
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Pros

  • An enormous mass of sparsely populated land
  • Glorious weather for most of the year
  • Vegemite
  • The best beaches in the world
  • Relatively low crime rate
  • Fresh food is always available
  • Cute Australian wildlife
  • A (generally) irreverent culture
  • Free Health Care - by US standards
  • We are not New Zealand
  • You can sit in the front seat of a taxi
  • A similar legal system to the USA

Cons

  • An enormous mass of sparsely populated land
  • Deadly Australian wildlife
  • Ridiculously stinking awful hot weather for a few months of a year
  • It's a long fucking way to go if you want to go anywhere - even within Australia
  • A current crop of politicians that strongly resemble the Tea Party
  • Day to day expenses are high
  • A (somewhat vocal) racist minority
  • A similar legal system to the USA
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4 hours ago, peterbound said:

I've lived around the world (no bullshit) and I wouldn't move out of Colorado for all the money in the world.  I'm not from here originally, so that might make it so great to me, but this country, and this state is pretty fucking hard to beat. 

Yeah, Colorado was a pretty nice place. I was stationed at Ft. Carson for about 2 years. Carson may have been a shithole, but I really liked the mountains and the weather and even the Springs was a decent enough town. Trouble is, there's nothing for me in CO, in any capacity. And I don't think I'd want to deal with being that close to a base.

3 hours ago, Leap said:

I'm sure there are many more articulate, adultier Brits around who can better answer this question, but wrt to the UK at least; it's alright.

Pros:

  • Pretty wealthy as a nation, at least compared to the majority of countries on Earth
  • Free* healthcare, this is an absolute godsend. I know my family for one would have been financially crippled for the best part of the last decade if we lived in the US. 
  • We do have some remaining vestiges of beautiful natural landscapes
  • Yorkshire
  • Travel around the country and into Europe is relatively quick, and for the latter - surprisingly cheap.
  • Tea
  • Beer
  • People are more friendly than given credit for

Cons:

  • Shit weather - it's always overcast
  • UKIP
  • Politicians in general, though I suspect this is true of most places
  • Lancashire
  • Cons
  • Racism/xenophobia, Sexism, Homophobia, all these things exist

No doubt there are many more points to add on each side. I love travelling and would definitely consider moving out of this country for a year or more, but when it's time to make a home and settle down, I want that to be somewhere in the North of England.

England seems fairly appealing except for that last bit. Are you saying those things exist, or that they're rampant? Kinda a big deal for me personally.

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Pros:

  • Pretty nature
  • Small and in the middle of Europe, so everything is really close and you can travel in all directions comfortably and quickly
  • Free health care (by US standards)
  • Free education (by US standards)
  • Relatively high gender equality rate
  • Clean water
  • Pretty language

Cons:

  • Politics, corruption and stuff
  • Racism/nationalism, xenophobia, homophobia etc. - I have personally not experienced any, but it exists
  • Job market
  • You probably do not know the language and it is apparently pretty hard to learn

But then whom am I kidding, nobody wants to live here (brain drain is rampant in my generation), so I really have no place posting in this thread. :P

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1 hour ago, Stubby said:

An enormous mass of sparsely populated land

And there are still too many people here. When I was a kid there were 14 mil and the cities were too crowded, now there are 22 mil and the cities suck. Can't imagine living somewhere like New York, Delhi, Cairo or Tokyo - Sydney is horrible enough.

 

I would look at any of the places on this list to move to

http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-10-least-densely-populated-places-in-the-world-2015.html

except I live in one of them and there are still too many people.

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We need more info in order to tell you where you should live :)

  • - do you prefer urban, suburbs, rural?
  • - Are you a beach person, lake dweller? mountains? Desert climate?
  • - Structure type person or more of a free love type?

I'm in the US so you kind of know the pros and cons overall. Its my impression that Colorado is one of the best places in the country to live if you like an outdoors lifestyle. Regionally I'm on the NH/MA border and spend much of my time hiking, cycling, and beach/lake living. It seems a lot like Colorado but with access to beaches and our mountains are probably not as epic.

 

 

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5 hours ago, Sivin said:

Yeah, Colorado was a pretty nice place. I was stationed at Ft. Carson for about 2 years. Carson may have been a shithole, but I really liked the mountains and the weather and even the Springs was a decent enough town. Trouble is, there's nothing for me in CO, in any capacity. And I don't think I'd want to deal with being that close to a base.

England seems fairly appealing except for that last bit. Are you saying those things exist, or that they're rampant? Kinda a big deal for me personally.

Listen.  I live in the Springs.  And I've lived in England, and I'm telling you, you'll like the UK for about 3 years, and then want to come back home. Being down on Carson fucking sucks, but there is a lot more to the state than south springs.  This town can be a morale suck, especially for an army guy, but having that color you opinion on the state is silly

Also, the English don't really like us.  People say that the french are rude?  I got into more fights with english dudes, than I did with dudes from Korea, Japan, or the US.  

You live in the greatest, most diverse nation in the world.  Pick somewhere on this side of the atlantic and explore that. 

Saying all that, I really liked my time in Southern Spain, and Sweden.  If pressed, that's where I'd resettle. 

 

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I live in Sweden .

Pros:

  • You get paid to go to school (around $130 each month until you're 20, so good for kids less good for adults - going to Uni won't put you in debt for eternity)
  • You get paid for looking for work
  • Apparently you make twice as much working half as hard as in the US.
  • Free-ish healthcare, with a protection plan so that you don't end up ruined because you got some severe illness like cancer
  • Everybody speaks English
  • No wars, no guns, no terrorists (there was a carbomb maybe 7 years ago that didn't kill anyone)
  • Clean and convenient public transport
  • The roads feel much safer
  • Less extreme temperatures/climate than the US (based on Illinois)
  • No natural disasters
  • Lovely nature all around
  • Super cheap houses up north
  • You can travel the distance from Stockholm to say, Haparanda (by the Finnish border) in one day. By car.
  • Super tasty burgers up north where McDonalds never got a foothold (okay, this is more of a comment really...)
  • Generally (and politically) pro-equal treatment regardless of race, sex, religion, sexual preference.
  • Fika (if you make friends with a Swedish person and get invited to their house you're basically guaranteed coffee and cookies/pastries/cakes)
  • Smörgåsbord!
  • People won't talk to you unless they have to/know you

Cons:

  • People won't talk to you unless they have to/know you
  • A party with among others nazis in their midst somehow got into the government. (No party is collaborating with them on anything however, which is awesome)
  • Instead of getting shot you get stabbed or (if you live in my town) attacked with machetes.
  • Is becoming a bit too sensitive about just... things... A kid got scared by a ghost in a children's cartoon. The parents wanted to ban it.
  • High taxes (though they pay for that money and free healthcare)
  • Job market
  • Swedish grammar isn't as structured as English
  • Unfortunately frequent train issues.
  • Not as large a selection of exotic foods when going out to eat.
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5 hours ago, zelticgar said:

We need more info in order to tell you where you should live :)

  • - do you prefer urban, suburbs, rural?
  • - Are you a beach person, lake dweller? mountains? Desert climate?
  • - Structure type person or more of a free love type?

I'm in the US so you kind of know the pros and cons overall. Its my impression that Colorado is one of the best places in the country to live if you like an outdoors lifestyle. Regionally I'm on the NH/MA border and spend much of my time hiking, cycling, and beach/lake living. It seems a lot like Colorado but with access to beaches and our mountains are probably not as epic.

 

 

Well, the point of the exercise was to get an unclouded opinion of the living conditions of peoples' home countries without influencing the answers too much.

Though I suppose a bit of background could be helpful.

1) I don't wanna live in a place where my rights as a citizen are seriously jeopardized by a bunch of morons' interpretation of a book that some dude reads to them once a week.

2) I don't want to sit down in a bar and get a filibuster type speech about the tyranny of ____________ and how ___________ needs MORE ____________ from some dumbass who's second-grade interpretation of U.S. Government apparently makes him qualified to run his stupid fucking mouth. 

So basically, I don't like the perverse saturation of religion in America, and I don't like Americans' tendency to try and convert everyone they see to their way of thinking unasked.

1 hour ago, peterbound said:

Listen.  I live in the Springs.  And I've lived in England, and I'm telling you, you'll like the UK for about 3 years, and then want to come back home. Being down on Carson fucking sucks, but there is a lot more to the state than south springs.  This town can be a morale suck, especially for an army guy, but having that color you opinion on the state is silly

Also, the English don't really like us.  People say that the french are rude?  I got into more fights with english dudes, than I did with dudes from Korea, Japan, or the US.  

You live in the greatest, most diverse nation in the world.  Pick somewhere on this side of the atlantic and explore that. 

Saying all that, I really liked my time in Southern Spain, and Sweden.  If pressed, that's where I'd resettle. 

 

As I grow a little older every year, I find America less and less diverse. It seems to be a 'us' vs 'them' country to me. Half are always nailing themselves to a cross while the other half bemoan their having been nailed to a cross. It's fucking annoying, and literally seeps into every part of life.

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2 hours ago, peterbound said:

 

Also, the English don't really like us.  People say that the french are rude?  I got into more fights with english dudes, than I did with dudes from Korea, Japan, or the US.  

 

I honestly think this might be more to do with you than the English.

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44 minutes ago, Sivin said:

Well, the point of the exercise was to get an unclouded opinion of the living conditions of peoples' home countries without influencing the answers too much.

Though I suppose a bit of background could be helpful.

1) I don't wanna live in a place where my rights as a citizen are seriously jeopardized by a bunch of morons' interpretation of a book that some dude reads to them once a week.

2) I don't want to sit down in a bar and get a filibuster type speech about the tyranny of ____________ and how ___________ needs MORE ____________ from some dumbass who's second-grade interpretation of U.S. Government apparently makes him qualified to run his stupid fucking mouth. 

So basically, I don't like the perverse saturation of religion in America, and I don't like Americans' tendency to try and convert everyone they see to their way of thinking unasked.

As I grow a little older every year, I find America less and less diverse. It seems to be a 'us' vs 'them' country to me. Half are always nailing themselves to a cross while the other half bemoan their having been nailed to a cross. It's fucking annoying, and literally seeps into every part of life.

Got it. It sounds like trying out a new country will help, especially if you are feeling that down about religious fundamentalism. For what its worth I've lived in the northeast US and I can count on one hand the number of religious fundamentalist/nutjobs I have met in my life. For whatever reason people dont seem as open about getting in your face about religion in this area.

If I was looking for a place to go where I did not have to deal with people complaining etc. I'd probably check out Australia or New Zealand. They seem pretty relaxed. I have also heard good things about Costa Rica and Singapore. I would also not commit to just one place. Take a kick ass 6 month trip to a bunch of places and find the one or two locales that you like the most. Then come up with a plan to move there.

 

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4 minutes ago, lessthanluke said:

I honestly think this might be more to do with you than the English.

Yea I was wondering about that.  I managed to not get into any brawls on numerous visits to England and a whole year in Glasgow (where everyone said I'd prob get stabbed :lol:).  Never got the sense that anyone in the UK didn't like me because I was American.

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Living in Montreal, Canada.

It's rather nice, very metropolitan, very warm. I'd say the vast majority of the population speaks English, and it's very feasible to live here without knowing a single word of French, though you should expect some of the locals to view you with disdain for it, and to make it hard for you if they see you're not even willing to try to assimilate. They feel French is threatened, and some of the old blood still sees English and English-speaking individuals as reminders of the oppressed province.

Nightlife is alive, there's plenty of activities to do during the summer, lots of pubs, it's a very fun city in general. Especially great for students.

On the downside, the provincial/municipal governments are corrupt as fuck, taxes are high while services provided are unsatisfactory for what we pay. Islamophobia is also rather on the rise, I've even noticed it in Muslim communities (though that might be racism directed at Arabs more than islamophobia itself).

The dollar is extremely low at the moment, so I suppose there would be no better moment to immigrate if you want the bang for your buck.

Overall, I'd have to say that it's very nice, and I'm glad to live in Montreal.

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Racism and homophobia does exist in the UK of course it does but for the most part I genuinely believe most people are pretty nice and decent. I really want to travel and I think I'd like to study in a European City for a year or so when I do my Masters but you know not to get all crazy patriotic but I'm so fucking glad I'm british. I love britain even though it has lots of faults. Shitty weather and shitty politicians is definitely one. But really most British people are pretty good people I think. i  have never witnessed anyone in real life give an american a hard time. Honestly most people I know would be all "wow! Cool accent? Which state are you from?" the type of lads who start fights in pubs start fights with EVERYONE. a lot of people are very friendly theres some absolutely beautiful places in the UK. i would never dissuade anyone from living here but I would quite like to move to a european city and study for a year but to settle down i would like to live here.

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I would suggest reading some expat forums for various countries. The reality of living abroad is much different than any romantic notions you may have. The grass isn't always greener. I've lived in a few countries, all western and European, so not vastly different coming from the States. My experiences have all been positive with minor trivial problems thrown in. 

I would suggest simply traveling to places you are interested in and experiencing them for yourself if your situation allows for it. But keep in mind traveling and studying are much different from living and working in a country. I had very different impressions of countries depending on whether I was traveling, studying or working in them. Still, nothing beats experiencing it for yourself.

 

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