Dallas TX. Well, a smaller city suburb of Dallas but easier just to say Dallas. It’s.....interesting....to live here. Almost every stereotype you can think of has some truth to it and is probably...
Exemplary
Dallas TX. Well, a smaller city suburb of Dallas but easier just to say Dallas.
It’s.....interesting....to live here. Almost every stereotype you can think of has some truth to it and is probably still valid.
The people here are fiercely independent. A byproduct of the states history but one that has not faded over time. Many Texans would legitimately favor leaving the US altogether ala Brexit. Brexit, itself, only added fuel to that fire. It’s not a widely held desire but you wouldn’t walk too far in any direction before you found someone who thought Texas should stand alone again.
In Texas, football is religion. Movies like Friday Night Lights are not inaccurate. The smaller towns often completely shut down for high school or college football. There are high school teams with larger stadiums than even Division 1 or minor league football stadiums.
We have two seasons. Summer.....and Not Summer.
Summers are often miserable and are basically late April or May to late October or early November. It’s not uncommon to be in shorts and flip flops on Christmas and Jan/Feb are the only two months you can reliably expect it to be below 40. We can go entire months where the temperature high is over 100 degrees. Don’t even try dressing nicely after about 10am. You’ll sweat enough to ruin your nice outfit.
Not Summer can be quite pleasant. Nice sunny days, just warm enough to not be cold but cool enough to not be hot. Sprinkled in will be a week here or a week there of actual cold temperatures and the occasional ice over. Very rarely, like, once every 10 years or so, we’ll get actual snow.
Texans love their guns. Probably more so than the NRA. Another byproduct of the Texas Revolution, being a part of the Confederacy, and just general Texan attitude. The Zombie Apocalypse would stand little chance and be snuffed out pretty damn quickly here.
Texas is a massive state. El Paso is the farthest west major city and is closer to San Diego, three states over, than El Paso is to Houston.
Religion is strong here but believe it or not, most Texans do believe in the idea that it’s better to love the sinner and hate the sin. Most, not all. We do have some black marks on the record. But Texas derives from Tejas, a word that loosely means friend or ally and most Texans will be friendly to a stranger. Especially in the smaller towns. Larger cities like Dallas or Houston, you’ll get your fair share of assholes like any big city.
Texas has been a Republican stronghold for the last 30 years or so but is slowly going purple. While the vast majority of Texas will likely stay Red, the major population centers are turning Blue. Austin, the state capital, is easily the most liberal city in the state. But Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, all are slowly turning, if they haven’t turned already. Dallas County, for instance, went to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. I don’t believe Beto O’Rourke will beat Ted Cruz but many of the polls I’ve recently checked have it at a statistical dead heat, close enough to be within the margin of error.
Hispanic culture is deeply ingrained here. One reason I’ve never understood why some Texans are so against illegal immigrants is that the cultures here are so enmeshed with each other that you’d be hard pressed to find many people who don’t have an illegal immigrant in their family, circle of friends, or place of employment. Texas is literally the brackish water between the US and Latin America.
Also live in Texas, and I would certainly agree with most points. I've been going to college here the last couple of years, but lived in Dallas for the past summer. The people around here are...
Also live in Texas, and I would certainly agree with most points. I've been going to college here the last couple of years, but lived in Dallas for the past summer.
The people around here are largely nice and welcoming; it's a nice place to live, and I certainly understand why there are so many California (and otherwise) transplants. Honestly, my biggest complaint is the weather. I must say I'm fucking tired of the whole Summer/Not-Summer thing. Not having seasons is kind of killing me, and its part of the reason I plan to move elsewhere once I finish my undergrad. I wouldn't be surprised if I move back here because Texas really does have a lot of nice stuff going for it, but I think its valuable to try living in different places if you have the means to make a big move during your life.
I'm really interested to see how this midterm election goes. Most of my friends are Republican because I go to a large, conservative school (probably not too hard to guess which one), so I rarely share my opinions, but I think the state is much more purple than most of them are willing to recognize. I'll probably be voting mostly blue, but it seems that Texas has been handling some of its state-specific things (no income tax and such) seemingly well, and I would hate for that to change too too much. National positions are different story of course.
No gambling here either but otherwise accurate. Although I’m wondering how much longer Texas will continue to let gambling money go to Oklahoma and Louisiana
No gambling here either but otherwise accurate.
Although I’m wondering how much longer Texas will continue to let gambling money go to Oklahoma and Louisiana
Brazil. My SO and I are LGBTQ, communists, and non-Christian. I'm terrified for our lives, and the lives of my closest friends. We can't leave for multiple reasons: Financial, Family, Academic,...
Brazil. My SO and I are LGBTQ, communists, and non-Christian. I'm terrified for our lives, and the lives of my closest friends.
We can't leave for multiple reasons: Financial, Family, Academic, and a few others.
I like Brazil culturally, I like the natural beauty, but I can't think of anything else right now.
I LOVE where I live! I moved to the south of Sweden nearly 10 years ago from Dublin, Ireland. It's great here. I live in the countryside, right where the major areas of forest start. It's a 35...
I LOVE where I live! I moved to the south of Sweden nearly 10 years ago from Dublin, Ireland. It's great here. I live in the countryside, right where the major areas of forest start. It's a 35 minute train ride to Malmö, less than an hour to Copenhagen, but at my house I might as well be in the middle of nowhere!
I have a cool job, cost of living is minimal and I have fiber broadband right into the house. There is a good community around me, and we have actual seasons! Proper cold winters and generally nice summers.
I could not be happier. Such a stark contrast to Dublin where I was spending my whole time working to pay a fucking ridiculous mortgage on a house that needed a tonne of work. Literally living to work, god damn I can't believe I put up with that shit for so long. Should have left years ago.
I really wish we had a functioning train system in north america, when I was in europe it was so incredible to, as you said, be able to ride from major cities out into the middle of no where. Here...
I really wish we had a functioning train system in north america, when I was in europe it was so incredible to, as you said, be able to ride from major cities out into the middle of no where. Here if you want a similar experience you're essentially required to own a car.
It probably doesn't scale. I hate that phrase - so often over used in comparisons of European and US systems, but in the case of train systems covering the US, it doesn't scale. If we can get a...
It probably doesn't scale. I hate that phrase - so often over used in comparisons of European and US systems, but in the case of train systems covering the US, it doesn't scale. If we can get a huge improvement in technology (like hyperloop) it could be viable but until then I don't see even a TGV style bullet train system working except in a few areas where large population centers are close enough together.
Edit: I just saw this the other day - I may be wrong.
Heh. That's the thing. There already are. Amtrak's service map parallels American population density pretty well, with a couple of strands reaching from East to West to connect across the empty bits.
Heh. That's the thing. There already are. Amtrak's service map parallels American population density pretty well, with a couple of strands reaching from East to West to connect across the empty bits.
Yes, like anywhere, it does of course have it's problems, but overall it's a pretty great place. Just the Scandinavian life philosophy in general is great. Sure taxes are high, but honestly, when...
Yes, like anywhere, it does of course have it's problems, but overall it's a pretty great place. Just the Scandinavian life philosophy in general is great.
Sure taxes are high, but honestly, when you do the math they're not much higher than a lot of other places over all. But kids education is free, day care costs next to nothing, medical and dental for kids is free and minimal fees for adults (for example €15 to go to the doctor for a checkup vs €80 in Ireland), and possibly my favourite - All mans right. Good infrastructure for internet and transport, and really nice people who really respect privacy. It's great. All of Scandinavia is pretty much like that.
Yeah I'm fine with paying more in taxes when all those benefits are available. I'd be much more serious about being politically involved and making sure that taxpayer money is used efficiently...
Yeah I'm fine with paying more in taxes when all those benefits are available. I'd be much more serious about being politically involved and making sure that taxpayer money is used efficiently though. I feel like people will always complain about taxes being too high as long as it's > zero.
A funny thing I've noticed over here, it's never working immigrants and immigrant business owners who want lower taxes here, they're all very happy, as businesses, to pay the higher taxes because...
A funny thing I've noticed over here, it's never working immigrants and immigrant business owners who want lower taxes here, they're all very happy, as businesses, to pay the higher taxes because their employees are happier and more productive, with a better work life balance compared to employees where they originally come from. It's a weird dynamic. I see it with my wife's parents and some of my Swedish friends, they vote for politicians promising to lower taxes, I always tell them to go live in Ireland, the UK or USA for a year or two and see if they still think that's a good idea. Some Swedes don't realise how good their system is, or how easily it can all fall apart with some thoughtless greed.
I've never been happier to pay my taxes in all my life, knowing what I, and society, gets in return.
I live in Jordan (the country). It's hell. There is very little to do. The prices are insanely high while the wages are insanely low. You have to work a minimum of 2 jobs to afford to go to the...
I live in Jordan (the country). It's hell. There is very little to do. The prices are insanely high while the wages are insanely low. You have to work a minimum of 2 jobs to afford to go to the bar on some weekends. I guess it could be worse as our freedom of speech and basic humans rights are still there. But damn can't I wait to leave.
Honolulu, HI, here. It's great tbh - there's tons to do, the locals are very friendly (genuinely friendly), it's amazingly beautiful, and the resources are surprisingly good. I'm a student at the...
Honolulu, HI, here. It's great tbh - there's tons to do, the locals are very friendly (genuinely friendly), it's amazingly beautiful, and the resources are surprisingly good. I'm a student at the University of Hawaii and it's a really nice place, and quite affordable compared to most American universities actually. The insanely high cost of living and monotonous sunshine is a downer, but all things considered, I really like it here. It's a lot better than I thought it would be, I was expecting a very cliche and overrated place if I'm being totally honest, and I'm really glad Honolulu has surprised me in a positive way.
Could I ask you to elaborate? (It's OK to say “no”.) Everyone I know who's been to New York says that it's smelly, expensive, and rude, but there is a significant amount of people who love New...
Could I ask you to elaborate? (It's OK to say “no”.)
Everyone I know who's been to New York says that it's smelly, expensive, and rude, but there is a significant amount of people who love New York. Why?
For me it's just that there's so much to do. NYC has the population of a fairly large state crammed down into a space that's only a few hours across, no car required. Also, IMO the rude New Yorker...
For me it's just that there's so much to do. NYC has the population of a fairly large state crammed down into a space that's only a few hours across, no car required.
Also, IMO the rude New Yorker is more a stereotype than a reality. I've never noticed people there being particularly worse than in other places, it's just that you see more people overall, so you see more rude people, regardless of the actual proportion.
New York has a vitality and energy that I haven't experienced anywhere else. The only place I have been that comes close is Tokyo (granted, I haven't done a ton of traveling), but Tokyo doesn't...
New York has a vitality and energy that I haven't experienced anywhere else. The only place I have been that comes close is Tokyo (granted, I haven't done a ton of traveling), but Tokyo doesn't have the same kind of chaotic lunacy that you'll find in NYC. I think part of it stems from not only the population density, but the diversity. New York has people from everywhere. Every nationality, ethnicity, religion, language, culture - they're all here, piled on top of each other, mingling and cross-polinating every which way. With everybody in such close quarters it can lead to a lot of, um, personality clashes, but it also leads to a lot of beauty and creativity too.
And like @spctrvl said, there are a million things to do here. No matter what you're into, we have it. (Well, except for hunting, I guess.) Food, music, theater, sports, comedy, whatever. We got it.
Another thing it that it's a 24-hour town. I don't think most of the other major world capitals can say that. The subway and buses, for all their faults, run 24 hours a day. So there are always people on the move out there.
I was just in NYC last month, that wasn't my experience at all. (Well, except for the crowding. Jeez, there were people everywhere. It was cleaner than San Francisco, the trains mostly came on...
I was just in NYC last month, that wasn't my experience at all. (Well, except for the crowding. Jeez, there were people everywhere. It was cleaner than San Francisco, the trains mostly came on time, and I only ran into a single jerk the entire time I was there. He even was right to be irritated. (I was walking over the Williamsburg bridge on the cyclist side, having missed the signs. All in all, a lovely city, and everyone and their mother should move there. ;)
Obviously I was exaggerating for comic effect, but re: the trains - if you need to ride them for more than a couple of days you will find that they are in bad shape lately. Both the subway and...
Obviously I was exaggerating for comic effect, but re: the trains - if you need to ride them for more than a couple of days you will find that they are in bad shape lately. Both the subway and commuter railroads are extremely overcrowded on the best of days, and the best of days have become quite rare. Major meltdowns are now a weekly occurrence. It's easy to avoid the worst of it if you're a tourist who is only traveling in Manhattan. It's a much different and more aggravating experience if you're a commuting to work from Brooklyn or Queens or New Jersey every day.
It's a village, there's literally no shops in a range of a few kilometers, no public transportation, poor roads, shitty mobile coverage in the whole area, Internet drops off seemingly once a month...
It's a village, there's literally no shops in a range of a few kilometers, no public transportation, poor roads, shitty mobile coverage in the whole area, Internet drops off seemingly once a month for a day at a time, and the people around here are... backwards. It might be better if I was interested in taking long walks in the woods - I'm not - or if I was religious, or if I liked talking about football and chainsaws, or if I was not trans, but as it stands none of those things apply and I hate it.
Easier said than done, considering I only stopped being suicidal last year. Right now I'm at stage one, pick uni back up where I left. Stages two through five - get a degree, get a job, ???,...
Easier said than done, considering I only stopped being suicidal last year. Right now I'm at stage one, pick uni back up where I left. Stages two through five - get a degree, get a job, ???, profit - are still very much up in the air.
No one will change this situation for you.
Now, now, let's not be negative. I'm sure there's plenty of people that could make it worse.
LOL, good on you. Your making the changes, that's the main thing. Be in it for the long haul and stay focused. And yes, people can make it worse for you. But I think you've got this!
LOL, good on you. Your making the changes, that's the main thing. Be in it for the long haul and stay focused. And yes, people can make it worse for you. But I think you've got this!
I’m frustrated by the ridiculously high cost of living. I don’t know how much longer I can put up with it. It clouds almost every positive thing about living in Los Angeles.
I’m frustrated by the ridiculously high cost of living. I don’t know how much longer I can put up with it. It clouds almost every positive thing about living in Los Angeles.
Plus it rains in LA. For days. That wasn't on the brochure (nor in any Hollywood movie, except maybe that Steve Martin one about the weatherman, but that was just for comedic effect).
Plus it rains in LA. For days. That wasn't on the brochure (nor in any Hollywood movie, except maybe that Steve Martin one about the weatherman, but that was just for comedic effect).
Don't they often say the weather in Seattle is like London (Londoner here). While there's no equivalent of the Puget Sound, it is a city of parks. Some are massive too. One of the positive relics...
Don't they often say the weather in Seattle is like London (Londoner here). While there's no equivalent of the Puget Sound, it is a city of parks. Some are massive too. One of the positive relics of the Victorian age of philanthropy; as London boomed the landowners made sure there were parks for all the cock-a-nay chimney sweeps to dance around with animated penguins.
That's similar in the UK and I think most cities in the "west" (or at least in the Anglo-Saxon capitalist region). When a system can't look after its own, let alone help internationally, you have...
That's similar in the UK and I think most cities in the "west" (or at least in the Anglo-Saxon capitalist region). When a system can't look after its own, let alone help internationally, you have to question it. Mental health and drugs are hugely undermining to all efforts but unfortunately corruption and gangs will always exist in a world where money = status. Anyway what do I know. Sorry about all the expats. Are they mainly designers and IT workers?
Oakland, CA. It's got a checkered past, but I love it for all that. It's now the fifth most expensive city in the nation purely off of the overflow of money from San Francisco, the Brooklyn to...
Oakland, CA. It's got a checkered past, but I love it for all that. It's now the fifth most expensive city in the nation purely off of the overflow of money from San Francisco, the Brooklyn to SF's Manhattan, and a cool place to live on account of (for now) plenty of artists and creatives to make interesting things happen and tech folk with lots of money to fund them. (Ask me about the secret society I was part of for a year!)
It's a great city with interesting history and people, lots of things to see and do, right at the center of the Bay Area so there's an insane amount to do within an hour's travel. Just about any sort of cuisine you might desire, and a huge variety of foods available, with fresh ingredients year round from the Central Valley and Mexico. There's multiple thriving music scenes, museums a-plenty, great weather year-round and so on and so on.
It's also too expensive by far. A single room in Oakland is $800-$1500 a month depending how conveniently located. Those housing costs ripple through everything. If you eat out, a meal and a beverage for one can easily top $20. A therapist will be $125-$150/hour. A massage will be $90 or more. If you want to be even a little financially secure in this area you need a salary of $80k or more, and that's on the low end. Minimum wage is at $15/hour, and working a single full time job is not enough to provide you a living wage in this town. The median house price is 10x the median yearly household income, so home ownership is 100% outside the realm of possibility for just about anyone who isn't in tech or finance.
People are leaving to find a cheaper life elsewhere. The people who can't afford to go far are getting pushed down into the poorest cities that are the furthest out before the suburbs start, and the people who can afford to really move are going just about anywhere where they can actually buy a house and have some peace of mind. If Millennials are anxious because of continual economic uncertainty, this is the epicenter of that anxiety. We know how much Big Tech can overturn lives without even really meaning to, and can see the impacts of economic inequality all around us.
For all that, I'm going to stick it out as long as I can. I've lived here my whole life, my parents and friends are here, and while i can envision living elsewhere, this is MY HOME, dammit.
I won't go into names or identifying terminology, but there was a wealthy individual who wanted to get into developing interesting experiences. There was a hidden library in a down-market...
I won't go into names or identifying terminology, but there was a wealthy individual who wanted to get into developing interesting experiences. There was a hidden library in a down-market neighborhood of the city, regular events to celebrate our experience at various art spaces that weren't open to the public, lots of great feelings of being special and belonging and working for something strange and good.
The problem with the funder was (as is so often the case with wealthy individuals) that he didn't actually think about the financial sustainability of it until far too late. We paid dues to the society to help fund the revels, but the funder chased his vision into expensive territory and then when he realized how much it was costing he very abruptly cut funding for everything, even the sustainable bits.
It fell apart. We was spending tens of thousands a month on locations and designers and writers, and that all went away. The people gathered together to try to organize a successor organization, but (as is too often the case with leaderless groups) fell into bickering about the details. What had once been hundreds of people across a fascinating spectrum of society fell into disarray, and 90% of the people left. The smallest, most organized side groups still exist, but mostly it's gone.
I do still have my coin and sash, and patches and pins from the experiences that happened before it fell apart. It's a fond memory. It also reinforced some useful lessons about organizational hubris, the danger of letting the founder do whatever they want (even with their own money), and how poorly most people handle the institutional structures underpinning their lives falling apart.
That doesn't seem all that bad to me and I live in an area with fairly cheap housing costs. My last two apartments were both one bedroom and were about $1000 and $900.
A single room in Oakland is $800-$1500 a month depending how conveniently located.
That doesn't seem all that bad to me and I live in an area with fairly cheap housing costs. My last two apartments were both one bedroom and were about $1000 and $900.
I was talking about renting a single room in someone else's house. For me, the difference in experience between having a house to myself and renting a room is massive. If we're going to compare...
I was talking about renting a single room in someone else's house. For me, the difference in experience between having a house to myself and renting a room is massive. If we're going to compare apples to apples, a one bedroom apartment is around $2600/mo for 630 sq. ft. or $3200 for 800 sq. ft.
Al Ruwais, UAE, is pretty boring as they come. 250 kilometers from Abu Dhabi, and it’s not exactly a bustling metropolis. Mostly quiet, except for the occasional National Day parade or festival....
Al Ruwais, UAE, is pretty boring as they come. 250 kilometers from Abu Dhabi, and it’s not exactly a bustling metropolis. Mostly quiet, except for the occasional National Day parade or festival. Summer cooks you alive, but in the winter months, it can be pretty fun to bike around. Sometimes it even rains!
London. I'm ambivalent. I love the life, the vibrancy, the sheer volume of cultures and people and things to do and see (and, perhaps most importantly to me, to eat!). I've lived here longer than...
London. I'm ambivalent. I love the life, the vibrancy, the sheer volume of cultures and people and things to do and see (and, perhaps most importantly to me, to eat!). I've lived here longer than I ever stayed anywhere else, and as a city dweller at heart I honestly can't imagine living somewhere smaller than a few million people.
I also see the things I love being eroded. The sheer expense of living here is causing things to homogenise. The classic cycle of gentrification is displacing the very artists and creatives who made an area interesting in the first place - yet I wonder if I'm a hypocrite for thinking this, as those people had a hand in the cycle just as much as the next wave do. The UK's extreme skew towards a single city makes it far harder to balance this.
On top of that, we have Brexit. Enormous uncertainty for the future of the country, and a very significant chance that we'll all end up poorer as a result (best case, that at least reduces prices here a bit; realistically, it drives more people out instead). And the attitudes that led to the leave vote haven't gone away - the government treats immigrants like criminals, and puts up barriers that are expensive and inconvenient for the wealthy, and often totally insurmountable for those who aren't.
Many people I care about have already left. Part of me wants to do the same. Part of me looks at almost everywhere else in the world an sees the same problems. The larger part, for now, wants to stay.
I really love London for the same reasons you do, but my god what a clusterfuck brexit is. I've yet to meet anyone who voted for, or is happy with brexit. Seems like your government doesn't have...
I really love London for the same reasons you do, but my god what a clusterfuck brexit is. I've yet to meet anyone who voted for, or is happy with brexit. Seems like your government doesn't have anything resembling a plan either.
I came to the UK in 2011. Stayed for a month, a bit in London, a bit in Wales, with my relatives in both (I have two uncles who immigrated years ago). It was lovely, except a couple deaths in the...
I came to the UK in 2011. Stayed for a month, a bit in London, a bit in Wales, with my relatives in both (I have two uncles who immigrated years ago). It was lovely, except a couple deaths in the family (my younger uncle's father in law and the older one's mother in law died, with about two weeks between them) and the London Riots (they started the day after I left London for Wrecsam because my younger uncle and his wife left for Turkey for the funeral). We were in a bad shape financially back then, today we're a bit better, but still, we repeatedly failed to obtain a visa for my brother in the past three years or so. When we talk about that with my cousins born and raised there, they say that it's easier to come in as a clandestine immigrant (bar the risks on the way) and stay there illegally than to actually obtain a tourist visa, even with a family member as the sponsor (both of my uncles are successful, one has a couple groceries shops in Wrecsam, the other works at a hospital, my cousins do some sorts of law-related thing, all have their own homes where they can host my brother). It's become really annoying and frustrating by now, UK visa policy is BS.
I couldn't see much around London, but it was rather nice. But Wales was lovely! I saw Wrecsam, Barmouth, Rhyl, LLangollen, Overton, maybe a couple other places. Also Chester, but not sure if it's Wales or England. It was like a kingdom of silence and peace and green. really nice place to stay for a couple weeks and reset. I do like the bustling city more than the lush green countryside, though. I regret not seeing Edinburgh and some other places from Scotland, they all look lovely.
Istanbul, Turkey. I love it and I hate it. I'll probably love it more when I will have left. It's going to take a few years though, I have to finish my master's degree and it will take a few...
Istanbul, Turkey. I love it and I hate it. I'll probably love it more when I will have left. It's going to take a few years though, I have to finish my master's degree and it will take a few years, two or three.
The Bosphorus is beautiful. My home is a large one with a garden, we are a few hundred meters away from the Bosphorus and between it and us there is a little forest. The view the fresh breeze is always nice. We also not that far away from the city center, quite close to Metro Station and within walking distance off a couple lovely districts. It's rather peaceful here. So graphically speaking it's a very nice place to be.
About the politics and a part of the people make it unbearable. The political instability, the interference of corrupt politicians into daily life, and the increasing rudeness of the people which I think is because of rapid immigration from the poorer parts of the country has changed everything in the last couple of decades. Nepotism and Injustice manifest itself everywhere and the increasing economic problems make it harder to focus on personal fulfillment rather than survival. The government having an attitude with regards to every part of life renders many things annoying. E.g. the price of a 50cc bottle of beer has increased ten fold in the passing 20 years, merely because of lots of stupid unnecessary tax. The fall of lira has rendered many other things impossible to buy. The entire fucking country is rotting. People leave in hundreds of thousands (more than 200k has left during 2017 alone), and I'll be one soon because freedom of speech and academia are totally undermined here. Frankly if I had the money I would have left earlier.
I live in Asheville, NC. I love it, great restaurants and beer everywhere, and if you want to go outside and do stuff there's tons of hiking and mountain biking everywhere. I wish there were more...
I live in Asheville, NC. I love it, great restaurants and beer everywhere, and if you want to go outside and do stuff there's tons of hiking and mountain biking everywhere. I wish there were more jobs that weren't waiting tables though, that part sucks a bit.
I'll add we've experienced a lot of change in a relatively short time, and very long term residents struggle to adapt. I've also come to think of it as a well-feathered cage. It's sleepy and slow,...
I'll add we've experienced a lot of change in a relatively short time, and very long term residents struggle to adapt.
I've also come to think of it as a well-feathered cage. It's sleepy and slow, very relaxed. Lots of beauty and delights. It lulls my creative centers and ambition.
Denver, CO. It's home (grew up here, moved away for college and then came right back), it's beautiful (it just seems miserable to wake up and not get a mountain panorama in view every day),...
Denver, CO. It's home (grew up here, moved away for college and then came right back), it's beautiful (it just seems miserable to wake up and not get a mountain panorama in view every day), there's lots to do, and it's thriving and booming, which is always nice...
...but the flipside of that is the meteoric rise in cost of living (my housing costs have more than doubled over the past eight years), the crowding (our infrastructure was inadequate for our existing population, never mind adding nearly a million people on top of it, and TABOR (a state constitutional amendment we've had since the early 90s that requires any and every tax increase to be put to public vote, and with a ratchet-down in government budgets that used to require it shrink every year) meaning that it's near-impossible for the state to get the funding to improve said infrastructure), the genericizing gentrification that has taken a place that has always struggled to make its own identity due to a history of boom-and-bust cycles and made it even more of a 'generic Millenial' city, for lack of a better way to put it.
If it wasn't for the issue of going anywhere with jobs is just as/more expensive than here, while anywhere cheaper has a crap job situation and/or the pay cut would mean we would be no better off, my SO and I would be looking to leave. But, all in all, I still love the area and would rather stay here if at all possible.
I live in good ol' Fargo ND, but I'm really tired of it. There isn't much to do around here and it's pretty easy to let your life fall into a monotonous rut if you're not careful. I would really...
I live in good ol' Fargo ND, but I'm really tired of it. There isn't much to do around here and it's pretty easy to let your life fall into a monotonous rut if you're not careful. I would really like to move to a bigger city and feel it out for a while.
Eau Claire, Wisconsin - I'm mixed on it. On one hand I want to hate it, but I'm also going to college here and I find that to be a miserable experience that I'm not sure would be any better...
Eau Claire, Wisconsin - I'm mixed on it. On one hand I want to hate it, but I'm also going to college here and I find that to be a miserable experience that I'm not sure would be any better anywhere else. It's beautiful and the people are still relatively nice, but I can't take being in a place with 60k other people around me. I don't really reap any of the benefits that come from that (Lord knows I don't go outside for fun), so it's an awful and stressful exchange. It's not a bad place if you like Wisconsin in general but want a more hipstery college thing with retro arcades, coffee shops, and such.
During the surprisingly long breaks, I live with my parents in my hometown that is too small to mention but it has about 1500 people and is in northern Wisconsin. It's significantly more influenced by the churches and it's overall a more bigoted place, but if I don't think too much about the combined problem of employment and transitioning, it's nearly perfect for me. Even with those things, it might be my favorite place I've been. It doesn't matter much when people are worse if you have much more opportunity to not see anyone and just appreciate existing in the world. This isn't useful for anyone else, I just really love home and I realized a long time ago that even if I don't end up there, it's permanently part of who I am.
Oh wow. I thought the creators of The Good Place made up Jacksonville, FL. It's interesting to discover it's a real place. Have you seen the show? What do you think about the portrayal of the...
Oh wow. I thought the creators of The Good Place made up Jacksonville, FL. It's interesting to discover it's a real place. Have you seen the show? What do you think about the portrayal of the characters from Jacksonville?
Living in Zürich right now for school. Don’t like the city, but it sure as hell beats the two hours commute (each way) I had before…. Room I’m renting’s very cheap for the city, but the flat is...
Living in Zürich right now for school. Don’t like the city, but it sure as hell beats the two hours commute (each way) I had before…. Room I’m renting’s very cheap for the city, but the flat is tiny (no living room, tiny kitchen and bathroom).
Too busy for my taste. I didn’t exactly grow up in an extremely rural place, but going from “village next to a town of 30k” to “busy international city” is a decent culture shock regardless. I get...
Too busy for my taste. I didn’t exactly grow up in an extremely rural place, but going from “village next to a town of 30k” to “busy international city” is a decent culture shock regardless. I get by, and it sure is convenient at times (e.g. the fact that many stores close closer to midnight than 7PM) but I just can’t get myself to like the concrete jungle. I miss the mountain view, too.
Paradise Island, Bahamas. Climate-wise it's appropriately named. Most days, year-round it is in the range of 30-35 degrees Celsius, sunny, with a pleasant ocean breeze. It's generally pretty...
Paradise Island, Bahamas. Climate-wise it's appropriately named. Most days, year-round it is in the range of 30-35 degrees Celsius, sunny, with a pleasant ocean breeze. It's generally pretty quiet. The people you meet are a mix of locals and tourists. As I'm white, the locals generally assume I'm a tourist, which has its ups and downs. There's not much to do, though, outside of a few tourist-oriented activities. I work fairly long hours (at a minimum 50/week) and, generally speaking, don't like going out, so it suits me fine, as it's an instant beach vacation the moment I leave the office.
Cincinnati, OH. It's okay. It's clean, and a good chunk of it is walkable. The museums and parks are nice, but beyond that there's not much to do unless you're a sports fan or into bars. The...
Cincinnati, OH. It's okay. It's clean, and a good chunk of it is walkable. The museums and parks are nice, but beyond that there's not much to do unless you're a sports fan or into bars. The public transportation is spectacularly bad/unreliable. People are a little weird about religion (everyone assumes everyone is a Christian) and you run into some subtle bigotry that, for someone like me who grew up in NYC, can be pretty jarring. Cost of living is low, and there's no shortage of decent apartments if you're a renter.
I'm in the Albany NY area. My main issue with it is that it doesn't really have much personality. No really noteworthy local foods, culture, or places in go in my opinion (steamed ham memes aside...
I'm in the Albany NY area. My main issue with it is that it doesn't really have much personality. No really noteworthy local foods, culture, or places in go in my opinion (steamed ham memes aside lol). It's a city that's built mostly to support New York City but itself and the rest of the state are secondary. Everything Albany has seems to be half-assed or eclipsed by what NYC offers. There are a few local breweries that are great though and it's a quick drive to my home state of Vermont as well as the Adirondacks for some nice outdoor activities.
I live in Charlotte, NC (not a native Charlottean, though). I really enjoy living here. With the light rail expansion completed, it's really easy to get downtown, and there is a good tech scene...
I live in Charlotte, NC (not a native Charlottean, though). I really enjoy living here. With the light rail expansion completed, it's really easy to get downtown, and there is a good tech scene that is starting to expand out of Ballantyne. It's nothing compared to the Triangle, but I'm sure it'll continue to grow. We're hosting the RNC in 2020, and although I'm anything but a conservative, it's not like the location of the RNC will influence the election, and it'll be great for tourism, so I have no opposition to it.
Although I love the city, and the state as a whole is pretty good (as long as you're not black, gay, or trans outside Charlotte or the Triangle), I hate our legislature with a passion. The sheer incompetence, gerrymandering, and spiteful legislation from the NCGOP has made me lose all respect for them. It certainly doesn't help that tons of out-of-state money has poured into our local races, pushing out candidates who worked across the aisle and weren't hateful bigots. I expect I'll be moving out of state after I graduate to chase jobs, but Charlotte is a place I wouldn't mind living in, especially if CATS gets funding to build more light rail lines. (Our public transit leaves a lot to desire at the moment, but if they can build the silver & red lines, that'll really help a lot of peoples' commutes. The real pipe dream would be trains to Carrowinds and CLT straight from downtown, though I doubt that'll happen for awhile.)
Dallas TX. Well, a smaller city suburb of Dallas but easier just to say Dallas.
It’s.....interesting....to live here. Almost every stereotype you can think of has some truth to it and is probably still valid.
The people here are fiercely independent. A byproduct of the states history but one that has not faded over time. Many Texans would legitimately favor leaving the US altogether ala Brexit. Brexit, itself, only added fuel to that fire. It’s not a widely held desire but you wouldn’t walk too far in any direction before you found someone who thought Texas should stand alone again.
In Texas, football is religion. Movies like Friday Night Lights are not inaccurate. The smaller towns often completely shut down for high school or college football. There are high school teams with larger stadiums than even Division 1 or minor league football stadiums.
We have two seasons. Summer.....and Not Summer.
Summers are often miserable and are basically late April or May to late October or early November. It’s not uncommon to be in shorts and flip flops on Christmas and Jan/Feb are the only two months you can reliably expect it to be below 40. We can go entire months where the temperature high is over 100 degrees. Don’t even try dressing nicely after about 10am. You’ll sweat enough to ruin your nice outfit.
Not Summer can be quite pleasant. Nice sunny days, just warm enough to not be cold but cool enough to not be hot. Sprinkled in will be a week here or a week there of actual cold temperatures and the occasional ice over. Very rarely, like, once every 10 years or so, we’ll get actual snow.
Texans love their guns. Probably more so than the NRA. Another byproduct of the Texas Revolution, being a part of the Confederacy, and just general Texan attitude. The Zombie Apocalypse would stand little chance and be snuffed out pretty damn quickly here.
Texas is a massive state. El Paso is the farthest west major city and is closer to San Diego, three states over, than El Paso is to Houston.
Religion is strong here but believe it or not, most Texans do believe in the idea that it’s better to love the sinner and hate the sin. Most, not all. We do have some black marks on the record. But Texas derives from Tejas, a word that loosely means friend or ally and most Texans will be friendly to a stranger. Especially in the smaller towns. Larger cities like Dallas or Houston, you’ll get your fair share of assholes like any big city.
Texas has been a Republican stronghold for the last 30 years or so but is slowly going purple. While the vast majority of Texas will likely stay Red, the major population centers are turning Blue. Austin, the state capital, is easily the most liberal city in the state. But Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, all are slowly turning, if they haven’t turned already. Dallas County, for instance, went to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. I don’t believe Beto O’Rourke will beat Ted Cruz but many of the polls I’ve recently checked have it at a statistical dead heat, close enough to be within the margin of error.
Hispanic culture is deeply ingrained here. One reason I’ve never understood why some Texans are so against illegal immigrants is that the cultures here are so enmeshed with each other that you’d be hard pressed to find many people who don’t have an illegal immigrant in their family, circle of friends, or place of employment. Texas is literally the brackish water between the US and Latin America.
Thats a fairly interesting story. Thanks for sharing.
Also live in Texas, and I would certainly agree with most points. I've been going to college here the last couple of years, but lived in Dallas for the past summer.
The people around here are largely nice and welcoming; it's a nice place to live, and I certainly understand why there are so many California (and otherwise) transplants. Honestly, my biggest complaint is the weather. I must say I'm fucking tired of the whole Summer/Not-Summer thing. Not having seasons is kind of killing me, and its part of the reason I plan to move elsewhere once I finish my undergrad. I wouldn't be surprised if I move back here because Texas really does have a lot of nice stuff going for it, but I think its valuable to try living in different places if you have the means to make a big move during your life.
I'm really interested to see how this midterm election goes. Most of my friends are Republican because I go to a large, conservative school (probably not too hard to guess which one), so I rarely share my opinions, but I think the state is much more purple than most of them are willing to recognize. I'll probably be voting mostly blue, but it seems that Texas has been handling some of its state-specific things (no income tax and such) seemingly well, and I would hate for that to change too too much. National positions are different story of course.
It sounds like Texas is basically Las Vegas with more football and guns.
No gambling here either but otherwise accurate.
Although I’m wondering how much longer Texas will continue to let gambling money go to Oklahoma and Louisiana
Brazil. My SO and I are LGBTQ, communists, and non-Christian. I'm terrified for our lives, and the lives of my closest friends.
We can't leave for multiple reasons: Financial, Family, Academic, and a few others.
I like Brazil culturally, I like the natural beauty, but I can't think of anything else right now.
The food. The food is good too.
Also, my condolences. Ever since the coiso has been elected most LGBT folks I know are seriously afraid.
I LOVE where I live! I moved to the south of Sweden nearly 10 years ago from Dublin, Ireland. It's great here. I live in the countryside, right where the major areas of forest start. It's a 35 minute train ride to Malmö, less than an hour to Copenhagen, but at my house I might as well be in the middle of nowhere!
I have a cool job, cost of living is minimal and I have fiber broadband right into the house. There is a good community around me, and we have actual seasons! Proper cold winters and generally nice summers.
I could not be happier. Such a stark contrast to Dublin where I was spending my whole time working to pay a fucking ridiculous mortgage on a house that needed a tonne of work. Literally living to work, god damn I can't believe I put up with that shit for so long. Should have left years ago.
I really wish we had a functioning train system in north america, when I was in europe it was so incredible to, as you said, be able to ride from major cities out into the middle of no where. Here if you want a similar experience you're essentially required to own a car.
It probably doesn't scale. I hate that phrase - so often over used in comparisons of European and US systems, but in the case of train systems covering the US, it doesn't scale. If we can get a huge improvement in technology (like hyperloop) it could be viable but until then I don't see even a TGV style bullet train system working except in a few areas where large population centers are close enough together.
Edit: I just saw this the other day - I may be wrong.
Maybe not covering the US, but there could be local networks in the north east, north west, along california, etc.
Heh. That's the thing. There already are. Amtrak's service map parallels American population density pretty well, with a couple of strands reaching from East to West to connect across the empty bits.
Yeah, even in Ireland the trains are pretty unreliable, but once you get to the mainland things get much better.
I always hear great things about Sweden. I would love to move there.
Yes, like anywhere, it does of course have it's problems, but overall it's a pretty great place. Just the Scandinavian life philosophy in general is great.
Sure taxes are high, but honestly, when you do the math they're not much higher than a lot of other places over all. But kids education is free, day care costs next to nothing, medical and dental for kids is free and minimal fees for adults (for example €15 to go to the doctor for a checkup vs €80 in Ireland), and possibly my favourite - All mans right. Good infrastructure for internet and transport, and really nice people who really respect privacy. It's great. All of Scandinavia is pretty much like that.
Yeah I'm fine with paying more in taxes when all those benefits are available. I'd be much more serious about being politically involved and making sure that taxpayer money is used efficiently though. I feel like people will always complain about taxes being too high as long as it's > zero.
A funny thing I've noticed over here, it's never working immigrants and immigrant business owners who want lower taxes here, they're all very happy, as businesses, to pay the higher taxes because their employees are happier and more productive, with a better work life balance compared to employees where they originally come from. It's a weird dynamic. I see it with my wife's parents and some of my Swedish friends, they vote for politicians promising to lower taxes, I always tell them to go live in Ireland, the UK or USA for a year or two and see if they still think that's a good idea. Some Swedes don't realise how good their system is, or how easily it can all fall apart with some thoughtless greed.
I've never been happier to pay my taxes in all my life, knowing what I, and society, gets in return.
I live in Jordan (the country). It's hell. There is very little to do. The prices are insanely high while the wages are insanely low. You have to work a minimum of 2 jobs to afford to go to the bar on some weekends. I guess it could be worse as our freedom of speech and basic humans rights are still there. But damn can't I wait to leave.
Where are you looking to go?
U.S.A or Canada, perhaps the netherlands one day.
Honolulu, HI, here. It's great tbh - there's tons to do, the locals are very friendly (genuinely friendly), it's amazingly beautiful, and the resources are surprisingly good. I'm a student at the University of Hawaii and it's a really nice place, and quite affordable compared to most American universities actually. The insanely high cost of living and monotonous sunshine is a downer, but all things considered, I really like it here. It's a lot better than I thought it would be, I was expecting a very cliche and overrated place if I'm being totally honest, and I'm really glad Honolulu has surprised me in a positive way.
New York - it's loud, smelly, crowded, expensive, nothing works right, and everyone is a jerk.
I love it.
Could I ask you to elaborate? (It's OK to say “no”.)
Everyone I know who's been to New York says that it's smelly, expensive, and rude, but there is a significant amount of people who love New York. Why?
For me it's just that there's so much to do. NYC has the population of a fairly large state crammed down into a space that's only a few hours across, no car required.
Also, IMO the rude New Yorker is more a stereotype than a reality. I've never noticed people there being particularly worse than in other places, it's just that you see more people overall, so you see more rude people, regardless of the actual proportion.
New York has a vitality and energy that I haven't experienced anywhere else. The only place I have been that comes close is Tokyo (granted, I haven't done a ton of traveling), but Tokyo doesn't have the same kind of chaotic lunacy that you'll find in NYC. I think part of it stems from not only the population density, but the diversity. New York has people from everywhere. Every nationality, ethnicity, religion, language, culture - they're all here, piled on top of each other, mingling and cross-polinating every which way. With everybody in such close quarters it can lead to a lot of, um, personality clashes, but it also leads to a lot of beauty and creativity too.
And like @spctrvl said, there are a million things to do here. No matter what you're into, we have it. (Well, except for hunting, I guess.) Food, music, theater, sports, comedy, whatever. We got it.
Another thing it that it's a 24-hour town. I don't think most of the other major world capitals can say that. The subway and buses, for all their faults, run 24 hours a day. So there are always people on the move out there.
And where else can you find yourself getting punched in the face by Alec Baldwin after parking your car?
I was just in NYC last month, that wasn't my experience at all. (Well, except for the crowding. Jeez, there were people everywhere. It was cleaner than San Francisco, the trains mostly came on time, and I only ran into a single jerk the entire time I was there. He even was right to be irritated. (I was walking over the Williamsburg bridge on the cyclist side, having missed the signs. All in all, a lovely city, and everyone and their mother should move there. ;)
Obviously I was exaggerating for comic effect, but re: the trains - if you need to ride them for more than a couple of days you will find that they are in bad shape lately. Both the subway and commuter railroads are extremely overcrowded on the best of days, and the best of days have become quite rare. Major meltdowns are now a weekly occurrence. It's easy to avoid the worst of it if you're a tourist who is only traveling in Manhattan. It's a much different and more aggravating experience if you're a commuting to work from Brooklyn or Queens or New Jersey every day.
Please don't. We're all filled up. No more room!
It's a village, there's literally no shops in a range of a few kilometers, no public transportation, poor roads, shitty mobile coverage in the whole area, Internet drops off seemingly once a month for a day at a time, and the people around here are... backwards. It might be better if I was interested in taking long walks in the woods - I'm not - or if I was religious, or if I liked talking about football and chainsaws, or if I was not trans, but as it stands none of those things apply and I hate it.
Do you have a plan? Make a plan, push to get out. No one will change this situation for you.
Easier said than done, considering I only stopped being suicidal last year. Right now I'm at stage one, pick uni back up where I left. Stages two through five - get a degree, get a job, ???, profit - are still very much up in the air.
Now, now, let's not be negative. I'm sure there's plenty of people that could make it worse.
LOL, good on you. Your making the changes, that's the main thing. Be in it for the long haul and stay focused. And yes, people can make it worse for you. But I think you've got this!
I’m frustrated by the ridiculously high cost of living. I don’t know how much longer I can put up with it. It clouds almost every positive thing about living in Los Angeles.
Plus it rains in LA. For days. That wasn't on the brochure (nor in any Hollywood movie, except maybe that Steve Martin one about the weatherman, but that was just for comedic effect).
Don't they often say the weather in Seattle is like London (Londoner here). While there's no equivalent of the Puget Sound, it is a city of parks. Some are massive too. One of the positive relics of the Victorian age of philanthropy; as London boomed the landowners made sure there were parks for all the cock-a-nay chimney sweeps to dance around with animated penguins.
That's similar in the UK and I think most cities in the "west" (or at least in the Anglo-Saxon capitalist region). When a system can't look after its own, let alone help internationally, you have to question it. Mental health and drugs are hugely undermining to all efforts but unfortunately corruption and gangs will always exist in a world where money = status. Anyway what do I know. Sorry about all the expats. Are they mainly designers and IT workers?
Hello fellow Seattlite. What area you live in?
West Seattle!
Here at the end of the Oregon Trail, the rain goes around us. It's very nice. A bit windy, but mostly sunny.
Oakland, CA. It's got a checkered past, but I love it for all that. It's now the fifth most expensive city in the nation purely off of the overflow of money from San Francisco, the Brooklyn to SF's Manhattan, and a cool place to live on account of (for now) plenty of artists and creatives to make interesting things happen and tech folk with lots of money to fund them. (Ask me about the secret society I was part of for a year!)
It's a great city with interesting history and people, lots of things to see and do, right at the center of the Bay Area so there's an insane amount to do within an hour's travel. Just about any sort of cuisine you might desire, and a huge variety of foods available, with fresh ingredients year round from the Central Valley and Mexico. There's multiple thriving music scenes, museums a-plenty, great weather year-round and so on and so on.
It's also too expensive by far. A single room in Oakland is $800-$1500 a month depending how conveniently located. Those housing costs ripple through everything. If you eat out, a meal and a beverage for one can easily top $20. A therapist will be $125-$150/hour. A massage will be $90 or more. If you want to be even a little financially secure in this area you need a salary of $80k or more, and that's on the low end. Minimum wage is at $15/hour, and working a single full time job is not enough to provide you a living wage in this town. The median house price is 10x the median yearly household income, so home ownership is 100% outside the realm of possibility for just about anyone who isn't in tech or finance.
People are leaving to find a cheaper life elsewhere. The people who can't afford to go far are getting pushed down into the poorest cities that are the furthest out before the suburbs start, and the people who can afford to really move are going just about anywhere where they can actually buy a house and have some peace of mind. If Millennials are anxious because of continual economic uncertainty, this is the epicenter of that anxiety. We know how much Big Tech can overturn lives without even really meaning to, and can see the impacts of economic inequality all around us.
For all that, I'm going to stick it out as long as I can. I've lived here my whole life, my parents and friends are here, and while i can envision living elsewhere, this is MY HOME, dammit.
Feel free to elaborate.
I won't go into names or identifying terminology, but there was a wealthy individual who wanted to get into developing interesting experiences. There was a hidden library in a down-market neighborhood of the city, regular events to celebrate our experience at various art spaces that weren't open to the public, lots of great feelings of being special and belonging and working for something strange and good.
The problem with the funder was (as is so often the case with wealthy individuals) that he didn't actually think about the financial sustainability of it until far too late. We paid dues to the society to help fund the revels, but the funder chased his vision into expensive territory and then when he realized how much it was costing he very abruptly cut funding for everything, even the sustainable bits.
It fell apart. We was spending tens of thousands a month on locations and designers and writers, and that all went away. The people gathered together to try to organize a successor organization, but (as is too often the case with leaderless groups) fell into bickering about the details. What had once been hundreds of people across a fascinating spectrum of society fell into disarray, and 90% of the people left. The smallest, most organized side groups still exist, but mostly it's gone.
I do still have my coin and sash, and patches and pins from the experiences that happened before it fell apart. It's a fond memory. It also reinforced some useful lessons about organizational hubris, the danger of letting the founder do whatever they want (even with their own money), and how poorly most people handle the institutional structures underpinning their lives falling apart.
That doesn't seem all that bad to me and I live in an area with fairly cheap housing costs. My last two apartments were both one bedroom and were about $1000 and $900.
I was talking about renting a single room in someone else's house. For me, the difference in experience between having a house to myself and renting a room is massive. If we're going to compare apples to apples, a one bedroom apartment is around $2600/mo for 630 sq. ft. or $3200 for 800 sq. ft.
Oh yikes, never mind then!
Al Ruwais, UAE, is pretty boring as they come. 250 kilometers from Abu Dhabi, and it’s not exactly a bustling metropolis. Mostly quiet, except for the occasional National Day parade or festival. Summer cooks you alive, but in the winter months, it can be pretty fun to bike around. Sometimes it even rains!
London. I'm ambivalent. I love the life, the vibrancy, the sheer volume of cultures and people and things to do and see (and, perhaps most importantly to me, to eat!). I've lived here longer than I ever stayed anywhere else, and as a city dweller at heart I honestly can't imagine living somewhere smaller than a few million people.
I also see the things I love being eroded. The sheer expense of living here is causing things to homogenise. The classic cycle of gentrification is displacing the very artists and creatives who made an area interesting in the first place - yet I wonder if I'm a hypocrite for thinking this, as those people had a hand in the cycle just as much as the next wave do. The UK's extreme skew towards a single city makes it far harder to balance this.
On top of that, we have Brexit. Enormous uncertainty for the future of the country, and a very significant chance that we'll all end up poorer as a result (best case, that at least reduces prices here a bit; realistically, it drives more people out instead). And the attitudes that led to the leave vote haven't gone away - the government treats immigrants like criminals, and puts up barriers that are expensive and inconvenient for the wealthy, and often totally insurmountable for those who aren't.
Many people I care about have already left. Part of me wants to do the same. Part of me looks at almost everywhere else in the world an sees the same problems. The larger part, for now, wants to stay.
I really love London for the same reasons you do, but my god what a clusterfuck brexit is. I've yet to meet anyone who voted for, or is happy with brexit. Seems like your government doesn't have anything resembling a plan either.
I came to the UK in 2011. Stayed for a month, a bit in London, a bit in Wales, with my relatives in both (I have two uncles who immigrated years ago). It was lovely, except a couple deaths in the family (my younger uncle's father in law and the older one's mother in law died, with about two weeks between them) and the London Riots (they started the day after I left London for Wrecsam because my younger uncle and his wife left for Turkey for the funeral). We were in a bad shape financially back then, today we're a bit better, but still, we repeatedly failed to obtain a visa for my brother in the past three years or so. When we talk about that with my cousins born and raised there, they say that it's easier to come in as a clandestine immigrant (bar the risks on the way) and stay there illegally than to actually obtain a tourist visa, even with a family member as the sponsor (both of my uncles are successful, one has a couple groceries shops in Wrecsam, the other works at a hospital, my cousins do some sorts of law-related thing, all have their own homes where they can host my brother). It's become really annoying and frustrating by now, UK visa policy is BS.
I couldn't see much around London, but it was rather nice. But Wales was lovely! I saw Wrecsam, Barmouth, Rhyl, LLangollen, Overton, maybe a couple other places. Also Chester, but not sure if it's Wales or England. It was like a kingdom of silence and peace and green. really nice place to stay for a couple weeks and reset. I do like the bustling city more than the lush green countryside, though. I regret not seeing Edinburgh and some other places from Scotland, they all look lovely.
Istanbul, Turkey. I love it and I hate it. I'll probably love it more when I will have left. It's going to take a few years though, I have to finish my master's degree and it will take a few years, two or three.
The Bosphorus is beautiful. My home is a large one with a garden, we are a few hundred meters away from the Bosphorus and between it and us there is a little forest. The view the fresh breeze is always nice. We also not that far away from the city center, quite close to Metro Station and within walking distance off a couple lovely districts. It's rather peaceful here. So graphically speaking it's a very nice place to be.
About the politics and a part of the people make it unbearable. The political instability, the interference of corrupt politicians into daily life, and the increasing rudeness of the people which I think is because of rapid immigration from the poorer parts of the country has changed everything in the last couple of decades. Nepotism and Injustice manifest itself everywhere and the increasing economic problems make it harder to focus on personal fulfillment rather than survival. The government having an attitude with regards to every part of life renders many things annoying. E.g. the price of a 50cc bottle of beer has increased ten fold in the passing 20 years, merely because of lots of stupid unnecessary tax. The fall of lira has rendered many other things impossible to buy. The entire fucking country is rotting. People leave in hundreds of thousands (more than 200k has left during 2017 alone), and I'll be one soon because freedom of speech and academia are totally undermined here. Frankly if I had the money I would have left earlier.
I live in Asheville, NC. I love it, great restaurants and beer everywhere, and if you want to go outside and do stuff there's tons of hiking and mountain biking everywhere. I wish there were more jobs that weren't waiting tables though, that part sucks a bit.
I'll add we've experienced a lot of change in a relatively short time, and very long term residents struggle to adapt.
I've also come to think of it as a well-feathered cage. It's sleepy and slow, very relaxed. Lots of beauty and delights. It lulls my creative centers and ambition.
Denver, CO. It's home (grew up here, moved away for college and then came right back), it's beautiful (it just seems miserable to wake up and not get a mountain panorama in view every day), there's lots to do, and it's thriving and booming, which is always nice...
...but the flipside of that is the meteoric rise in cost of living (my housing costs have more than doubled over the past eight years), the crowding (our infrastructure was inadequate for our existing population, never mind adding nearly a million people on top of it, and TABOR (a state constitutional amendment we've had since the early 90s that requires any and every tax increase to be put to public vote, and with a ratchet-down in government budgets that used to require it shrink every year) meaning that it's near-impossible for the state to get the funding to improve said infrastructure), the genericizing gentrification that has taken a place that has always struggled to make its own identity due to a history of boom-and-bust cycles and made it even more of a 'generic Millenial' city, for lack of a better way to put it.
If it wasn't for the issue of going anywhere with jobs is just as/more expensive than here, while anywhere cheaper has a crap job situation and/or the pay cut would mean we would be no better off, my SO and I would be looking to leave. But, all in all, I still love the area and would rather stay here if at all possible.
I live in good ol' Fargo ND, but I'm really tired of it. There isn't much to do around here and it's pretty easy to let your life fall into a monotonous rut if you're not careful. I would really like to move to a bigger city and feel it out for a while.
Eau Claire, Wisconsin - I'm mixed on it. On one hand I want to hate it, but I'm also going to college here and I find that to be a miserable experience that I'm not sure would be any better anywhere else. It's beautiful and the people are still relatively nice, but I can't take being in a place with 60k other people around me. I don't really reap any of the benefits that come from that (Lord knows I don't go outside for fun), so it's an awful and stressful exchange. It's not a bad place if you like Wisconsin in general but want a more hipstery college thing with retro arcades, coffee shops, and such.
During the surprisingly long breaks, I live with my parents in my hometown that is too small to mention but it has about 1500 people and is in northern Wisconsin. It's significantly more influenced by the churches and it's overall a more bigoted place, but if I don't think too much about the combined problem of employment and transitioning, it's nearly perfect for me. Even with those things, it might be my favorite place I've been. It doesn't matter much when people are worse if you have much more opportunity to not see anyone and just appreciate existing in the world. This isn't useful for anyone else, I just really love home and I realized a long time ago that even if I don't end up there, it's permanently part of who I am.
Oh wow. I thought the creators of The Good Place made up Jacksonville, FL. It's interesting to discover it's a real place. Have you seen the show? What do you think about the portrayal of the characters from Jacksonville?
Living in Zürich right now for school. Don’t like the city, but it sure as hell beats the two hours commute (each way) I had before…. Room I’m renting’s very cheap for the city, but the flat is tiny (no living room, tiny kitchen and bathroom).
It’s alright, all in all.
I know someone working in Zürich and they love it. What about it do you not like?
Too busy for my taste. I didn’t exactly grow up in an extremely rural place, but going from “village next to a town of 30k” to “busy international city” is a decent culture shock regardless. I get by, and it sure is convenient at times (e.g. the fact that many stores close closer to midnight than 7PM) but I just can’t get myself to like the concrete jungle. I miss the mountain view, too.
Hello from Iowa! I was just up in Madison to pick up a cab from Guitar Center.
I live in Sheffield, England. I love it, and am proud of where I am from.
The good
The bad
I've heard great things about the steel there because of Doctor Who! ;)
Paradise Island, Bahamas. Climate-wise it's appropriately named. Most days, year-round it is in the range of 30-35 degrees Celsius, sunny, with a pleasant ocean breeze. It's generally pretty quiet. The people you meet are a mix of locals and tourists. As I'm white, the locals generally assume I'm a tourist, which has its ups and downs. There's not much to do, though, outside of a few tourist-oriented activities. I work fairly long hours (at a minimum 50/week) and, generally speaking, don't like going out, so it suits me fine, as it's an instant beach vacation the moment I leave the office.
Cincinnati, OH. It's okay. It's clean, and a good chunk of it is walkable. The museums and parks are nice, but beyond that there's not much to do unless you're a sports fan or into bars. The public transportation is spectacularly bad/unreliable. People are a little weird about religion (everyone assumes everyone is a Christian) and you run into some subtle bigotry that, for someone like me who grew up in NYC, can be pretty jarring. Cost of living is low, and there's no shortage of decent apartments if you're a renter.
I'm in the Albany NY area. My main issue with it is that it doesn't really have much personality. No really noteworthy local foods, culture, or places in go in my opinion (steamed ham memes aside lol). It's a city that's built mostly to support New York City but itself and the rest of the state are secondary. Everything Albany has seems to be half-assed or eclipsed by what NYC offers. There are a few local breweries that are great though and it's a quick drive to my home state of Vermont as well as the Adirondacks for some nice outdoor activities.
I live in Charlotte, NC (not a native Charlottean, though). I really enjoy living here. With the light rail expansion completed, it's really easy to get downtown, and there is a good tech scene that is starting to expand out of Ballantyne. It's nothing compared to the Triangle, but I'm sure it'll continue to grow. We're hosting the RNC in 2020, and although I'm anything but a conservative, it's not like the location of the RNC will influence the election, and it'll be great for tourism, so I have no opposition to it.
Although I love the city, and the state as a whole is pretty good (as long as you're not black, gay, or trans outside Charlotte or the Triangle), I hate our legislature with a passion. The sheer incompetence, gerrymandering, and spiteful legislation from the NCGOP has made me lose all respect for them. It certainly doesn't help that tons of out-of-state money has poured into our local races, pushing out candidates who worked across the aisle and weren't hateful bigots. I expect I'll be moving out of state after I graduate to chase jobs, but Charlotte is a place I wouldn't mind living in, especially if CATS gets funding to build more light rail lines. (Our public transit leaves a lot to desire at the moment, but if they can build the silver & red lines, that'll really help a lot of peoples' commutes. The real pipe dream would be trains to Carrowinds and CLT straight from downtown, though I doubt that'll happen for awhile.)