ian said:

:O

ian said:

ahhh...wouldn't that mean...nevermind



oh yeah... Australia is a great place to live... only downside is it's quite a way from europe

I have lived 4 years in Antwerp, 4 years in Munich, Germany, and 2 years in the US (near Boston, MA). Now I live in Amsterdam, the place where I was born!

The only thing I want is back to Munich! Fuck Belgium, people are weird there. The US is a strange place. It must be one of the most beautiful part of the world (believe me, I've seen much of it), but I was glad to leave missing the 'gezelligheid' (an old european expression which is hard to translate in English). I would never want to go back and live in the US, well maybe California if I really have to!
Holland is a mess...people from outside think this the greatest place on earth, but it is really a mess. 17 million people living in a country maybe a little bigger than Massachusetts, traffic jams everywhere, anytime. I will be leaving again, back to Munich, where there is space, mountains and a better climate...

I'll shut up now...

Wow, see, I love these types of threads (thank you LaVisHh!!!)

Inside experience is best!

Didn't someone say: France is great, except 4 the french?

Abeirman, what is weird about the people in Belgium (weird is great of course, but still)?

LaVisHh, i have no idea where u will like it best, but i do envy you for taking the jump (well, mayb one day...), and i'd say Go 4 It, i'm sure it's something u won't regret in the end.

SpcMs said:

My first move was 8,000 miles away! First move away from my parents home.

I get the feeling that this would be a good move. I've got time to make a choice, and perhaps paying a visit or two (if I can find good airfare) wouldn't hurt.

ian said:

When I lived in spain there was an american living there that wasn't with the military and he paid to uncle sam because he kept his citizenship... he had not lived in the states for 15 years and still paid taxes!
[This message was edited Thu Feb 20 8:58:03 PST 2003 by Bella]

ian said:

In my case it took a supervisor to explain it to about 5 agents who kept looking at me like I'm from Mars. Especially embarrassing for me was that the whole discussion was led in front of about 50 Cubans pledging for asylum. I felt sorry I just couldnt pass it on to one of them.

The final interview however was something I'll never forget. Kafka and Monthy Python at its best! The answers to unbelievable bureaucratic questions where typed with one(1!) finger into a fossil of computer by a huge, 400 pounds piece of pure Kaukasian flesh. His uniform was sprankled with dandruffs the size of cornflakes coming not only from his oily hair but also from his skin on his neck and hands. His black fingernails pointed out the most important parts of the papers we had to go through while he kept spitting at me with every word that came along and allowed spitting. After some time I didn't know anymore if I hated more the spitting or the bad breath that told stories of Loads of Food he had to carry over in slow motion walking like captain Hook in heavy sea from the McDonalds in concourse B but sure was a stranger to a toothbrush. All in all he filled about 3/4 of the 2x2meter room we had been in for two hours.

Ahhh, memories...

ajd said:

OMFG...that's the funniest I have read in a LONG time!!! One hell of a visual!

Good lord!

ROFL

LaVisHh said:

I had relatives living in Minnesota--Eden Prarie, to be specific. (They were actually just off Route 5, close to Paisley Park, although I don't think they have any interest in Prince.) They said that Minnesota taxes are high, but they felt as if they got a lot from the state government in return for those tax dollars.

As for the general issue of leaving the United States, I suppose that living in Canada would be nice, but unless I found a new line of work, such a move would be difficult--I think I'd have to do a year of studies at a Canadian law school, as well as jump over some other hurdles, before I could get a Canadian law license.

Even moving to another state could be tricky for me, because my law license is only good in Indiana, and each state has its own bar admission rules about how to deal with people who already hold a law license from another state. (The worst-case scenario is that I'd have to go through a full-blown bar admission process, including a bar exam, just like a new law school graduate. But I really don't feel like preparing for and taking another bar exam--it's not fun at all.)

Lav why do you want to move away?

CarrieLee said:

I don't know if I fit in here. I've got a warped sense of looking at things, and I do not like politics...I stopped voting a long time ago.

That is a very good question, CarrieLee. Perhaps also, there are people who are making me aware there is life outside the US.

abierman said:

Now that is strange: a Dutch person WANTING to go and live in Germany! I was always under the impression that the Dutch don't really like the Germans too much. I know there still is a big rivalry there.

LaVisHh said:

For me it was hard. But I was a little girl (9years) when
had to moove from Spain to Switzerland and as child you have to obey.
(But I was born in Swiss, lived till my 9 years in Spain.)

It is diffrent when you'er adult and or do moove because you
want to moove and you go there where you'll go.

The experience is and was anyways good to make.

I would love it, to moove too. I want do make it and find a home and a place, choiced by my own will to stay. A place where I can feel me as foreinger, because I am a foreinger. And free like that begin a new life in distance with my past and because I want it.

LaVisHh, why not?

ChocolateInvasion said:

Joke.

Sataninas said:

I'm a little afraid, Sataninas...as I have never been outside of the US.

Me for me would like to have the choice to choice to do live and work in: The USA, Africa (westcoast), India or Nepal.

LaVisHh said:

Perhaps you should take vacations in other countries to see if it's really "fitting in" that you need, or maybe you just need to change other things in your life.

The USA is my home, I will never, ever leave. But I would love to travel to other countries for fun.

Good Luck with whatever you decide Lav!

Move to New England, it's like another country according to us!

LaVisHh said:

More details?

Certain questions I could just answer with Yes or No. And believe me, every time this happened his finger the size of Florida flew over the keyboard like a stoned hen picking corn and typed in sentece after sentence sometimes for minutes.

Up to this day I wonder what he has been writing there. Back then I wouldnt wanted to ask because that would have made him talk. shiver...

CarrieLee said:

Thank you, CarrieLee...the visiting thing seems like the best thing for me to do.

And thank you!

ajd said:

This sort of stuff makes for excellent comedy, and live?

I love to hear about people inviting change into their lives.

For me, moving is always a great idea. I've lived in Denver, Boston, Washington, D.C. and L.A. My move to California 2.5 years ago was the best thing I've ever done.

I plan to spend a few years in Europe at some point in my life -- Spain (my ancestral homeland which I've never visited) and/or London.

Go for it, LaV! Contrary to what people may say, u can always come back home.
.

madartista said:

Thanks for the positivity!

Wow LaV! The only experience I have had has been my semester abroad in Mexico. I thoroughly loved it there and was very sad to leave. However, I don't know if it really applies because in the back of my mind I always knew I'd be coming back to the States.

However, I seriously considered applying for a Fulbright Scholarship in Chile after graduation. I don't have any qualms about moving out of the country. Australia sounds awfully nice...

I'm thinking of moving to Vancouver BC. I might also consider somewhere in Iceland or Ireland.

The US sucks. There is very little that I like about it anymore, compared to other first-world countries. But it's home. Not sure I want to leave my family and my beloved Seattle.

Moonbeam said:

At your age, intelligence, and drive...you have no commitments... I would DEFINATELY travel, see the world...you never know where you will end up living.

I've only lived in Holland, but I want to give you some reasons why you want and don't want to live there:

Want:
- It's clean. I've seen a lot of countries during holidays and it always makes me aware of how clean it is here.
- everything you want is here. Holland is a rich country, so luxury is a big here, because we can afford it.
- Nature is beautiful. There are no big woods or something like that, but I find that Holland has a great country-side.
- There are a few things certain: It will rain, you will end up in traffic jam.
- We have candy called 'drop'.
- Soft-drugs are legal.

Don't want:
- There are a few things certain: It will rain, you will end up in traffic jam.
- In summer, people will speak to you in german if you're in a 10 km radius of the beach.
- Especially in cities, dutch people aren't the most friendly persons.
- Most people drive an Opel Astra or Ford Focus

tackam said:

Well at least on this side of the Atlantic you can have as much vegan-friendly Skittles as you like

ChocolateInvasion said:

I agree with you on most of your points except one: I do not think that Holland is clean at all! In fact, I've never seen so much trash and poop anywhere! But everything else you mentioned is true.
Oh wait! Drop?!

minneapolisgenius said:

I really do think it's a clean little country. There isn't too much trash on the streets. I hardly ever see dog-poop.
And not just the visible cleanness, also the less visible ones like not being allowed to smoke in a lot of public places. I really like that.