Curious....

[kittykatwoman 0]

Oh i would love to live in Italy too. i wonder if as a french personn i can easily go live there since we have EU passports.

[CarolineM 0]

I'd be so jealous i'd live in France. I don't speak enough to get a job but I'd pick it up again really quickly I reckon. I used to be fluent -so I'm sure it's like riding a bike...right?

[babybunny 2]

NOPE.. I dont wish to move to pakistan.. I would not do it - no desire to.

[Alex+R 0]

Oh i would love to live in Italy too. i wonder if as a french personn i can easily go live there since we have EU passports.

Yes I am getting my Greek citizenship but it is so difficult! Stop bragging about your EU passport, I'm getting jealous!

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

It wasn't and still isn't an option for us. My son has highschool to finish first.

I loved it there. It felt very much like home. I found it easy to get around - I never felt like I was in a strange place. Indeed there was something soooooooooooo eerily familiar about it.

I loved the mass transit and the freedom from having to own a car. It was so handy to have the grocery store, bakery, post office, pharmacy and all of lifes little essential bits of commerce within walking distance.

He had a job and a house. I could have found work eventually and I could have fixed up his house - I know I could have. And I think with my support he could have found work he would have been more satisfied with.

I've been homesick for Londonderry lately. Much more so than Wes.

I'm so homesick myself and I just can't see it getting any better.

For once, I'd like something NICE to happen so I can say: Hey, at least THAT's going well.

Just once.

I just want to go home.

[dalegg 143]

<sigh> I wish we had moved to Australia.

I'd like to try Australia too, but my wife is not from there. There should be a third choice- the country of somebody else's fiance. Is that cheating?

[MrMrsKnight 0]

Well we did live here in Brazil for 2 years but it's a lot easier for us to be in the US.

1) We don't have a college degree yet (even though we plan on going to college together sometime after this immigration mess is over). No college degree usually means it's hard to get a job that pays well here in Brasil. In the US, we'll both have jobs that will give us enough money to life a comfy life with everything we need.

2) I have a very loving family that would be happy to help us with everything if we decided to live here but we'd have to end up living with them for awhile (just like we did for 2 years) since money would be tight at first. In the US we have our place where we can be alone and start our new married life.

It makes me a little sad for leaving my family but I'll visit often and they'll visit me all the time too. It's something I have to do and I know the doors here will always be open to me/us.

[irishgirl73 0]

It wasn't and still isn't an option for us. My son has highschool to finish first.

I loved it there. It felt very much like home. I found it easy to get around - I never felt like I was in a strange place. Indeed there was something soooooooooooo eerily familiar about it.

I loved the mass transit and the freedom from having to own a car. It was so handy to have the grocery store, bakery, post office, pharmacy and all of lifes little essential bits of commerce within walking distance.

He had a job and a house. I could have found work eventually and I could have fixed up his house - I know I could have. And I think with my support he could have found work he would have been more satisfied with.

I've been homesick for Londonderry lately. Much more so than Wes.

I'm so homesick myself and I just can't see it getting any better.

For once, I'd like something NICE to happen so I can say: Hey, at least THAT's going well.

Just once.

I just want to go home.

I hope something nice happens for you

[rebeccajo 14]

I'm so homesick myself and I just can't see it getting any better.

For once, I'd like something NICE to happen so I can say: Hey, at least THAT's going well.

Just once.

I just want to go home.

I hope something nice happens for you

So do I.

UK being more expensive depends on where you live in the UK and the US

That's spot on.

The cost of housing in Northern Ireland is not NEARLY as high as the mainland - although I have read there has been a sharp upswing in property values in the last year.

I actually thought groceries were cheaper than in the US. If you considered a pound to be a dollar - which it is culturally (not in the true economic sense) - food was cheaper. Utilities were lower as well.

Just the simple fact that one doesn't need to own a car - well, there ya go. Thousands saved annually.

[incanada1234 0]

I wish we had lived in the US instead of Canada when we got married. Now that we're moving to the US next week though, I'm hoping we'll be happy THERE. We're used to living here now so it kinda sucks. Bah. Life is too confusing and stressful sometimes.

[mary&tom 0]

My fiance wanted to move here, and I wanted to move there. However, at this point in time, it's not realistic to consider moving to England. His mum isn't a fan of the long distance relationship and has made it clear that she feels I am taking her baby away, and he doesn't have a large family or support group, whereas I have a very supportive family here who loves both of us. It's also a matter of budget, as the cost of living there is much higher than it is here, so currently it's not an option.

I'd like to think at some point we might move back there, possibly when we start our own little family, as the majority of our friends are there, as are the majority of the bands we like (and as silly as that sounds, music is a big part of our life), but we aren't making any solid plans for it.

I figure that mostly with UK/US relationships it has to do with econmics....once he retires from the military living here in the UK to him is not viable...of course it is but not to the standard he has become used to....

We found it really balances out; once we got past the initial cost increases, we actually enjoy a much higher standard of living than we did in the US!

Would you please explain that part? I am quite worried about the cost of living in the UK.. we will be in Gravesend. I was there for six months and found most things to be so much more expensive than I was used to. The money I got for the sale of my house here in the states (it was morgage free) will barely be a down payment on a house there.

Anyway, I couldn't vote.. my vote would have been "I am moving there because there is no other choice."

Although we have now rented a house in Gravesend, I find myself more often homesick for Brixton where we only had a two room flat! Brixton is amazing.... so multicultural. Tom lived in Brixton for 22 years (in various flats.. not always that tiny one). I know he misses it too. I am glad I got to experience it.

mary

[gwenneh 7]

Would you please explain that part? I am quite worried about the cost of living in the UK.. we will be in Gravesend. I was there for six months and found most things to be so much more expensive than I was used to. The money I got for the sale of my house here in the states (it was morgage free) will barely be a down payment on a house there.

Anyway, I couldn't vote.. my vote would have been "I am moving there because there is no other choice."

Although we have now rented a house in Gravesend, I find myself more often homesick for Brixton where we only had a two room flat! Brixton is amazing.... so multicultural. Tom lived in Brixton for 22 years (in various flats.. not always that tiny one). I know he misses it too. I am glad I got to experience it.

mary

Gladly!

The first thing to do-and this took me a bit, too-is to stop mentally converting everything back to dollars in your head! I was doing this constantly for the first few months and it just does not work that way, no matter what.

My salary converts to roughly equivalent to what I was making in the US. However I was struggling to suppport us both there; here, I can meet our expenses if I have to (hubby's a freelancer, and while it's never been the case, it's something we've had to plan for). Petrol's more expensive, but we use the car less. Taxes out of my check are higher, but we get the NHS and I'm not paying for health insurance. Gym memberships are indisputably cheaper by half. Ditto for mobile phones. It's little things that you may not notice, but believe me you will when you stop doing maths in your head!

Yes, some things are more expensive, particularly around London! We were nervous about coming back because of it, but it really has worked out just fine.

[beccaogingi 0]

Well we have to move to America now after 3 years living in France together because he donesn't speak french good enough to have a good job, so we leave and it really sucks. Even him would love to stay in France and only go to the States sometimes, we both prefer the European lifestyle.

Well we will work hard and move back somedays.

If he is really dedicated to learning French better, he should read lots of French novels, watch movies, talk to you in French. If you move near a big city, like Boston, there may be French social groups that you can join. Take him on trips to Montréal (they have a funny accent there, but still). Good luck.

Like so many others, I can't because of my kids. But I wish we could live there. The weather is nicer and the food is nicer. (Why can't you get decent dairy products in America???!???) We are both close with our families, so it's hard for either one of us to be far away, but it's how it goes. (At least plane flight time isn't so bad, but it's still expensive to go back and forth). We are hoping to have our own child and maybe move there for a little while when it is still young (and mine are older) so it can experience the language and culture and so on.

[mary&tom 0]

Would you please explain that part? I am quite worried about the cost of living in the UK.. we will be in Gravesend. I was there for six months and found most things to be so much more expensive than I was used to. The money I got for the sale of my house here in the states (it was morgage free) will barely be a down payment on a house there.

Anyway, I couldn't vote.. my vote would have been "I am moving there because there is no other choice."

Although we have now rented a house in Gravesend, I find myself more often homesick for Brixton where we only had a two room flat! Brixton is amazing.... so multicultural. Tom lived in Brixton for 22 years (in various flats.. not always that tiny one). I know he misses it too. I am glad I got to experience it.

mary

Gladly!

The first thing to do-and this took me a bit, too-is to stop mentally converting everything back to dollars in your head! I was doing this constantly for the first few months and it just does not work that way, no matter what.

My salary converts to roughly equivalent to what I was making in the US. However I was struggling to suppport us both there; here, I can meet our expenses if I have to (hubby's a freelancer, and while it's never been the case, it's something we've had to plan for). Petrol's more expensive, but we use the car less. Taxes out of my check are higher, but we get the NHS and I'm not paying for health insurance. Gym memberships are indisputably cheaper by half. Ditto for mobile phones. It's little things that you may not notice, but believe me you will when you stop doing maths in your head!

Yes, some things are more expensive, particularly around London! We were nervous about coming back because of it, but it really has worked out just fine.

Thanks. I have to admit I have been guilty of the contant mental converting. Even now while we are apart and he tells me on the phone how much he just spent on something I think "omg that is xx number of dollars!"

I know the NHS will help. I have been without health insurance here for a couple of years and it worries me. If he had come here that was a huge concern for both of us particularly as we are older than most of the members here (or at least I am). Of course we hoped he would get a great job with great benefits but we couldn't be certain.

I do know my cost of living here has been far below average for the USA. I had no morgage. This is an inexpensive part of the midwest. A tank of gas lasts me a month... more actually... I have used two and a half tanks in the three and a half months I have been back! My electric bill has been atrocious but its just as bad there.

.... and I can eat for $2 at taco bell you know... Maybe tom and I should start one there. LOL! It seems to not exist.

I am very happy about the holidays there... I was concerned that once he did start working here we would both be unhappy having less time together. When it comes down to it, we never really know where "the road not taken" would have led."

Only time will tell if we will be able to buy a house there. That is really our biggest material loss right now... giving up a 2000 square foot morgage free home. It was a 'fixer upper" but tom and I are good fixer uppers. The money I got for it is just such a drop in the bucket if applied to a purchase there. I have been told that if I had sold this there (London area) it would have been worth five times what I got here! At least.

The real loss of course is that we will not be part of my grandchildren's lives. They liked "grandpa tom" and he is great with kids. As a couple we would have been much more involved with them than I have been alone. They live an hour away and I don't drive much (I hate it). However they just happen to live in the town where our favorite music venue is ( a huge loss... nothing like it in the UK)... so we would have been going there quite often and probably would eventually have sold the house here and bought something there. We both love Ann Arbor. Everyone loves Ann Arbor! Except for people who are afraid of a little snow... LOL!

I know I will be ok once I get there and we can get back to our lives together. I loved the six months I spent with him there and we do treasure the holiday time he spent here before the USA immigration process beat us up.

mary

[Addie_Goodvibes 0]

<sigh> I wish we had moved to Australia.

Same here! I haved lived in Japan for 4 years not bad either,

We can't complain Hermosa Beach isn't a bad place to live, just bloody expensive