Living in "Small Town", USA !?

[lovepath 11]

I myself was once an Immigrant, before becoming a US Citizen. When I was in the "old country" my view of "America" was what you see in Hollywood movies...New York, New York...Los Angelos...Las Vegas...Miami...with all the romance and adventure. In reality though, "America" is not just New York City or LA. Most of America consists of small simple little towns and villages, most of which do not have an International population or "foreingers". Due to my work, I am currently living in a very small rural town, a village actually, very far away from the "romance" of NYC or LA. I am not sure how my fiancee, who will soon come to live with me in this little village, will feel coming from a big city herself.

Do you live in a small rural town with no International population? How did your loved one adjust to this?

[Bart&Sagi 1]

as long you choose to love one another, she will cope up.

[TBoneTX 45,291]

If you're within range of a bigger city -- one with stores for which you could make a list of many things and go shopping -- it will take some of the shock away.

[sara..... 371]

I dont have a s/o that immigrated here but my brother in-law immigrated from Egypt to our small town (600 people) last year........

he is just now feeling good about it he first went into culture shock, no taxi, no took tooks, no bus system just his wife to drive him where he wanted to go and he could not argue the price down on anything... he it didnt take him long to learned to love garage sales ......after he got his license and a car it got better. He also thought that america was like the movies...and at first was very upset that its just well boring is what he called it lol

sara

[웃 910]

Check out the video in my signature...the one on the right

[Messybrownhair 251]

I have lived in both Manila and Shanghai, both HUGE cities.. And then I move to a very small town in PA with no mall nearby (just a Wal-Mart) and to be honest, it was difficult and boring at first, but I have grown to love and appreciate it. I think your loved one will be okay, just give them ample time to adjust.

[LlamaInvasion 76]

I moved from a city (while Oslo isn't huge or anything, it's very, very compact, and gives has a definite big city feel to it), to what's barely more than three houses on a street in northwestern PA. It's an insult to call this place a town.

To be quite frank, I didn't adjust. I'm not completely miserable as long as I have my husband, but we're planning on moving the heck outta there as soon as life allows us to! XD

[Golden Gate 530]

I can't speak for my future spouse - although I think he is inclined to live a quiet, more peaceful life - but I, after living in Ann Arbor, New York, Boston, San Francisco, London and other places with much more cultural diversity and stimulation, have found myself in a one-street town in the south, and although I have plans to move at some point because I basically feel like I am in the middle of nowhere, I did find that getting a community of friends was very important. We get together at various places (have bbqs, go out for birthdays, etc) - and actually, surprisingly, there is quite a mix of people here - Colombians, Italians, Pakistanis, Mexicans, Spanish (about a couple families of each lol). So, if you can find some other transplants, I think that could be helpful to feel a sense of community.

Edited July 24, 2011 by Golden Gate

[Marilyn. 340]

I moved from a small little town of around 10,000 people to the Los Angeles area... it was a little bit of adjustment at first but I love the variety of foods and things to see and do here that I didn't have back where I lived in Canada...

[fozzie 41]

Just be open to the possibility that she might find it hard to transition. It might be tough to begin with but generally people will adapt over time. However some people are just city folk and will always crave the life and amenities that only a big city can offer. If she finds it too hard in small town USA then maybe you should consider moving to a nearby city or large town....afterall she is moving to another country.

[Messybrownhair 251]

I moved from a city (while Oslo isn't huge or anything, it's very, very compact, and gives has a definite big city feel to it), to what's barely more than three houses on a street in northwestern PA. It's an insult to call this place a town.

To be quite frank, I didn't adjust. I'm not completely miserable as long as I have my husband, but we're planning on moving the heck outta there as soon as life allows us to! XD

Huh.. I just noticed you mentioned you were from Oslo.. I'm sorry for what happened in Norway.. I hope that your family and friends are safe! God bless!

[kev_n_jena 89]

I'm the US citizen and grew up in a rural area. We only had one close neighbor. The town was 1 mile away and population 250. I moved to a small city of about 100,000 for a few years but had to get back to rural living. My wife and I live in a very very secluded place with no neighbors visible from our 10 acres on a dead end road in the woods.

Jena grew up in Phils in a small town and moved to a city for a few years also. When she came to the US 4 years ago I thought it might be hard for her but she really adapted well. I couldn't believe how fast she got comfortable here. We raise chickens and sell eggs to her Filipno coworkers. We have lots of wildlife here too including deer, turkeys, rabbits, groundhogs, racoons, opossum, coyotes etc. Rural life can be difficult in the winter but it's worth the effort for us.

[LlamaInvasion 76]

Huh.. I just noticed you mentioned you were from Oslo.. I'm sorry for what happened in Norway.. I hope that your family and friends are safe! God bless!

Thank you, that's very kind of you. We're in Oslo right now (didn't turn out to be quite the vacation my husband had imagined...), but everyone I know are safe and sound, thank God. It's really terrible, though.

I moved from a small little town of around 10,000 people to the Los Angeles area... it was a little bit of adjustment at first but I love the variety of foods and things to see and do here that I didn't have back where I lived in Canada...

However some people are just city folk and will always crave the life and amenities that only a big city can offer.

This is why I love cities and want to move! XD I love the various things to do, and to see, and the conveniences of it. Not to mention, it's hard to find things to starve off my homesickness in this tiny town. In a city I can get real good bread (not the sliced, processed ####### at Wal-Mart), I can order food from pretty much any corner of the world (whereas my town doesn't have any place to order from but Dominos), or I can find specialty stores with Scandinavian food items instead of having to order them online and pay for shipping.

[fozzie 41]

Thank you, that's very kind of you. We're in Oslo right now (didn't turn out to be quite the vacation my husband had imagined...), but everyone I know are safe and sound, thank God. It's really terrible, though.

This is why I love cities and want to move! XD I love the various things to do, and to see, and the conveniences of it. Not to mention, it's hard to find things to starve off my homesickness in this tiny town. In a city I can get real good bread (not the sliced, processed ####### at Wal-Mart), I can order food from pretty much any corner of the world (whereas my town doesn't have any place to order from but Dominos), or I can find specialty stores with Scandinavian food items instead of having to order them online and pay for shipping.

Thats why I love NYC. I am a big foodie and there is no where better than a big city for cuisine.

[J&N* 68]

I totally understand what you're saying, I lived in Egypt in a huge and very open city with tons of places and things to do, if you go out at 2 am, you'd still find tons of people everywhere, I took it all for granted and moved to the suburbs of FL 9 months ago to be with my husband, the very first months were complete cultural shock to me, but I didn't hate it cause it was still new and I had my parents and 2 sisters for a whole month and then I went to Hawaii for the honeymoon, but starting from January really, I got severely depressed, I'd cry all the time, couldn't make even one friend, ate food I hated, missed my family so bad, had no car and no job, I was a prisoner in my apartment, we went house hunting and it was so bad I got even more depressed, we HAD to move to a bigger city, it was really unhealthy for me to live in the suburbs, and my husband found a better job and we moved to Chicago (and had all our family who hate cities trash out Chicago for us) and I feel a lot better here, still homesick, but not like I was in Florida. There's a Middle eastern restaurant around the corner, lake down the street, parks, awesome movie theaters, public transit and life! I've been here 1 month and I'm meeting tons of friends and tons of Arabs!

Some people cope very well with changes, and this is a drastic change, and with others they don't take it aswell, but she isn't doing it on purpose, if your fiancee goes through the same, be understanding and try to bring Morocco to her as much as possible, I enjoy watching Arabic movies, listening to Arabic music, eating an Arabic meal, or just speaking Arabic to my dog just cause I need to!

I can't live in Egypt again for the time being, but if one day God grants me the opportunity and finances to do it, I'd go back home in a heartbeat. It's home!

I hope I helped at all, I just wanted to open up and tell you I've been through exactly that.