Moving overseas
Sunday, 9 November 2003 17:01![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pneStella was saying that she wouldn't mind moving to another country but that if I intended to do so, I should make up my mind fairly soon and not just consider it as a possibility.
She said she wouldn't mind at all moving to Great Britain or Switzerland, but would follow me anywhere I wanted to go. (Except it shouldn't be dangerous due to wild/dangerous/poisonous animals, which rules out Australia for her, natural catastrophes such as hurricanes or flooding or earthquakes, or similar things—hence "Great Britain" rather than "United Kingdom", since she thinks people in Northern Ireland get shot down on the streets every day.)
Any suggestions? Personally, GB sounds interesting right now, but I'm not sure which corner of it. Probably not Leicester, where I have family but where I don't particularly fancy the local accent (I don't know whether I'd like my children speaking to me like that). Maybe somewhere generally south-ish, such as Wiltshire or Kent?
(Vancouver also sounds decent. Especially since I heard that you're not allowed to smoke in restaurants there.)
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no subject
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 08:14 (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 08:48 (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 09:28 (UTC);)no subject
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 08:32 (UTC)No seriously. You have to decide that for yourself, Philip.
US
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 08:49 (UTC)Isn't New England cold? I have this image of snow-covered Vermont roads.
Re: US
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 09:57 (UTC)Re: US
Date: Monday, 10 November 2003 08:03 (UTC)New Jersey's not bad, really -- it's just that most of us spend a lot of time driving through New Jersey, rather than visiting the state. So New Jersey is a bit of a laughingstock for a lot of people. The New Jersey Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway are not among New Jersey's best attractions.
Good luck deciding where you'd like to live!
Re: US
Date: Thursday, 13 November 2003 08:33 (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 09:09 (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 14:12 (UTC)Australia isn't dangerous! In fact some parts have a much better quality of life than you'll find anywhere else in the world. I think the whole urban myth thing gets blown up out of proportion. You'll get poisonous spiders and snakes just about anywhere in the world Vancouver and the USA included. And we don't really have kangaroos jumping down the main street - thats just tourist propaganda to get the Americans to visit.
Australia
Date: Sunday, 9 November 2003 22:46 (UTC)She also won't go bathing in places that "have sharks" (even if they occur infrequently, not at that particular spot, or only far out and not close to land).
*shrug* misconceptions are difficult to clear out, especially when you can't easily go there and say, "See? No (sharks|spiders|whatever) here!"
Re: Australia
Date: Monday, 10 November 2003 08:05 (UTC)Yay! Come to GB :)
Date: Monday, 10 November 2003 01:27 (UTC)Norwich, where I grew up is also a very pretty city, although not quite as anchient seeming as Oxford. It's got a couple of nice theatres but not much in terms of a local music scene. I also don't really know what it's like socially for adults as once I went to Oxford, I didn't really keep in touch with people out there. One of the best things about Norwich though, is it's proximity to the Norfolk coastline, which is beautiful. If you get a car (and living in Norwich, a car is highly recommended) then you can spend ages exploring pretty little villages on the coast and the broads - that's why my parents moved there in the first place.
The other place I've lived is London, which I didn't enjoy at all. This was partly because I found it difficult to meet people - most of the people I was working with were 20 years older than me and many were commuting from outside London). I also felt that it was too big and too busy. If you like big cities (like New York perhaps) then I'm told London rocks, but they're just not my thing.
Finally (this has turned into a bit of an essay!), my experience is that the accent of the parents has a much stronger impact than the local accent on childrens speech - I grew up in Norfolk the child of 2 Londoners and I have only very slight traces of the Norfolk accent.
Oxford
Date: Monday, 10 November 2003 01:50 (UTC)Oxford is lovely - full of beautiful buildings and nice green spaces within the city limits
That sounds good -- green spaces within the city limits are one of the things Stella finds very attractive about Hamburg.
Oxford is not kind to car drivers, but it likes cyclists
That's good, too. I have a license but no car; Stella doesn't have a license and is not planning on getting one. She prefers to get around by public transport or bicycle; I usually use public transport (which is pretty good in Hamburg).
Sounds pretty good to me so far.
Any idea what the job market is like for IT people in Oxford?
Re: Oxford
Date: Monday, 10 November 2003 06:30 (UTC)Public transport in Oxford is pretty good for the UK - the only slight hitch being that there are very few buses going all the way from North Oxford to South or East Oxford so if you want to do that you have to change in the city centre. Still, the buses are frequent and cheap. There's also lots of cycle lanes and parts of the city are bus & bike only so cycling is a great option most of the time. You can cycle across the city in about 25 mins I would say.
Re: Yay! Come to GB :)
Date: Monday, 10 November 2003 08:07 (UTC)I agree with