32 réponses à ce sujet

[bmwcrazy]

Where ever you can find a decent job.

[NekkidNones]

I'm Canadian, and would NOT recommend moving to Ontario at least, or Canada in general.  If the housing prices in NZ correct out of their bubble(IMO), I'll seriously be thinking about jumping ship.

[Kantr]

Oh, I don't know. I heard him (the British Prime Minister) talking on the news once, and he seemed very well informed, and fairly insightful. It was radio, too, so no pictures to alter my absorbing of information - pure audio for all my listening needs.

Yes he seems that way but his track-record. Not so good.

[Kantr]

I'm Canadian, and would NOT recommend moving to Ontario at least, or Canada in general.  If the housing prices in NZ correct out of their bubble(IMO), I'll seriously be thinking about jumping ship.

It's mainly homes in the center of the major cities auckland & wellington. You should be able to pick up a reasonably big home for quite cheap in the further out suburbs.

 

Public transport is quite good in Auckland for the most part.

[ObserverStatus]

So which other USA states are good? Are Kentucky, Colorado, Washington, Virginia and Pennsylvania any good?

No, I live in Washington and it's dreadful, just dreadful! Highest liquor tax in the union. It's like $60 for a handle of Wild Turkey 101. The horror!

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

No, I live in Washington and it's dreadful, just dreadful! Highest liquor tax in the union. It's like $60 for a handle of Wild Turkey 101. The horror!

 

Considering that I'm not into alcohols, it's not a big deal!

[Aimi]

So which other USA states are good? Are Kentucky, Colorado, Washington, Virginia and Pennsylvania any good?

Virginia's kinda like two states in one.

In the northern part of the state, there's the Washington, DC metro area. It's got access to pretty much all the cool stuff you get in a major city - entertainment, concerts, sports teams, decent nightlife, an excellent museum network (the Smithsonian institutions), a hub airport with access to all kinds of places. Great celebrations for major holidays, especially the American independence day. There's an extremely wide variety of food in the area, due in part to the large immigrant population and in part to the fact that there's a lot of money in the area, so the variety follows the cash. (There is even decent döner in the Arlington part of NoVA, which was a little shocking.) Lots of universities in the area with a fair amount of prestige, and associated activities/accessibility.

Plus, NoVA isn't too far away from the actual countryside, if you want space and fresh air. The Appalachians and Blue Ridge Mountains are within a few hours' driving distance. Virginia is also one of the American states that seems to take history seriously; it's dotted with battlefields from the American Civil War, most of which are maintained by the national park service, and several colonial sites filled with reenactors are also kept running, like the town of Williamsburg on the southeastern coast, and the estates of revolutionary American statesmen like Jefferson and Washington. Frankly, as someone who is sick to death of cathedrals and fortresses, the American historical sites are pretty refreshing. (There is a cathedral in Washington, but it's just not the same.)

But then there's the downside. Cost-of-living in NoVA is pretty ridiculous, and almost all of that is down to housing prices. Fairfax, Loudoun, and Arlington Counties - the core of northern Virginia - are some of the richest parts of the country; open space commands a premium, and even renting a small place can run you several hundred to a thousand American dollars a month. It gets better as you get further away from the city, but then traffic issues start to creep up: along with New York, Boston, and Los Angeles, the DC area is notorious for having some of the most nightmarish traffic in the country. The major transportation arteries during rush hour - Route 50, I-66, I-95, and I-495 ("the Beltway") - basically turn into parking lots, and the alternative side routes aren't much better. The area is serviced by some bus lines and a subway system, but their coverage is spotty and the Americans have some bizarre jurisdictional squabbles that prevent them from being expanded rapidly. Let me put it this way: living around Frankfurt and Munich did not prepare me for Washington traffic.

Outside of NoVA, there's what most people sarcastically refer to as "RoVA", or "Rest of Virginia". (Also sometimes called "real Virginia" by the parochial reactionary set.) RoVA doesn't have the access to DC nightlife or entertainment, but it also doesn't have the ridiculous NoVA cost of living. There's another decently sized metro area, the Richmond-Norfolk-Newport News part of the state. It's smaller than DC, way more 'military' (there are a lot of American naval units stationed at Norfolk), and significantly poorer, but it also has a lot of the urban amenities you wouldn't find elsewhere in Virginia, along with access to the state's only real beach, Virginia Beach (it's okay, nothing as good as Florida, much less Cali).

The rest is pretty much small towns and farmland. The state gets more mountainous as you go further west, and in the Appalachians there's excellent hiking (and natural sights, like Skyline Drive and the caverns at Luray). There are skiing areas in the Appalachians in Virginia and West Virginia, but honestly they're a little pathetic if you're used to the Alps. (The western US has much better skiing, but from what I understand it's also more expensive.) There are more Civil War and colonial sites, too.

As far as the weather goes, most of Virginia gets all four seasons, although the southern part of the state is a bit less likely to see snow. Summers can be pretty hot and humid; worse than anything from Germany (my standard of comparison), but not nearly as oppressive as, say, Louisiana or Mississippi. There are rainy temperate springs, cool blustery autumns, and winters which usually have snow, and at the very least frost.

I live in the DC area right now, and I fortunately am in a graduate program where my GTA money can cover the cost of living here. With that out of the way, most of the other downsides really aren't too bad. But if you're looking for someplace on a comparative budget, northern Virginia would be a lot more difficult without that much of an associated advantage.

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I haven't lived in Pennsylvania, but I visit reasonably often because of friends and archives and gas stipends. From what I understand, it's often described as 'Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in between them'. The western end of the state is dominated by the Pitt metro area, which is an okay city from what I understand (although my American friends seem to make a lot of jokes about 'yinzers', which I guess are the people that live there?). It's not DC, and it usually gets harsher and more snowy winters, but there's enough to see and do there.

Philadelphia and its metro area takes up most of the eastern end of Pennsylvania, and while people from Philly seem to get an even worse rap than the Pittsburgh crowd, my personal experience in the area hasn't been bad. I never lived there, but it reminds me a lot of NoVA, but with a slightly less diverse population and a slightly lower cost of living. It's also pretty close to New York City, which is, well, New York City. (By comparison, Pittsburgh is close-ish to...um...Cleveland?)

In the interior of the state, between those two cities, there are a few small towns and minor cities (Harrisburg, Williamsport, etc.) but the general situation is relatively poor and rural. Every several miles down one of the major highways you'll get an exit with a passel of restaurants, some shops, maybe a few of the bigger American stores, homes, and not a whole lot 'else'.