A post-doc on crow behavior comes around once in a blue moon. I went for it even though it meant moving from Idaho to New Jersey. I had the typical western view of what I thought New Jersey would be like (read Port Newark). When I came here, I was very surprised by the beauty of the state, from the highlands to the pine barrens. The post-doc turned into a permanent position so I’m still here.
Love the place, but I could do without the Jersey drivers.
I moved from the Washington DC area of Virginia to go to college at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville. The people are so much nicer down here, and the speed limit is 70 Now I can drive like normal and not have to worry about a ticket.
My family landed in Anchorage Alaska when I was 3 years old, when my dad was in the military. Mom and dad decided then that Alaska is where they wanted to stay. I’ve never wanted to leave.
To me, it is paradise. Mountains, trees, water, animals - all right in my back yard. Endless beauty.
I have moose walking through my yard almost daily. Bald eagles fly by often. I have some forest acreage on the lower slopes of a mountain at the edge of the city, 15-20 minutes from downtown, where I’m putting up a cabin this fall. From there I can walk east for 3 weeks and never cross a road or maybe even see another human.
Some people can’t handle the isolation of living here, and even with ~300,000 people, its a small town. It’s rare that you go to a restaurant or a store and don’t run into half a dozen people that you know.
Other people can’t take the climate which is rather extreme.
80°F on a summer day is considered HOT. The AC in my truck broke 5 years ago and I only miss it about 2 days each year.
In the winter, it can be a brutal -20°F for weeks at a time and the sun only shines six or seven hours a day. Summers are short. It is only August now and getting cold. Snow has already fallen on the highest of the 4000 foot peaks outside of town.
My wife and I moved to the San Francisco Bay area for grad school about six and half years ago. My original home was East Tennessee, where I now return only for family reunions and in nightmares.
This area is about as close to paradise for me as you can come. Beautiful scenic beauty. An amazingly rich and diverse culture. Wonderful food. I find that people are just nicer out here.
I don’t know if we can afford to stay, but I would definitely like to live out my days here. If we had to leave, we might head for the Portland-Seattle area, which I’ve heard is similiar to here, or find somewhere else on the West Coast. But this is definitely home for me.
which started near Springfield, IL, where he was born and four of us (siblings) were born. He took a teaching positon is Marseilles, IL, and four years later, one in Harvey, IL. The one in Harvey (a Chicago suburb) was in the late sixties, and there was lots of political unrest in the schools at that time: walk-outs and riots and the like. We moved the last time, because of that sort of thing, to central Minnesota. I have since married and moved away from home, but only as far as the next town, and my three siblings are all fairly close (two in the Twin Cities area and one in another neighboring town).
My oldest daughter moved to NYC about two weeks ago and will be a student at Hunter College. She is twenty-two and has had some college before, but had not yet moved away. She is sharing an apartment with two other women in Jackson Heights. Any advice I can pass on from any of you residents of NYC? I’ve been worried about her.
I live in the suburbs of NYC. Actually, in the same town where I grew up. I live close to my parents and to one of my brothers, which is very nice, and close to NYC, so the cultural thing is going on to some extent as well.
After getting married, we tried Rochester, NY, for about 5 years (my wife’s hometown). But it didn’t work out for either of us job-wise. So we moved downstate, and things have worked out much better. This is a very nice place to live, with good schools and a good atmosphere. Great place to raise kids and put down roots.
I live in Dallas, Oregon. I was born not far from here, and most of my family lives in the surrounding towns. We picked Dallas specifically because, when my husband and I were dating, he lived in Salem and worked in Dallas. I lived in Valley Junction and worked in Salem. Dallas is about halfway between Salem and Valley Junction, so moving there put us both a lot closer to our jobs, but not far from our families. We picked out subdivision particularly because they didn’t do credit or background checks, and with hubby’s recent ahem financial difficulties, we were looking for some place that would take us, no questions asked. Unfortunately, that’s how we got stuck with some of the neighbors we have, but that’s another story.
When I was a young and silly teen ager I made a ferverent vow to myself to never ever 1) Marry a man with a one syllable last name 2) Marry a man from the state of Michigan 3) Live here the rest of my life. Of this I am not kidding. I haven’t made any vows to myself since because I just know my husband will screw it up somehow but refuse to accept the blame.
Michigan is the 8th fattest state in the union. ( Alaska is number one) and we are eating our way to take the top spot!)
The minute I met Mr. Ujest ( Name changed to protect the syllabical impaired) the shortnamed, knuckle dragging flannel shirt wearing Lions fan that he is, I knew I was stuck in long winters, iffy summers and suffering through the debacle known as the Lions. I still haven’t forgiven him and I plan to carry this grudge for years.
When he and the parental units on both sides kick the bucket and buy the farm, I am out of here…dammit. Really.
Hmmm, Denver? Downers? Denver? Downers? I’m having a hard time working up a cry.
I personally still live in the Oakbrook/Naperville nexxus because of inertia. Also, the immediate Oakbrook area (Oakbrook, Downers, Lombard) and the Naperville area each have as many jobs as Seattle. Then there are all the other areas in MacroChicago that ALSO each have as many. So my mom’s suggestions that I move out there are well meaning but unrealistic. (heavy sigh)
Two large vet offices in town, plenty of them all around including some emergency clinics. I don’t know what my wife would say about you moving in, but you wouldn’t like our weather, anyway.
I was born in Cerritos, CA, close to Anaheim. It was alright there. Most of my relatives that weren’t in Toronto lived in Southern CA and my family and I used to visit all of them all the time.
Then my dad decided to buy apartments in a small town of Visalia. (Visalia is between Fresno and Bakersfield in Central CA) So now we’re still here in Visalia. Everything is so far away, there’s no summer days under 95 degrees, all the winters are soggy from fog or rain, and there’s not much to do anywhere. sigh
I want to move back to Southern CA when I get the chance.
I live in St.Louis because we prefer the small area in the middle. And the wife is from Nebraska, which should be within driving distance. I used to work for a big drug company, which decided yo move out of the midwest. Every once in a while these companies merge, move, sell of parts and rerrange. This costs money and usually results in a few loose scientists looking for a nearby company that also got shook up and rearranged, so that a few jobs got moved around. For some reason a lot of people prefer the coasts or at least go along with the moves.
When I collect enough money some day, ha, I’ll just say no one day to some final ridiculous plan telling me to move to Detroit or some other unapproved hellhole. Chicago, parts, are OK, though. I went to high school outside Chicago. Not that HS was anything worth remembering…
My family is here. My hubby’s family is here. I’ve always been close to my family and he to his. And now he is close to mine and I am close to his. So move away? Not likely. Besides, we live in a nice small town. Our house backs onto woods. I have a good job, in an economically backward area. We have fishing. We have forests. We have beaches. We can vacation anywhere they have things we want that aren’t here. Why would we want to live anywhere else?
I had to move back to the US with my kids so we decided that we would buy a house which, obviously, raised the question WHERE? Mr Kiffa and I kinda look at each other and started listing where we didn’t want to live:
a. SoCalif: too expensive, shitty schools
b. Detroit: pretty obvious from my perspective
c. WashDC: excellent job market for me, but crappy schools, expensive and snow sends everyone into apopeltic fits
d. Atlanta: good job market for me, but crappy schools, still expensive, traffic/traffic/traffic
So we hit the internet and Jacksonville FL kept on coming up on the various lists of Best Places to Live. The South? Florida? Schools are actually doing a better job than general thought [consultant report available online showing that graduates are prepared with right skills to be successful in college. Number one American high school is in Jacksonville ??? The River and The Beach are within 15 minutes reach. A progressive civic govt [yeah, The Major is a democrat at heart in republican clothing]. Hot economy with one of the lowest unemployment rates nationwide.
I came with the kids, bought car, house, all furniture and appliances and settled down physically in six weeks. Got kids in schools that surprised me that they were public schools. Pretty much hit the neighborhood I wanted on the button [from searching on the real estate net] which is economically, culturally and ethnically diverse. I find lots of French speaking Africans in Jacksonville along with Canadians, Asians [from Hong Kong and India], mixed marriages so I am quite happy in that department.
There are some negatives: there is a high murder and crime rate, but that’s over there —>, I rarely meet the locals who tend to avoid this area of town as being filled with guest workers. Occasionally I run into racists like the woman who asked about the folks frequenting our Dentist… “Is his clientele mostly colored? the first time I was here there was a woman with four kids who didn’t know how to act…” I’m in a mixed marriage and told her so to which she apologized [not quite sure whether she did so for her remark or for my mixed marriage] and continued to talk about the foreigners living in Jacksonville FL…
But all in all, I think we made the right choice; the kids are really improving in school, maturing and making good decisions… a comfortable lifestyle althou I would rather be back in Africa
Well, after graduating and working for 8 years in Denmark, I moved to Germany (Hamburg) more or less on a whim - a job offer arrived by e-mail on a really bad day at the office, so my mind was made up almost on the spot.
Hamburg is a great city and I truly like living here, but I’m not staying for more than a year or two - it’s fun being an expat, and I’d like to go east, say Prague or perhaps Kiev, for my next job. No idea why.
Luckily, there’s quite a demand for networking people almost anywhere, and the company is expanding throughout Europe, so I might even be able to travel without changing employer.
Anyway, I’ll be back in Denmark in 5-6 years, I think. Or perhaps not. I dunno.
I live in a small country town is South Australia about 700 km from Adelaide (by road). I moved here about 11 years ago with my wife and 3 kids for my work. Smartest move I ever made. I have since changed jobs but have no intention of leaving here as it is the most beautiful town in Australia.
You could say that I am content here. Believe it.