immigrants, expatriates, longterm residents in a foreign land, whatever you want to be called

i live permanently or semi-permanently outside of my native country or the country of my birth or citizenship

going back to my "native country" for a week later this month for the first time in almost five years. & I am dreading it, because the USA suxxxxxxx

Can we get a 'begrudging nomad' option?

No “I’ve made a terrible mistake” option?

1979-2002 - UK
2002-2006 - Czech Republic
2006-2016 - China
2016-now - Back in da UK and tbh would like to live somewhere else

i moved to dublin twas enough

i live permanently or semi-permanently outside of my native country or the country of my birth or citizenship but make me an offer.

Live in the country of my birth and how I wish I didn't

live permanently outside of my native country and am very glad of it

I live in the country of my birth and I wish I'd been brave enough and learnt enough languages to explore more of the world and maybe move elsewhere when I was younger

the way things are going here it would be nice to feel like I had an escape route, but I'm still not brave enough and now I have a partner who doesn't want to live anywhere else and thinks my growing disquiet is irrational

(NB it may be actually be irrational. I am tbf known for irrational worries. let's hope this is another one)

I was visiting with old friends this weekend who could not pass up the opportunity to remind me that I wasn't born in Texas and they were

I live in the country of my birth and would be potentially be open to leaving, as long as I could find somewhere suitably cold and miserable to replace it.

i hate the term expat.

im an immigrant to canada. will have been here 7 years on july 4th.

i can apply for citizenship in october, and I'm going to do so.

im ambivalent about living here. i would likely prefer to live at home in glasgow. but life has moved on without me there, and it would be quite like starting from scratch again for me to move home - have grown apart from friends or they've moved away, would need to find a job, and a flat, would be a whole production. immigration would also be tricky/impossible for my gf who is canadian.

Canadian citizen who inherited french citizenship from immigrating parents.

I am very happy here thank you, no way I'm ever going to live in France.

live in the country of my birth. lived in another country for 3 years, not sure if that counts as a long period. I don't feel like I really did anything of use there so perhaps not. it definitely made me appreciate things about the UK, although mainly things that are disappearing.

As much as I adore Montreal (more so than Quebec and Canada tbh), I've never felt completely at home there either. From a purely cultural and intellectual perspective, I much preferred the years I spent in France. The lows were lower but the highs were higher, as well. That said, I'm not sure it makes up for the casual xenophobia and lazy elitism.

I don't see myself moving back to Romania (because my wife isn't Romanian, among innumerable reasons) and staying in the UK past 2020 is a highly unlikely and frankly undesirable prospect at this stage. I'm sick and tired of wandering about yet I can't think of a single place where I would want to settle for good. First world problems, I guess?

post brexit uk will *wish* for first world problems

oh yeah brexit. forgot to mention that in my post

i went to china in 2006, lived there off and on until 2014, all time back in canada usually preparing to find a way to go back or go somewhere else. if it was easier to settle down there, i'd probably be there still.
in japan since 2015, mostly waiting on longterm residency. i feel like it's more likely i'll move to bangkok (or somewhere else with good cost of living, inexpensive international schools, easy to get a visa) than back home. at a certain point, i think if you didn't stay in your hometown or buy a house and have minimal connections that there's not much pull, at least that's been my experience. but i wonder if eventually some deeper homesickness kicks in?

USA for life baby 🇺🇸

The US is probably the sole Western country where I would never want to settle. Get rid of Trump, implement universal healthcare, abolish the death penalty, confiscate everyone's guns, etc., then we'll talk.

I do love the city I live in, mostly, tbf. Just want to see other cultures and would rather have a concrete reason to be alienated rather than my own inadequacies

option 1: citizen of US, perm resident of chile right now. The best thing about going back to the US is Trader Joes. That is it. Maybe the sushi lunch specials in ny too.

at a certain point, i think if you didn't stay in your hometown or buy a house and have minimal connections that there's not much pull, at least that's been my experience. but i wonder if eventually some deeper homesickness kicks in?

― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Monday, March 4, 2019 10:41 AM (forty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's a good question. are you homesick at all at the moment?

i lived the first 27 years of my life within 10 miles of the hospital where i was born. i miss home all the time and have done since i left

I've lived in England for nearly 20 years, I don't know if that counts, LOL UK.

i live in my native country. never say never, but it certainly feels like i will most likely not leave.

i've traveled enough to realize how lucky i am to live here and appreciate the things around me. a lot of people take it for granted.

no. never. i get nostalgic for other places i've lived, though, and i miss arby's and weed.

i think part of it is growing up in an air force family, so i lived in europe as a kid, then never stayed in any place for longer than five years. no hometown to go back to, no memory of the place where i was born.
also, this sounds like a horrible, cold thing to say and maybe speaks to my own deep-seated issues but, especially having my own family at this point, bringing my own child into the world, i would be not feel it a great loss to never speak to or see either of my parents again, my last major connection to the country, and even if i did move back, they've established their own new families with people i don't really know or care about in distant corners of the dominion, so it's not like i'd buy a house down the street.

just on getting out of the country in general, a big part of it is simply financial at this point. we can get by with one stable income and one freelancer's income in tokyo but definitely couldn't in vancouver (thanks in part to the japanese system of social housing).

I've traveled a lot and feel like I could live almost anywhere. I am not overly/at all? sentimental about things. Where I grew up in Virginia was nice but super boring. I haven't seen my parents or brothers since the 2016 election and am completely unbothered that I never have to go back there to visit them again.

i feel like i could live anywhere also, really. I've kind of gotten myself stuck in vancouver. oh well, not the worst place in the world to be stuck

i was born in another country, of which i have no memories (moved to usa when < 1 year old) yet which i can never forget

fucking weird innit

i live in my native country or the country of my birth or whatever but would like to live somewhere else

I am working quite hard on an escape plan. A company in another country actually flew me in for a job interview in December. I didn't get it, but I am still working with the recruiter who set it up, and applying for other jobs in the same country.

working remotely is something i have considered and would consider, actually.

but, for me, that’s different from actually wanting to live in another country, because i would only do it temporarily.

I've kind of gotten myself stuck in vancouver. oh well, not the worst place in the world to be stuck

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, March 4, 2019 9:56 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the human cost of ilx technocrats' username policy :(

Born in Mississippi to Cuban parents who emigrated between 10 and 12 y/o when Fidel got serious.

Can't see myself relocating to another country. I would maybe be allowed into Europe if I'd ever actually mail in the stuff to get the German citizenship I'm ostensibly due from my paternal grandfather being made stateless by the Third Reich, but Jews moving back to Europe seems like a losing proposition. Not huge on the idea of living in Israel for assorted reasons. Would be able to get by in any país hispanohablante and having never been to Mexico City I find the idea of going there interesting. But in truth I don't know why I would want to move anywhere where I haven't already lived or at least know what circle of acquaintances I would plug into. I'm an adult I don't need the isolation that comes from relocating.

I wouldn't swear to god I'll never leave but I have no reason to think that I might

like what do other countries have except for people who hate Americans to go along with the people who hate Jews

"Jews moving back to Europe seems like a losing proposition"

curious to know about this outlook

I mean they’re not exactly rolling out the red carpet saying they shan’t do it again

xp. antisemitism is worse in europe than the united states. and increasing

ive no idea about it nor how youd measure or compare but fair enough

Born in the States, always lived in the States, would be glad to leave the States. (but no opportunity)

and like even apart from antisemitism, as much as I like the idea of moving to the Berlin my grandparents had to leave on some level, I don't speak German and what would I even do there?

you know what i always say, 'wherever you go, there you are'

ive no idea about it nor how youd measure or compare but fair enough

― god knows i want to fp (darraghmac), Monday, March 4, 2019 2:50 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's plenty of data out there regarding these things

Option 3

But my standards are too high for anywhere.

I am situated among the least interesting of the choices presented. I have never lived outside the USA and for a large variety of reasons I cannot see myself living elsewhere. Much as I acknowledge the problems and shortcomings of my country, I am so thoroughly embedded in it that leaving would be incredibly impractical, not to mention that in any other country on earth I would remain an American by temperament, and therefore somewhat of an alien being in my new country, until my death. Even in Canada.

silby, you would do the ~same things you do in the US except in Berlin. Nothing is permanent; you could always come back to the US. I like living in different places. I like being home but I like to see different things until they become familiar.

I said a while ago I’d never leave but I don’t know anymore. I couldn’t do it while my parents are still alive and they’re not even at retirement age yet.

there's plenty of data out there regarding these things

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, 4 March 2019 22:57 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sure didnt i ask the poster directly to find out their thinking didn't i. theres data on everything proving everything.

anyway anyone who can afford it should come to dublin for a while anyway. nb i havent read the data

I like Dublin. It's gotten really pricey though, right? (I haven't been in a while).

Would i be allowes to immigrate there? I am fourth gen but very nice.

born in america, live in america, consider "countries" to be a quaint 19th century solution to tribalism that is past its sell-by date

its excruciating costwise but the craic is mighty

You can find craic anywhere though tbh.

tisnt the same shtop

... outside of parts of Southern England that is.

I suppose Bloom himself was a Jew come to think of it

not much craic in vancouver tbh, plenty of crack mind

Born in Malaysia, lived four years in Singapore, six years in Australia, and now back in Malaysia.

It feels like home now - there isn't anywhere else with better food imo (except maybe Japan). But wouldn't say no to leaving again if the right opportunity came up.

I like being home but I like to see different things until they become familiar.\
otm x1000
i could stand for a little more of this in my life, but for now. i am happy to be going on a trip soon
i moved away from the place where i was born/grew up when i was 18 (with various stints at "home" but never longer than 6 mo and ending at the age of 22) and have not regretted it. i lived internationally briefly and the experience changed my life forever, in a good way. living away from the place where i grew up has been overall net positive experience for me. can't imagine having stayed tbh.

feel like i squandered the chance to live in europe when i had the chance tbh

i live in my native country or the country of my birth and i love certain aspects of it but will never rule out leaving

Like if the Upper Peninsula of Michigan ever secedes to Canada I'll be there, glorious and free

Or like if I can get a good job in NZ

one trend i see in a lot of people who come here is a grass-is-greener outlook,
which i can sympathize with, since you want to be optimistic when you make
such a big move.

but a lot of them are under the impression that moving is a solution in and of
itself; that it will fix a lot of their problems, and they come here to realize that's
not really how it works.

it's sad to see them complain about apparently the same things they didn't like
about wherever they were from.

this isn't counting the obvious transplants who grew up in the middle of nowhere,
of course. this is mostly to do with living in any big city, even though i realize there
are some cities that are better for specific skills, trades, or what have you.

I can't tell who's moving where from that post, JJJS. Are you talking of people from other countries from where they now live, or just people who moved to your city from somewhere else in the same country? Just what the heck are you trying to say and what is your point?

Been in NZ since October, no plans to go back to the UK apart from for inevitable funerals

xp are you squirrel_police?

aimless, i'm talking about transplants who move to the city i live in.
i don't think it's relevant whether they are american or not.

sleeve, ha! is it because of the line breaks?

i don't think it's relevant whether they are american or not.

well, it's pretty relevant to understanding what you're talking about. thank you for clarifying. the thread title and poll choices excluded the subject of people moving about within their own country, so it was especially difficult to follow your rambling thoughts into a different topic until you made that intention explicit

it's actually not relevant, because i wasn't talking about one group
specifically. you seem to want to force my argument to be a certain
way, though.

and w/r/t "ramblings," your passive-aggressive vibe is noted.

I'm not sure you are making an argument. I just got impatient with your lack of clarity concerning who you were talking about, other than "people who come here ", without saying who those people were, where they came from, or where 'here' was. if I wanted to force you to do anything, it was just force you to make more sense.

thread moderator stepping in here, jjs what city are you from? tell us a bit about yourself.
aimless thank you for trying to keep order here

that's a rude question, especially on a public forum.
i will say, though, that most of the transplants i interact with
are in IT.

Is that your way of saying they are south asian? I don't understand what is going on here.

Anyway, I want to move to Hawaii permanently except for the whole US lack of healthcare/45 issue right now. I am also angling for France/Japan/Australia, previously had been for the UK until Brexit. We know we won't be here for more than 5 more years max.

from dublin, living in london for 11 years, this week actually. feels a long time and i can't say i love london as i once did, not just due to the political stuff in the uk but also the restrictive laws about socialising and the extreme inequality you're forced to sponsor by paying rent here. i suppose that would be true of most other cities now though.

aside from that my work is about as good a setup as i can have anywhere in the world, regular office hours, flat structure with no real boss, meaningful and interesting day to day, and well-paid. equally i am studying an ma and that keeps me here too, i'll probably do an mfa after that.

after which i'd like to live somewhere else, dublin feels small enough to have a really good quality of life, walking in and out of the city etc. it bothers me that in london i pay high rent to live in a suburb, as someone who lives alone it'd be good to be surrounded by a city. i'd like to live in nyc for a while at some stage but dunno if i'd work in the american setup with so few holidays, maybe i'll just do three months on a tourist visa one day.

beyond that i think spain, any number of cities in spain tbh. i can imagine retiring there permanently when i'm older, assuming life allows that to happen.

ideally managing a small football team or perhaps one day the national team again.

emigrating means you get to start over again in many ways, for some of us this is what we live for, renewal, becoming someone new. maybe you could get that just by moving to another place where you don't have to learn a new language but I dunno. I am a chameleon though.

It gets exhausting when perpetual financial instability is part of the package.

It gets exhausting when perpetual financial instability is part of the package.

I've already got that here - might as well have it someplace with nicer scenery and better health care.

You live in the US, I assume? If so, I concur.

i lived for long periods outside of my native country or the country of my birth but have now returned home

seemed most apt. Total of six years in the US, incl. three from 2015-2018.

not to mention that in any other country on earth I would remain an American by temperament, and therefore somewhat of an alien being in my new country, until my death.

I mean, this is not a bad thing, being a foreigner in Brexit has at least given me the framework of "at least I can move back if I have to, I know it's within my capacity"

(Obviously of course this is one of the things that I approve of in other people - big cities are made by those who come there rather than raised there etc)

In the States right now. Feel like I could move back here tomorrow, and like I never ever will want to move back here again ever. The internalized American exceptionalism wears off right quick if you don't exclusively hang with ex pats.

Leaving the US for The Netherlands in a few months. Starting again from scratch in my middle age but that's fine. Learning Dutch and my brain is slowly catching on to this most difficult of languages. I'll only be back to visit family and get my stuff out of storage in a year's time. Good effing Riddance.

I don't spend time with Americans here except the ones I live with. I mean I encounter tourists now & then but as far as daily life goes, I don't know any other americans.

I feel like my most american temperament thing is that I drink coffee in too large vessels. And maybe drink too much water.

Welkom Capitaine! :)

Lived where I've been born (Netherlands, The North) most of my time. Lived in The North of England for over a year, and a couple of months writing in Basque Country. For someone who's made a living out of 'localness' (running a paper where I'm from, partly in a tiny local language passed on to me at birth; sure death of the tiny language accepted as fate but not without putting up a fight) I can see myself living in a different country more easily as I get older, to my own surprise. If it's on the cards it will probably be Basque Country.

I'd actually like to live in more different places than time permits.

Dank je, LBI!

not to mention that in any other country on earth I would remain an American by temperament, and therefore somewhat of an alien being in my new country, until my death.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Born in the UK, lived in Italy for a year around the turn of the century, moved to the US in 2009 and Australia in 2013. Would move again if i could but my wife seems pretty rooted here. I’d love to move to Japan or to a non-Uk European country but not till I’ve locked down Australian citizenship. Brexit really destroyed any remaining desire to return to the UK, being european in the EU sense as well as a cultural sense was alway part of my identity and I don’t want to be part of a UK that denies that. Australia is a much better place to have a cosmopolitan identity.

If I'd had my choice I'd be living outside the U.S., but fate completely shat on me/my plans and I'm still living in this podunk town (though it's ever so slightly improving). I try not to get angry about it but it's very, very difficult at times.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I had like four abortive attempts to leave my hometown over the years until one attempt finally took a few years ago (left the country as well). At times it felt impossible, maybe like how NASA engineers felt trying to make a rocket to escape Earth's gravitational pull. Hope you get there someday, dee

good participation on this poll!

and a surprising number of immigrants/expats/transplants/exiles, think.

I had like four abortive attempts to leave my hometown over the years until one attempt finally took a few years ago (left the country as well). At times it felt impossible, maybe like how NASA engineers felt trying to make a rocket to escape Earth's gravitational pull. Hope you get there someday, dee

You're sweet, thank you. I was simply never able to attempt leaving because I spent my twenties and much of my thirties caring for one parent or another. To be fair, this "podunk town" had a population of about 800,000 residents at its least populous for as long as I've been alive and is officially one of the top ten biggest cities in the U.S., but it feels infinitely more restrictive than its size and I guess it doesn't help matters that I've made so many bad memories here throughout the years. Maybe one day I'll get to live in my dream city (of London).

Hm. London was never my 'dream city', but it's where I ended up. When I moved to the UK in 2007 I thought I'd go for Bristol or Brighton, but London was where the job offer happened. Now I've been here 11 years, pretty much 1/3 of my life. The first five or so years were fine, but seven-year-itch was definitely a thing, and it made me deeply unhappy to be living in London. I thought constantly about going home for a couple years, which wasn't helped by being in a stressful job and going though the grief of the sudden death of a parent 7000 km away. Everything about being in London irritated me: the high cost of living ('I could afford to buy an entire house in Canada, grumble grumble'); the long travel times to see/do anything interesting ('At home everything's within a 30 minute journey, grumble grumble'); how hard it was/is to make friends ('All my friends are at home, having fun without me, grumble grumble').

I ended up getting a much better job, which drastically improved my relationship with the city (I do research on city stuff so I get to travel to all sorts of weird and wonderful place in London). And in the last few years my own neighbourhood has exploded with stuff so I have more to do within a 30 minute walk. It's good for now, but London is not a place I want to grow old, and Brexit is a bummer... but I don't know where else to go.

not sure why JJJS got jumped on upthread, I thought he made a good point.

i never thought I felt particularly British until I moved to the US where everything is sort-of similar/familiar but in ways that seem 'off' when you're actually living there. and having to learn whole new systems / ways of doing things from people who have never considered any other way, so find it hard to explain to an outsider!

I'm not particularly overjoyed to be more culturally "British" than I thought but living elsewhere did help me realise what was important to me.

I suppose that's pretty common. I never feel more Canadian than when I'm not in Canada. It really brings home the uncomfortable extent to which I say 'sorry' to people and things, including when the other party is in the wrong.

maybe since i have a limited connection to canada, haven't been back in years, spent some of my childhood and most of my adult life outside of it. and maybe some resentment toward the country? maybe growing up in a cultural wasteland? but now most importantly, most english language media i consume is made in the u.s.a., music/books/tv at least (a few weeks ago i re-read a margaret laurence novel after finding it in a jinbocho bookstore), and i live in a country right now that is more american, superficially at least, than most places in the world, and i have mostly american friends... when i have to answer where i'm from, these days, i feel like answering, as i spit a ropey shot of grizzly wintergreen into a mountain dew can, that i grew up outside traverse city (i hold up my hand, point right around the knuckle of my middle finger) and went to the university of oregon and then turning the conversation to things real americans are discussing like jussie smollett theories and how heroic ilhan omar is.

japan is the ideal country to pretend to be american, too, and many of its subcultures have civil war reenactor-level dedication to sister city american subcultures.

I used to feel like I learned what it's like to be American when I was abroad, but I've been away long enough now that I don't anymore. I get annoyed when people find out I'm American and ask why I'm here, as if the USA is somehow a good place to live. Some here still think that, but their knowledge of the usa is mostly through movies and they seem only to know two cities, Miami and New York, and I have spent like 50 hours total in those two places combined, so it's just more alienating. Fortunately by my (French) accent people usually think I'm Belgian, a much easier situation to pass through.

I totally get where you're coming from (I don't much care about Canadian and Québécois culture, barring a few key exceptions, and for all the US's unforgivable flaws as a nation, Americans have produced so much more stuff that matters to me), and yet I still get mildly flustered whenever anyone assumes I'm from the States. Then again, I've never lived there (nor would I ever, for reasons I outlined upthread), so it makes it easier to play the offended-Canuck-who-manifestly-suffers-from-an-inferiority-complex card.

xp

When I am in France and tell people I am from New York they want to talk about the show Friends. If I say I am from Chile there is always an abrupt and long pause.

xpost I was a little surprised how much Japan is in a love affair with Brooklyn.

i once told someone that i was half-chilean and after a beat they said "pinochet and that?"

At least they knew Pinochet!

I assume most people think (in this order): Pinochet, Andes, wine, Pablo Neruda.

I've had conversations with adult americans that went to college that didn't know pinochet, patagonia, pablo neruda or san padro de atacama. I always figured these were the main range of things chile is known for that I could somehow jostle their recognition of the country.

in britain after pinochet footballers would be the thing people would think of. alexis sanchez, arturo vidal, and then maybe zamorano and salas

with wine they think malbec first as their affordable wine from chile confusing it with argentina. xpost

seb rosenthal

More people have heard of Patagonia the brand in my experience.

I have found that "chilean miners" is the sweet spot for the average american's knowledge of chile.

Try bringing up Bolivia! At best they'll talk about cocaine.

seb rosenthal

― PaulDananVEVO (||||||||), Monday, March 11, 2019 9:31 AM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yes, this was definitely a reference that hit hard in 90s lanarkshire

When we were gone for a year we rented out our apartment to a chilean footballer. That was not a good idea.

When people find out I'm Romanian it's either 'I have a Romanian friend, do you know him/her?' or something about Ceaușescu/Dracula/Gypsies. The only one I really mind is 'so you speak Russian, right?'

I only knew Patagonia from Madeleine L'Engle's "A Swiftly Tilting Planet" until I went there for a few weeks. Now it makes me think of stunningly beautiful landscapes and tasty beer.

I like to talk to Romanians about the Black Sea coast, to which I have never been but which I believe to a magical fantasy land.

The Black Sea is nice but if you visit Romania (assuming you haven't already) you should prioritize Transylvania, Bucharest and parts of Moldova.

I know that Romania has nice pinot noir, sweet wines and they produce the most wine in central europe.

Keep saying Romania is in 'central Europe' and you'll ingratiate yourself to us in no time. ;)

I'm actually not too keen on our wines but that's because France has spoiled me.

Ha, what do people normally say? I am terrible with geography so everything I know about places comes from either going there or from wine.

The first thing I think of when Romania comes up is the girl I heard about from some backpackers who had just been to Bucharest, she had been bitten by a stray dog and they got the news that she'd died of rabies while I was with them, it was big enough of a trauma for them that I feel like I knew her too (We were in a hostel called The Station Guesthouse in Budapest in I think 2003)

Sure this is not a fair reflection on Romania, sorry, but it put me off going.

Everything that lay behind the Iron Curtain is usually called 'Eastern Europe'. As far as Romania goes, that's fairly accurate (going from West to East, it's one of the last stops before Russia) but it drives certain Czechs and Poles up the wall.

xp

I have been to Bucharest but nowhere else...yet. My wife has traveled more extensively in Romania than I have.

in britain generally everywhere that was in the warsaw pact is referred to as eastern europe, even say the czech republic which is only a bit more easterly than austria

Stray dogs were a massive issue in the 90s and the early 00s. The situation has improved considerably in the interim, although there's still an ongoing tug-of-war between dogcatchers and animal rescue organizations.

2xp

Should you get the chance, Euler, I strongly recommend checking out Brașov, Sibiu and their environs. As well as Moldova's painted monasteries, which tend to be quite gorgeous and quite different from their Western equivalents.

Romania is pretty far East, whereas the Czech Republic sits neatly on top of (most of) Austria, tbf.

I was just looking at train tickets to Mamaia, would be a fun few days of getting there, followed by whatever shenanigans ensue.

I love Romanian food (my ancestry includes Romania though it is hard to document very precisely because of the chaos of the late 19th century when they made their way westward). I want sarmale now. do you know any good Romanian restos in Paris?

They always lump all the central and eastern european countries together for wine studies. But I just double checked and it typically says romania is central europe and this is really just based on geography and not anything else. Although it seems like british wine writers call it eastern europe, ha!

p much all of western europe would say romania is eastern europe iirc.

Isn't the old Mitteleuropa, Czech Republic/Slovakia/Austria/Hungary? It was in football terms. Also it looks that way on a map. I've only ever been to Prague though, but it seemed pretty German to me.

do you know any good Romanian restos in Paris?

I wish I did! There's a tiny Romanian grocery store near the Orthodox Church in the 5ème, but it's not exactly great. I'll look into it during my next stay in Paris.

Mamaia is definitely a lot of fun. My parents were there last year for the first time in ages and weren't disappointed in the least, but I myself haven't revisited it in years. Last time I saw the Black Sea I was at Vama Veche, which has a somewhat more… chaotic reputation.

in britain after pinochet footballers would be the thing people would think of. alexis sanchez, arturo vidal, and then maybe zamorano and salas

― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Monday, 11 March 2019 16:30 (forty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

salas and zamorano first or ur a disgusting savage imo

George Robledo or gtfo.

I could envisage myself living somewhere like Brașov. The only reason I haven’t been back for ages is that I can’t face Luton Airport.

when i have to answer where i'm from, these days,

When people find out I'm Romanian it's either 'I have a Romanian friend, do you know him/her?'

London, Ontario?

once told someone that i was half-chilean and after a beat they said "pinochet and that?"

I'm so accustomed to seeing Chilean produce for sale at the area supermarkets during the off-season that that's the absolute first thing that comes to my mind when thinking of that country. I figured Pinochet is just a part of the OLD Chile back in the bad old days of the "banana republics" and bears no relation to the current state as it stands. Also, since my family's originally from Mexico and THAT comes with its own series of depressing associations, I would rather think of the good that comes from all Latin American countries (even Venezuela's got its rebellious anti-Maduro citizenry as its bright spot).

Romania I always associate with what I read about it in my favorite author Robert D. Kaplan's Balkan Ghosts and Eastward to Tartary, and the fact that the people there speak a Romance language, something highly unusual for that region or indeed any region outside Latin America or the Iberian peninsula.

Hm. London was never my 'dream city', but it's where I ended up. When I moved to the UK in 2007 I thought I'd go for Bristol or Brighton, but London was where the job offer happened. Now I've been here 11 years, pretty much 1/3 of my life. The first five or so years were fine, but seven-year-itch was definitely a thing, and it made me deeply unhappy to be living in London. I thought constantly about going home for a couple years, which wasn't helped by being in a stressful job and going though the grief of the sudden death of a parent 7000 km away. Everything about being in London irritated me: the high cost of living ('I could afford to buy an entire house in Canada, grumble grumble'); the long travel times to see/do anything interesting ('At home everything's within a 30 minute journey, grumble grumble'); how hard it was/is to make friends ('All my friends are at home, having fun without me, grumble grumble').

I ended up getting a much better job, which drastically improved my relationship with the city (I do research on city stuff so I get to travel to all sorts of weird and wonderful place in London). And in the last few years my own neighbourhood has exploded with stuff so I have more to do within a 30 minute walk. It's good for now, but London is not a place I want to grow old, and Brexit is a bummer... but I don't know where else to go.

Oh, I'm well aware of how every place out there has its setbacks and that London would be a pricey city to live in, though one could also say the same about every similarly sized global metropolis and I spent a considerable amount of my life as a hardcore Anglophile who looked at London as The Ultimate Goal. Also, yes, being employed somewhere that gives one extreme dissatisfaction would put the damper on one's living ANYWHERE, regardless of loction, so I'm glad you were able to find a better place of employment. However, in spite of the total shambles that is Brexit and the current lack of leadership from any of the political parties in Britain, I would absolutely take living there any day of the week over living in Drumpf's goddamned America, especially since he and his minions are targeting my people. I'm lucky to live where I do in that we're the majority and have significant political power on a local level, but it's a terribly boring place to live. I mean, the most exciting thing that's happened recently is that we finally got a local Ikea in town last month! Big fucking whoop. Additionally, it really burns me up whenever I see people who live in these huge, exciting cities leaving online comments chastising others for moving to those same cities and saying that those transplants should just stay where they are and create a local "scene" where they live; inside my head I'm thinking, "Oh yes, let's all just magic up some cosmopolitan excitement out of fucking nowhere! Then we can get around to pulling flying unicorns and world peace out of thin air!" The city where I live already HAS people trying very hard to turn it into something better but, in spite of its massive population growth since 1990 (from about 850,000 to almost 2 million and growing), it's still the same, boring backwater it's always been. Living in a huge metropolis with endless cultural options would be a dream for me (especially if I can make new, POSITIVE memories instead of the awful ones I have locally) and if it happens to be in the country I've adored since I was four, all the better.

I've lived 80% of my life outside of the place I was born, changing country every 4-5 years until I settled by accident here in Belgium, where I've now been living 15 years. The constant moving and the idea that I could I just reinvent myself in the next place gave me a paralysing tendency to over-romanticize places, imagined or half-remembered, instead of trying to ingrain myself wherever I was and actually build something. In recent years, I've found that starting a family has "cured" me of that since it's made it obvious that my life would essentially stay the same from now on, whatever the place. Worrying about school runs and weekend playdates leaves little space for longing for the elusive atmosphere of a foreign place.

pomenitul, you'll be happy to know that a research paper topic that was just released today for an advanced wine thingey is the future of Romanian wine in export markets.

Hah, I'll drink to that. I'm not crazy about the stuff tbh, having been spoiled on French wine, but there is much, far too much I haven't tasted yet.

Hmm… I said the exact same thing upthread, more or less.

it's ok, I feel strongly about that sentiment too.