would you move to another country if there were no legal barriers?

i love my country is overstating the sentiment a bit but it's closest to what i feel. i think this is probably the best country i could live in with the most opportunities for me and my family. there's one other country i would even consider moving to, but it seems super unlikely

I would just to give it a whirl. Fully expatriating myself from the US would be emotionally difficult and weird, and not sure I could totally do it.

maybe just for fun

Thanks to being an Army brat, I've lived in other countries and quite liked it; and I've done some travel outside the US as an adult. The US is just a piece of land. I'm not married to it, and given the right opportunity, I'd live elsewhere without hesitation.

http://www.mycellomusic.com/Pics/canada_flag_small.gif

i can do this very easily but like where i am. would only do it for a "dream job"

borders should be more open all over the world, if you want to move some where you should p much be able to, this is a v under appreciated human rights issue imho

Yeah, I don't see why not. I have family in other countries, and they're doing more than well. The biggest obstacles are legal, not sentimental. The only thing that makes me American is having been born here, and I had no say in that. I like this country jut fine, but I'm not anchored to it.

I just think you should be able to trade xp

yeah, maybe that's bc there are some more basic human rights we need to work out before we move onto open borders xxp

someone from france wants american citizenship, I want french citizenship, I'll even throw in $10, shake hands, why should this transaction be prevented

Country swap!

I don't know why I'm saying "yes" when I never even travel to anywhere else in the US, much less around the world. But if it were easier to live in more places that had the same things that make NYC good for me, then yes!

In a heartbeat. Born on the cusp between Boomers and X, born in CA but mostly raised in MS, I've never felt any allegiance to any place or generation. Amurrica gives me the karates.

Maybe not in a heartbeat, say two heartbeats?

But, seriously, fuck Britain, what a shithole

NEVER. But that doesn't mean I feel sorry for people in other countries or something. I could easily live in Britain or France, though.

Not me. I once had an opportunity to move for a pretty good job in Canada and I realized that I actually really wanted my kids to be American, not Canadian.

no great legal barriers to move within the eu xxp.....

What's difficult for me is this idea of cultural identity ... say you move to Germany, would you ever truly be German? Would you part ways with your old identity if you adopted a new one, and would people in the new culture truly accept you as 'belonging' in that new culture? How would that change your relationships with yourself and others? I could get it if you hung out with internationals exclusively, but is that really moving to a new country, or just finding a new backdrop with your 'belonging' to your old country as default? There seems to me not only the barrier of borders, but cultural and emotional barriers, too, behind really moving to a new country.

I was born and raised in the US, and have deep roots here, and no matter where I go, it'd never be the same as what I have here. If I wanted the same thing in a new country it would probably take a long ass time, or never even happen. It's a toss-up b/t loss and gain and prob depends on what you value.

i would never visit germany, let alone live there

if I moved to canada I would def hire accent coaches to prevent my kids from getting a canadian accent

I don't like Rush enough to move to Canada.

And they're one of the better things about Canada

My father, grandfather and great-grandfather were all born in different countries. I'd have no problem moving somewhere else, in theory, if i could get a better quality of life. In practice, that might be tougher though.

we're eagerly awaiting the next 'move to canada' expo, so ask again in march. if jobs are available it's looking not unlikely.

done it before, will do it again. southern europe w/in 10 years? that's the goal.

I dunno. I like the idea of pitching up in another country with no particular goals in mind, to stay for maybe a month or a year or maybe even longer if I liked it, no big deal.

But then I don't ever even go on holiday and the thought of starting over in a different town or city even in the UK is massively daunting so who am I kidding. So my fear of change is a much bigger barrier than the legal ones, especially given that in theory I should be able to move somewhere else in the EU without too much paperwork.

The minute i learned about Native Americans when i was like 5 or 6, i decided, fuck yes i would do this.

Having moved to London from Glasgow, I know all about overcoming language barriers

yeah, maybe that's bc there are some more basic human rights we need to work out before we move onto open borders xxp

― Mordy, Monday, December 17, 2012 11:00 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

freedom of movement is pretty basic, think about it

its also fwiw possibly the greatest source of untapped prosperity left in the world

i've thought about this, mostly cuz it would be easy for me to do with dual citizenship. my sister was able to get a job in london with p much zero bureaucratic hassle---in fact, the other candidate was another american, and i think the dual citizenship thing was what sealed the deal. unfortunately, my chosen field actually complicates things tremendously (licensing, etc)

shoulda done it in my 20s, tbh, at least for a little while

doctors with borders

we're exporting all our doctors, i'd advise you to not even consider us for another few economic cycles yet gbx

Real freedom of movement would see a lot of authoritarian regimes with terrible humans rights records toppled pretty damn quickly.

I'm pretty happy in London and wouldn't move to another part of this country. The other places I'd genuinely consider upping and moving to have fairly significant language barriers unfortunately.

Yeah, I would. In a heartbeat. But there are a lot of legal barriers, so this poll is pretty frustrating.

I briefly entertained thoughts of moving to Holland, but man, Golden Earring is inescapable.

i would never visit germany, let alone live there

― Mordy, Montag, 17. Dezember 2012 17:11 (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

i don't get this kneejerk antipathy towards a place you've never been to

have done this a few times, love it, everyone should be able to do it

mordy is jewish iirc

i'm sure they've got some great beers there

oh do they ever

The ex-pats of ilx0r are sodh at this poll.

sodh off, expats

Germany is awesome.

I married a German, and I am apparently eligible for Irish citizenship as well, if I can ever figure out where my grandmother was actually born...

OK, so we lived in Germany for three years when I was a kid (1976-79), and my dad is both Jewish and a second-generation American. (His grandparents came over from Russia and Hungary in the early 1900s.) He lost relatives, however distant, in the Holocaust, and we never once visited any of the camps while we were stationed there; but we were certainly cognizant of the history of where we were living.*

Flash forward to 2002, I had to spend a month in Germany for work. While there, I went out to dinner with some colleagues and talk got around to 9/11, and our reaction to it, and George W. Bush, and one of my colleagues said, "Yes, it's just like with Hitler, he had all of us fooled, we didn't know." It was all I could do not to laugh in her face. That whole cultural blindness to their own history is still amazing.

That said, Germany is a beautiful country and I would vacation there any time.

*(I think I've told this story before, but once my older sister, who was 11 at the time, called a local German kid a "Nazi" in a playgruond spat. Obviously she didn't really know all the history and connotations, but the kid did. I though he was going to tear her face off before my dad got them separated.)

I'll probably see Cuba one day.

When a member of my family was visiting Germany recently she was sitting in a cafe wearing her magen dovid and a German man at the table over asked her what it meant. She explained that it was a Jewish symbol and he said, "I only know two things about Jews. They're wealthy and they burn easily." Apparently she slapped him in the face while wearing these fake nails and ended up cutting him pretty bad :/

Re cultural blindness, Merkel said recently: "The UK was with us when we were liberated from national socialism. We still have British soldiers in Germany. I can't imagine that the UK [would] not be part of Europe."

I'd love to visit Germany some day, but it does give me the jitters. I get the same vibe whenever I hear (Austrian, I know) Michael Haneke lecture on America and violence or whatever. One thing I like about America is that anyone can be a citizen, if they want. Countries like Germany make it very difficult for the non-German born.

I have a friend who just belatedly claimed his Irish citizenship. Don't know what he plans to do with it. I think he's moving to Florida.

Permanently? Probably not, I have too many ties to the UK, and for better or worse it's where I feel most at home. I'm all up for checking out living in another country for a year or two though.

staying for baseball.

She explained that it was a Jewish symbol and he said, "I only know two things about Jews. They're wealthy and they burn easily."

o0

Holy shit, Mordy, that is . . . I don't even have a word for that. "Inhuman," maybe.

I lived in Germany for a summer (in Esslingen, about 15 min SW of Stuttgart) and the most racist person I met had an American mother.

xpost That's one of many things that creep me out about Germany. All that shit went down in my dad's lifetime, meaning there are still lots of people in Germany my dad's age who participated, one way or the other. I'm not sure how I would feel about that. Perhaps the same as some African-Americans feel in America.

Reminds me of the time I saw Schindler's List and I swear there was a guy sitting by himself who giggled every time somebody was shot. Almost complained to the box office.

it's worse to be an african-american in america today than a jew in germany today

we manage to go and work in london, countries are just places, idk, tho obv that mordy story is fucked, but that guy may not have been speaking for all 80 million or w/e

I would move back to Australia in a heartbeat. All my family and friends are there. I mean, not to seem like I am miserable here by any stretch - I am close to Mr Veg's family, and I have made some good friends here, but my only real tie to this country beyond citizenship is Mr Veg when you get down to it.

Americans are just too fucking stressed out about *everything*, and there's not enough public holidays. It gets exhausting. I like cultures that are a) more repressed and b) don't go to work on Boxing Day. I mean, WTF America. I don't even get a day to eat my goddamn leftovers? Bah.

The lack of holidays + a decent healthcare system is the reason I'd never move to America.

I've only spent a brief amount of time in Australia but it struck me as a place where I could easily and happily live. At least the cities I visited. (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Hobart, Cairns, Alice Springs.)

still swear one day i'm heading for the Steppe. or somewhere. anywhere really. i don't hate the UK, it's just mostly shit.

also tbh i think i like being a foreigner

when I visited in April my hometown was so vibrant and full of people, it was completely changed from the sad slow little town I grew up in. 1 of my friend in high school, who like me couldn't wait to get out now both have returned, bought homes and are raising families there. it was the first time I looked around and thought, 'yeah, I could probably live here.'

Voted for Canada, obviously. Although if I were being realistic I'd probably vote for the lazy or complicated option.

i don't hate the UK, it's just mostly shit.

― A fat, shit, jittery fraud of a messageboard poster (Noodle Vague), Monday, December 17, 2012 12:28 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol shit britishers say

mightve been beter if you said 'a bit shit' tho

"a bit shite" iirc

nah i'm p. sure it's mostly shit

some bollocks, mostly shite

yes, definitely!

"Shite" is too affectionate.

Everyone in who lives in Britain thinks it's a bit shit, it's part and parcel of living here.

feel like the uk needs to recapture its self esteem before i consider moving there, also maybe better weather

cheer up britishers, lagoon is coming

it's not about self-esteem, i don't really feel "English" obvious tho it is that i am, don't feel any allegiance to the place, didn't have any say where i was born. like the landscape and the remains of the culture, everywhere has landscape and culture. not everywhere is teeming with the descendants of the O.G. Thug-Capitalism empire

*pops champagne, lights fireworks, blares kid rock*

xp

hey, much as there's parts of the States I'd like to see a lot of it sounds like our shit writ larger and meaner and gunnier

Would move to a scandinavian country instantly.

feel like feeling some sort off affection for yr country is p essential for working towards a better tomorrow, tho i can totally understand people not really being at all interested in either part of that formulation

Ironically growing up w/a dad in the Army who was away from home for like 65% of my childhood until my parents divorced kinda made me hate my country.

some sort of affection for the world, maybe, and its varied peoples and cultures (and plants and animals). many forms of affection for your country seem to run counter to that.

my country'd be pretty sweet without the people

no I love my country

When I visited Paris I remember thinking it was strange that anyone would ever choose to live anywhere else. I was completely enamored by it even though I met a lot of rude people there and there were many more rats than I have ever seen in New York. That's where I'd go.

Or maybe I'd move to Denmark...I studied abroad there and it was also really awesome. I love my friends and family but I can' say I have a lot of loyalty to "America", which is just an abstraction in my opinion. Maybe on a different day I would feel compelled to stick around and help "improve" the society or something but right now I want to live in Europe.

i'm lucky to live in a lovely part of the uk, so no.
i'm staying put.
i lived in finland for a year, and despite the language barrier loved it.
tried to move back there to be with my soon-to-be wife in 91, but the country was in a bad shape financially, meaning that the job offer i had was no longer valid.
subsequently, my soon-to-be wife came to the uk.
and then spent 21 years complaining about it here ..

feel like the uk needs to recapture its self esteem before i consider moving there, also maybe better weather

― lag∞n, Monday, December 17, 2012 5:35 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thought you were moving to Gävle, dude?

I would move to the UK because about 50% of me feels very British. The other half is midwestern yokel.

this country is basically a paradise for men like me, and its horrors are experience by proxy, intellectually. what would i be running away from? not death. just embarrassment. that's pretty fucking pussy if you ask me. but i've known people who have expatriated for personal-slash-political reasons, and they were good ones.

perhaps this only reifies the american notion that life is a kind of war but leaving this country doesn't seem so much like an escape to me but a retreat.

Part of the charm of Britain is its self loathing!

feel like the uk needs to recapture its self esteem before i consider moving there, also maybe better weather

― lag∞n, Monday, December 17, 2012 5:35 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thought you were moving to Gävle, dude?

― emil.y, Monday, December 17, 2012 12:59 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the heart is beyond reason

some sort of affection for the world, maybe, and its varied peoples and cultures (and plants and animals). many forms of affection for your country seem to run counter to that.

― A fat, shit, jittery fraud of a messageboard poster (Noodle Vague), Monday, December 17, 2012 12:45 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah but the people and plants exist in yr country too

yo america has the best plants in the world

the essential flora

Our native animals kinda suck, though. Australia and Africa got all the good animals.

ah i see what i did well yeah some measure of affection for my country is a given else why would it constantly disappoint and disgust me and make me wanna leave?

no disrespect to canadas boreal forest but

more like forreal boring

btw USA all the way, best rap and we invented Mexican food

otm

ah i see what i did well yeah some measure of affection for my country is a given else why would it constantly disappoint and disgust me and make me wanna leave?

― A fat, shit, jittery fraud of a messageboard poster (Noodle Vague), Monday, December 17, 2012 1:09 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

touche

as far as cultural products go it's no contest, it's just a shitty place cause if quality of life issues

there is a realm between affection and disgust, and apathy is definitely in there somewhere

the constaly attacking dirt poor countries may weigh upon yr conscience too if you think abt it too much

feel like our hardscrabble quality of life issues lead to the development of superior culture
like no one invented blast beats bc they were in a comfortable place in their life and wanted to express their tranquility

basically slavery and xenophobia created all the best american stuff, thx slavery and xenophobia

you can enjoy those beats from the comfort of your apartment in Finland tho

if u call that living (I do not)

and then go to some government sponsored orgy or w/e

does finland have boss tacos, did not think so

like, will ur random juo in Finland is like "how interesting these beats are"
whereas Americans can be like "who is that tweaked out guys on drums oh i went to high school with him"

European countries w/ shitty food are the best places to an entrepreneurial American

as far as cultural products go it's no contest, it's just a shitty place cause if quality of life issues

― iatee, Monday, December 17, 2012 12:15 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wrote this out earlier and deleted it: you can tell me to check my privilege on this, but i'm always reminded of the jazz & poetry scholar who taught me james baldwin: acc to his summation, black writers and musicians could go to europe and instantly feel free and respected. but they found they couldn't get much work done away from this place, not anything new. (and if they wanted to talk about algeria or rhodesia or congo, well...) this is an overly broad and possibly tendentious reading of a lot of cross-currents but, re: expatriation it def stuck with me.

sure, move to paris. but you're not moving to the banliues, are you?

well banlieues means a lot of things, most people live in the Parisian banlieues and most of them aren't dangerous

oh don't play dumb

well I think 'average American' lives a bleaker life than average frenchperson tho there are clearly bleak lives in France

like yeah there are miserable people in Finland too, they didn't get invited o the orgy or ran out of fish or something. but 'there are miserable people everywhere' doesn't mean some places don't have a higher rate.

So far it seems everyone saying they'd move are from America and everyone saying they wouldn't (aside from Morbz who apparently doesn't understand that you can watch MLB games internationally) are from other countries.

w/o arguing that the quantity of misery between societies is some kind of constant, how each polity organizes its suffering is the impt question. americans may be blind and crazy but i don't think anything happens offscreen, not anymore, if that makes sense. maybe the prisons, and i'm even becoming more hopeful on that. the whole of french life is organized around making paris really nice, it seems to me, and fuck that noise.

lol xps

i live in the weirdest part of canada, where many people say they're quebecois first and canadian second, and it's pretty good. the rest of canada is also good, in different ways. even if we have a shitty government right now.
i do love america, though tbh i mostly love nyc and coastal california - would move to either, would prob miss canada.

if you look at our long-term unemployment crisis vs how much media attention it gets, there's no way you can defend that statement

I wouldn't move and I'm from America. xxxp

I would move but not to get away from america

i'd like to import quality of life innovations from other countries to the US. a euro friend gets over a month's paid vacation so she can just go on all these crazy trips i could never dream of. i get maybe 5 days off which i use to fill in the gaps of holidays i don't get off. i mean, if i didn't have this job i'd be out on the street and could probably die, so counting my blessings!

mostly I don't want to leave America because everywhere else has dollar coins

how do u manage strip clubs, all heavy ass thongs looking le change purses, wake up, europe

Totally cool with moving away from home, went into my chosen profession in part because it might afford me this very possibility, have various language options, voted prob eventually. It's gonna suck to be old here. Would rather be old somewhere else.

feel dumb to say this but I don't think I could live anywhere outside of the us

im 2 american

id like to live somwhere else for like six months to a couple years, i think it is or can be a pretty amazing thing to have that kind of cultural immersion experience, but i think its p important to be aware of and vibe w/ yr place of origin, in some sense, to engage w/ i guess, but maybe thats just heidegger talking

I would leave America without a moment's hesitation if the right opportunity presented itself. Top two choices: Sweden, Canada.

it's kinda arbitrary to put too much weight on your nation-state of origin when you are from a lot of places

I just want to live in a big city with non-mainstream cultural options and ppl who are weird in good ways and keep things shook up that also has public transit, walkable neighborhoods, access to outdoor space, affordable housing of a size and quality that doesn't strictly limit quality of life...NYC actually starts to fail on the last one, maybe the last two, but most cities in Europe I think wd qualify? In that sense I could be anywhere. The rest of my identity as an American I don't really know about. I'd have to spend some time in oth cultures to know that I guess.

yeah iatee i was just thinking that theres probably something odd about talking abt nyc, and even the us broadly, as a 'place of origin,' esp. as compared to europe.

trying to work out what proportion of my sense of american-ness reduces to loud bass.

maybe belgium is my spot? london certainly. but i did live there before.

laurel, try montreal :)

Actually Frankfurt is a nice city, I'd live there. Has all the things in orbit mentions.

i wld prob never live anywhere else if all my friends lived here
xp

Europeans seem to always be making fun of Belgium for being boring

i understand what you're saying iatee, but that's just an abstraction. there are a lot of dimensions and factors that are actually going on when you're dealing with your place of origin. emotions, community, heritage, commonalities, customs, habits, friends, family, your view of yourself, your cultural attitudes, your personal and family "narrative", all sorts of shit. i think it'd be cool to live in another country for a while to really see how things change or don't.

everything i know about belgium i learned from simon reynolds. lol

Belgium invented good foods and tony Parker (half of him), plus they have a place called Flanders
fucking Belgium y'all

I already left "where I'm from" and I would never go back there or anywhere similar to it so...but I can't predict how different I'd feel about being American in a foreign place, if it would stand out to ppl or make me feel isolated or w/e.

I've espent total like a year of my life in canada, six months in nepal/india, canada is m/l just like america, India and Nepal are so differnt I never had any idea what was going on

Dudes who leave America: you know you can always come back and visit, you know. What's there to miss?

mexican food was pretty much the only thing ime

I am deeply and permanently attached to my home state of Oregon, in spite of the many, many faults I could name about it. My identity as a (north) american is much too ingrained ever to change, no matter where I might live out my life, but my emotional attachment to the USA overall is much weaker than my emotional attachment to Oregon specifically. So, I could probably live outside the USA and miss it only intermittently, but missing Oregon would be like a constant ache.

I haven't lived in MN since 1991 and I still miss it, tbh

I would miss my dogs. If another country of my choice would accept me AND my dogs, that would be ideal.

My SiL spent months and months with her dog in quarantine before Australia let her come over. Within six months, she (the dog) had died of some Aussie tick-born disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e-3dfQK7w4

mexican food was pretty much the only thing ime

Ha, this reminds me of when I went to the UK for a week - coming from NY/NJ, I was used to hearing Spanish spoken all around me at all times, and after several days of not hearing anyone speak anything but English I was starting to freak out a little.

Dudes who leave America: you know you can always come back and visit, you know. What's there to miss?

I've read a little bit about online poker pros who have renounced their US citizenship in order to move abroad and keep playing. They don't have the easiest time coming back to the states to play in live tournaments, iirc.

belgium invented waffles and

xp I feel like that when I go to Ohio/Iowa/"home", nevermind the UK

Would Belgianize myself for the sour beers tbh.

belgium invented waffles and

quickly had its neutrality violated by Germany.

waffles n beer is a p good argument, rest of eurpoe is just haters

i would move to the us (from canada), preferably a city on the east coast

I bet it's another matter if you renounce your US citizenship specifically as a means to explicitly circumvent US law. I wouldn't flag you for moving for waffles, but I'd flag you for being an asshole.

us n canada should really just open the borders, seems like the least that could be done

canadian border ppl are so nice

us border ppl on the way back are horrible though

Canadian border not cool if you're in a band!

Would be ok with Canada annexing the US and making it their southernmost province.

I like canada but its not a big enough step up in QOL imo to really want to move

us n canada should really just open the borders, seems like the least that could be done

― lag∞n, Monday, December 17, 2012 1:19 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isn't this the longest straight line people have conceived with any practical meaning? aside from latitude and longitude i guess.

i moved to canada a few months ago & didn't see any police anywhere for ages & then the first time i did they were asking somebody for directions

i want canadian poutine

let's make this happen

Call 1-800-POU-TINE and Canada will send a delivery guy

xp iatee i think there's a big difference, if not statistically at least in the way you experience it fsr. i'm always shocked by the extent of poverty i see when in america, it's pretty repellent

if you find a mouse in your poutine you get a free two-four

coming from NY/NJ, I was used to hearing Spanish spoken all around me at all times, and after several days of not hearing anyone speak anything but English I was starting to freak out a little.

I've said before that when I go home and go out in public it gets under my skin after a while that there is literally no one visible who isn't white and speaking & dressing & acting in the same ways as each other.

yeah I didn't mean in general I just meant for me, in general people are way better off in canada

Definitely. I would move anywhere with a climate similar to or colder than Chicago, IL. Employment might be difficult, but I'm sure I could manage something. The only real non-legal obstacle would be having to quarantine my cats. I don't think my beloved, old-ass cat would survive it and the younger cat is already skittish and weird and would probably never be the same.

I'm sure it would be difficult for me to adjust to a different culture, but I think it would be a good kind of difficult.

Employment is mainly what I worry about, really. I don't know how difficult it would be to find work elsewhere.

The lack of holidays + a decent healthcare system is the reason I'd never move to America.
― Matt DC, Monday, December 17, 2012 5:22 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

don't forget guns

moving to another country can be pretty tough, it can get pretty lonely

I would force local ilxors to hang out w me tbrr.

I'm not that social now because of my illness so loneliness/lack of new friends isn't one of the factors I think about in moving.

living in different cities feels the same to me as getting to be with different partners as you grow up, the way that probably sometime last century you didn't get to, you married early & knew what you knew, whereas now there's this drift, you try relationships on for size, you exist in different contexts, you have a year of domesticity, a year of being louder, social, busier, they're different modes to be in that give you different things. the geography of the US is so cool because it has so many paired polar opposites, & so much of growing up can be missing & learning to need something you don't have access to, & then, if you are lucky, being able to go find it; peace if you are sick of the city or the city if you are sick of the peace. so many people i knew in new york were from ohio. kids who were that kid in their town can move to san francisco. i love this kelly reichardt essay about growing up in the cultural desert of miami. so many of my ideas of different countries are probably basically racist in how reductive they are - oh to live in italy, where every evening is the candlelit spooning of glisteningly red tomatoed pasta dishes across tableclothed picnic benches, wine poured, the evening getting late, children chirp in the distance, are taken indoors by yellow-dressed mothers as they fall asleep cutely in their chairs - but you can at least get to go somewhere & figure out that things just happen differently, there, that there are different priorities & that the things that everyone just does would become things you'd do, because we match our societies, take a walk after a meal, sleep in the middle of the day, eat in groups instead of alone, spend summer nights outdoors, spend summer nights indoors, let your kids go play in the forest, swim in a river, swim in a pool, swim in the ocean. i feel bad for the people who grew up before emigration was at least as possible as it is now, a busride away, a cardrive away, who grew up somewhere & would have flourished in paris but didn't have access to paris. some of moving somewhere new is just getting to enjoy the newness. these guys stayed at my house once, they'd lived in new york & ended up in la, & said they couldn't live in another city that wasn't inexhaustible. to go & feel the change of living somewhere new is really rewarding. it's sad it can be restricted by bureaucracy, so hard to do, so limiting.

I doubt I could have fewer IRL friends in another country than I do in MS, so that's a non-issue.

dayo otm

i left home completely caught up in the adventure of going somewhere else. My whole life had been me wanting to be somewhere other than the place I was, so I didn't give it much thought. I mean I was sad, but I don't think the permanence of it made sense to me until I was gone. It's a lot different than moving cities. All of those safety nets, all the things you take for granted that you actually subconsciously rely on for a feeling of comfort, they're all gone and you have to create new comforts from scratch.

those people that you could catch up with every few months, who were always there when you needed them? the family you get kind of tired of, that you sometimes wish would just leave you alone? when there's nothing at all it's really jarring. that's when you really learn the hardest part about leaving home --- everyone you've left behind, their lives are still the same. you're the one who has to adjust, who has to maintain contact, to stay in their foreground so that you don't get forgotten.

lol sorry for eeyore posting

i don't wanna downplay that that kind of stuff is inherently hard & complicated, but ime part of moving is how often your experiences are punctuated by moments of successful assimilation & success, & how proud that can feel, to have autonomously figured something out, even if it's getting lost & then finding your way. so yeah there are whichever social limitations exist, & the awkward discovery of those limits, but at the same time the scale on which you're operating can make your victories feel really hard-won & significant. to have the nice evening where you meet somebody & talk & hold your own & you're newly exotic? it reminds you of the leap you took.

i have lived a couple of places for too long, & maybe appreciate the sense of being on your toes all the time in a new place in contrast to that

I would move but not to get away from america

― lag∞n, Monday, December 17, 2012 12:36 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ditto. i really love the US (like, the ~land~ and the people), but i've always regretted the fact that i never pulled up stakes for somewhere in europe just for the hell of it.

there's a certain transient thrill that comes with figuring out boring life stuff in foreign countries, where just figuring out how to grocery shop is kinda exciting, but obv that wears off, and of course there's loneliness to contend with. still, though, i think if you have a partner/social connections where you're going, being immersed in another culture for some extended amount of time is almost always a positive experience.

xp

Whether or not assimilation is enjoyable/"fun" kind of depends on the reason you leave your home, imo. Just to distill like a zillion people's stories into one simple thought.

I would definitely miss my IRL pals. That would be the hardest part of moving. That and having to put Jesse in quarantine with the cats.

I voted "no" b/c Canada
But I would just as happily live in Ireland, France or Portugal
And very very nearly as happily live in Australia
And very nearly as happily live in USA or Japan

Whether or not assimilation is enjoyable/"fun" kind of depends on the reason you leave your home, imo. Just to distill like a zillion people's stories into one simple thought.

― passion it person (La Lechera), Monday, 17 December 2012 16:17 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah for sure. & there is obviously a spectrum of situations that are gonna determine whether moving is fun & lively & exciting or just a total fucking headache of queueing for the appropriate documentation necessary to be able to live with any degree of comfort, &c. grocery shopping is such a good thing to flag up though, just in terms of the value of novelty.

did you all ever see the thing in seven up where the kid moves from a carehome in the uk to australia & the first time you see him it is seven years later & he is no longer in greyscale birmingham but galloping shirtless across the silver sands of an australian beach on a unicorn white horse

I moved permanently from New Zealand to the US 11 years ago. I agree with schlump for the most part: the enjoyment of new stuff (which has coincided with my own development, like career successes, new apartments, a lot of American travel etc) have been rendered even richer because they do feel slightly foreign and adventurous, still. I'm not sure the novelty of living in the US will ever wear off. While I'm *better* at living here now than I was, in terms of getting-by skills, I still find the culture fascinating every day. I go for walks and watch people in the neighborhood, participate in the cultural and religious holidays, read as much political commentary as I have time for, etc - for me, it's all pretty perpetually interesting.

I voted "prob not" because I am terrified of unfamiliar things

xpost that part I def agree with - a lot of living here is still kind of an adventure because there's so much that's still v new to me

and i love meeting/talking to ppl from different parts of the country because I find regional accents & variations infinitely fascinating

I'm pretty flexible since I have both a Canadian and French/European passport. I loved my time in London (6 months) and I want to move there for a few years, but I feel i will always come back to Montreal. The 'having a different culture' thing isn't so bad if you aim for cosmopolitan cities. I always felt like an immigrant in Montreal anyway.

I wish I would have done this kind of thing for a couple of years when I was younger. I like where I live though, and can't imagine moving somewhere else permanently.

I feel that legal barriers are only a small, if significant, piece of the puzzle.

I'd trade with someone in New Zealand or the Netherlands, probably, if I could figure out a way to live their comfortably.

I'd rather have the US regain its sanity and join the rest of the first world in the 21st century than leave, tbqh.

I moved from Britain to Austria seven years ago, very happy I did so and have no wish to go back.

the essential nature of the US is its untenability in any particular state of being. it's a constant series of change from one of these states to the next.

~whoa~

I'd rather have the US regain its sanity and join the rest of the first world in the 21st century than leave, tbqh.

lol forever @ this

We're heading in the wrong direction. Hovering on the cusp of the 20th c., tbh, albeit with better guns. And antibiotics and indoor plumbing.

if the US isn't first world ATM, is the UK third world?

I almost grew up as a Kiwi. For some reason (sheep) my dad tries to move the family to NZ in 1975 or 78. Throughout my high school years I longed for the life down under that was almost mine. When the Army recruiter asked me if the American flag didn't make me feel special and proud I told him no, only the NZ flag did that for me. (He told me my Pell grant was paid for with soldiers' blood.)

What teenager doesn't dream of Christchurch?

Last time i was in Europe i bought bus tickets from Copenhagen to Berlin round-trip for around $30. I was staying in Malmo, Sweden and had to purchase train tickets to Denmark, for i think ~$10. I took a train across the Øresund Bridge to Denmark and hopped on the bus once I got there, falling asleep as the sleepy Danish countryside passed the windows. When i woke up the bus was vacant and i got out to realize i was on a ship crossing the North Sea (?) and it was a complete and total surprise, like waking up in a dream. I bought a steak and a beer to pass the time.

In America 50 bucks would fill up a gas tank enough to trap me in a car for 3 hours and end up almost in Florida. They are making inroads with stuff like MegaBus but travel in the states is really dull, takes a LOT longer, and ends up usually taking you to just another place full of gas stations and McDonalds that looks like the last place, with ancient cottages dotting the way.

Don't get me wrong, if i moved those long trips sitting in a friend's car driving around the southern Appalachian mountains would be the thing i missed the most!

ha, otm. i was gonna say that i would sleep through european countryside but would press my eyes to the windows of a greyhound for midwestern neon motel signs

je55e, based on your posts I think you would have enjoyed the christchurch brand of hijinks.

im looking to change countries atm, mainly looking for a deregulated venture capital sector, variegated and nonthreatening fauna and a holistic and nurturing environment for well-behaved children

travel in the states is really dull, takes a LOT longer, and ends up usually taking you to just another place full of gas stations and McDonalds that looks like the last place

so true, which is why I haven't travelled in the last 10 years except to see friends

Lol I live 2 hours from Joshua tree palm springs lots of other cool places that don't look like that

idk when you were in europe adam but travel, ime, is a lot more expensive than you're describing. Are you sure you got yr exchange rate correct?

jesse reminds me that we were going to move to seattle in 93 - told all schoolfriends, teachers, etc- but then moved two counties away instead because lol parents. I still get 'hi, are you a yank now' as an opening gambit on fb from old schoolmates.

xpost idk man buses are pretty cheap? trains on the other hand..

fair point, i probably wouldn't use bus very often (home or abroad).

Trains should be cheaper, trains are awesome

3 kids * 3 university years * £9,000 = £81000 - worth moving to Scotland for?

Re cultural blindness, Merkel said recently: "The UK was with us when we were liberated from national socialism

... she was born and brought up in the DDR, so that's what she would be taught

Yeah the bus was really cheap.

travelling in the US and Canada would be amazing if we had a proper train system like in Europe or Japan.

america is too big outside of the east coast

Yeah, it'd be like the US mail - massively inefficient to get from point A to point B at a modest fixed price.

There's a lot of America that isn't strip mall, big box, strip mall. The small towns and back roads are the best part of traveling here, if you have the time and the gas.

new bus service in Texas that costs like $3 to get from Dallas to Austin, and only $10-15 from here to Chicago. I'm psyched

everyone interesting left for cities years ago, though

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YKJ1rdiGnpM/UIWo6ziuGXI/AAAAAAAAVgw/HT-RgSMjJEQ/s1600/Blue+Highways+cover.jpg

so anyway I kinda did this when I graduated, as I'm sure you're all familiar with, but my thoughts:

-it's pretty neat the first year! man everything so strange, so new. like mentioned upthread, being able to figure out where to buy toilet paper can be so cool. finding out where to go w/o the benefit of yelp.
-also key was that I was employed and had lots of discretionary income + time to enjoy
-bummers were: feeling like most friendships with 'locals' were very superficial*, when the gloss of living in a new place wore off it just felt like living back home

would I ever go back? hmm yes I think so, maybe in my 30s, once I figured out there was ~truly nothing~ for me in america anymore

*but man it seems most of the 'friendships' im making back in america also feel p 'superficial' I think ppl just stop making good friends after college

I like driving through small towns and stuff but I like walking places better and I don't have to be enclosed in a deathmobile

I was gonna ask you if you wanted to hang out tonight but I guess not

some of your train system is awesome, fwiw, like the horns sound like the train horns in movies & you still have parlour cars from which you can gaze out at birds of prey in oregonian forests
xxxp

乒乓, you can make good friends after college! It takes time, though, since there are usually space and time constraints instead of being stuck with the same people in affinity groups.

I was gonna ask you if you wanted to hang out tonight but I guess not

― iatee, Tuesday, December 18, 2012 12:27 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this was more abt the ppl I meet at school. everybody I've met from ILX has been A+. could do wedns night or thurs night though, r u back?

*makes gesture to loosen overly tight collar*

yeah. j is here til friday, either one of those works for us. dinner tomorrow?

yeah I leave on fri afternoon, let's txt

you only get to fap if you go to belgium

i currently live abroad, though that might change soon if i can't find a job quickly. but i love it and would do it again. i've almost spent half of my life outside my native country thanks to my parents when i was a child and later on through my studies & then job. whenever i go back home i half feel like i don't belong, but as soon as i'm abroad, i do feel some pride or something about my country. the only thing i really miss from home is my friends, especially since a lot of them are getting married/having kids etc. i've made good friends in my new place but there's this nagging feeling that this life i live is not serious, is nothing like the "grown-up" life my friends back home have, i still feel like i'm on some student exchange thing.

naaa, fuckem, they're all mad jealous of you imo

mad jealous i dunno. some of them just consider it weird that i'd want to go abroad instead of staying here, finding a good job, getting married. different strokes i guess.

Have you ever told a friend you were thinking of moving away and got "You can't run away from your problems, you know!" as a general reason not to? I hate that kinda shit.

Like oh you are right i guess i should just stay in this house until i die, i can't very well escape death.

that's a lie, you can completely run away from problems, assuming those problems are related to your location

medical problems related to a humid/cold climate? problems running into a stalker? obnoxious family that comes to your home with no warning? run!

xxpost friends are usually motivated by not wanting to lose their friend. which is kind of understandable to an extent. but that being said, they're not always the best counsel if you're undecided or looking to them to be supportive of a choice to leave the country. when I decided to leave I discovered that I would have to find the answers within myself, because trying to talk about it or get any kind of perspective from anyone close just made them sad and/or passive aggressive. almost to a person. I think I had maybe one friend who I could talk things out with, but she had travelled extensively herself, leaving her own family to nanny in London for a couple of years, and she kinda knew the drill. it's a pretty rare friend who can put their own needs aside and say 'oh that's great where are you planning to go, etc etc'

I've done a whole lot of domestic moving and I've definitely gotten the "you can't run away from your problems." BUT I TOTALLY DID HAHA SUCK IT SQUARES

the "you can't run away from your problems" gambit has been used by a few friends. then again if i'm honest with myself, part of why i left was to leave behind problems i didn't want to deal with. def not the main reason, but a secondary one that just made leaving seem even better. and yeah i agree that friends do those things also because they don't want to see you leave. every time i come back home they push really hard for me to come back forever.

Move away, if they are really your friend they will stick by you, and then it will be extra cool to see them when they come to visit you or you come to visit them. It's a new phase in friendship and it's pretty badass.

i know. i've been back a few times (just came back home today as a matter of fact) and eah of those times i expect those friends to make a show of telling me i should stay but ultimately they understand that that's not what i want right now and they're cool with it and we have an awesome time.

Got family in Austria, learning the language at the moment (should have long ago). I could happily live there, spent my summers there when younger and they have a totally different outlook to here (UK).

America has plenty of awful aspects, but I'm not really sure any place else could ever feel like "home", which is important to me. Hell, even just living in the midwest freaks me out sometimes.

Moved to one of the best parts of the world for 2.5 years but decided to move back. There are a lot of shitty things about England but also a lot of really amazing stuff that I decided I would rather not be without. Would love to retire to the Bay Area or something when I'm old but I guess that's when you need healthcare the most. So maybe Canada?

jibe, can I ask where you're from and where you're living?

kinder, the US has Medicare for old people, so you'd have health care. Probably.

before moving to the bay area of California, I would have said "in a heartbeat", but now it's more of a "prob eventually". Not for any negative reason, but to experience life somewhere else. I like to consider myself kind of a "citizen of the world" or something. No allegiance or feelings of patriotism here.

no. not because of patriotism etc, but i really love where i live

if i lived in a different city i might feel differently, its def not an AMERICA #1 vibe or anything

I expatriated to Canada 3 years ago and repatriated to the US last December. I've lived abroad for shorter periods of time other places. I was married to a British-Canadian and spent enough time in England to know that I don't want to live there. I may go abroad to work again at some point in the future, but I'll always come back to the States.

No chance, even though none of the reasons quite match my "perfectly happy where I am" rationale--I'm not excessively patriotic, and maybe there are better countries to live in, I wouldn't know.

je55e i'm french, living in malaysia and have lived in india and mexico.

bo-oring

ha cross thread aggressions dmac, firing yourself up for that spurs lyon game?

in the biggest way, man, the biggest way

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Gave it some thought and realized ...that maybe the idea doesn't appeal to me because of all of the immigrants in my family. Not that I'm xenophobic, it's just the idea of living among "exotic, foreign" people...well I sometimes feel "foreign" myself.

"Dudes who leave America: you know you can always come back and visit, you know. What's there to miss?"

don't get me started! it depends where you move to. i moved to bali and i miss: indie electronica shows, art house movies in a theater, fast internet, best friends that don't move after being here for a few years, roads that aren't full of potholes, cheap drinkable wine at trader joe's, fall colors, christmas with the fams, good mexican food

on the other hand, beach, snorkeling, too-cheap-not-to-get-one maid service, really nice view from my balcony, and employment as a musician/dj

i sometimes fantasize about moving back to the west, but to, say, berlin rather than the u.s. but at this point i'd probably go back to the bay area instead, i do kind of miss that place

we manage to go and work in london, countries are just places, idk, tho obv that mordy story is fucked, but that guy may not have been speaking for all 80 million or w/e

― first u get the flower, then u get the honey, then u get the stamen (darraghmac), Monday, December 17, 2012 12:14 PM (4 weeks ago)

http://forward.com/articles/168948/german-travelogue-unveils-stubborn-anti-semitism/

tbf we have some bizarre anti-semitism in the US, too

I have met americans who thought jews have horns

youd think thered be better anecdotes for an article about a book like that than 1) nazis at a neo-nazi bar 2) empty synagogue 3) anti-israeli violinist??

heres a fairly recent report about how widespread anti-semitism in germany http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16678772

or rather did before they moved out of their hick town xp

The report's authors put Germany midway in their assessment of other European countries in relation to the spread of anti-Semitism.

They see extremely high levels of anti-Jewish sentiment in parts of Poland, Hungary and Portugal.

hungary is terrifying right now

Yeah, but who here is even joking about moving to Germany, let alone Poland, Hungary or Portugal? If I ever moved to another country, I'd only be in it for an across the board upgrade.

I would very strongly consider moving to Germany

in fact, I have

I'd have to wait for a couple more generations of bad vibes to clear out first.

They see extremely high levels of anti-Jewish sentiment in parts of Poland, Hungary and Portugal.

lol poland and hungary never change

I'd have to wait for a couple more generations of bad vibes to clear out first.

you'll be waiting forever, then

otm

it's like saying "I'll wait to move to the US until they get their racial issues figured out"

http://www.whptv.com/media/lib/8/c/3/6/c36f9fbd-cfdb-4658-871c-0778de80e609/Story.jpg

real statue u can visit in warsaw! ^

as a jew I would rather live in germany than america

jack lew is gonna give free money to all ortho jews fyi so stick around

I would only live in berlin tho

in a swank pad

Xps, the statue was by an Italian artist and put there with the permission of Warsaw's Chief Rabbi.

is jack lew not planning on giving money to all the ortho jews?

My wife's college choir went on a tour of eastern Europe during her year off so she didn't go on the trip with them; apparently, when leaving the airport in Poland there was a giant billboard the women encountered that someone had spraypainted "N*****S GO HOME" on in English. The black women in the group also ran into several really awful harassing situations of ppl following them down streets shouting shit at them.

The group later toured... Dachau I think? and there was a massive fight because some of the Jewish women felt like the black women weren't being respectful enough, while the black women basically felt like the entire country was aggressively attacking them and the white women in the group kept making excuses for the behavior along the lines of "oh just ignore them, they don't know any better/they've never seen black people before"

Most of the black women quit the group the following year. It was tense.

Was that recently? Most major cities in Poland will be pretty familiar with black tourists. I've never seen racist graffiti but you do get the occasional swastika in hick towns.

this would have been summer of '92, so no

I do expect that things are a good bit different now

jesus

Yeah, it would have been a completely different country. There was as lot of press talk about the dangers posed to non-white fans in Poland and Ukraine for this summer's football tournament but everything seemed to go really well.

as in there were lumpens fighting in the street but among the slavs and not against blacks so it's cool really

to change the subject a bit ... i think that i can get british citizenship (or at least dual american/british citizenship) since my mother is still a lol british citizen. if this is so and i go that route, it might be useful for work reasons (in the UK and the Commonwealth plus the EU countries).

also, one of my LOL childhood memories is the Canadian border guards giving us (Dad, my sisters & me) a slightly hard time when we visited Canada but being really nice to Mom when she flashed her British passport.

that says more about border guards than about canadians

pretty sure all border guards worldwide are of a single tribe of truculent borderline psychopaths who only emblematically represent their nation of origin

haha yeah the customs people at Heathrow are some of the surliest & laziest bastards i've ever encountered in my life ... and since i've had to deal with the bowel movements of NYC and NJ State bureaucracies for work purposes, that's saying a lot.

I had a cranky Canadian customs agent once but the rest of the process of entering that country has been good.

_̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿ _̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿̿

Nothing is worse than anyone working in a US airport. My sister says that as soon as she steps off the plane and hears the yelling, she knows she made the right decision leaving.

I've found an amazing job listing that could have been written specifically for me, were it not for the fact it's based in Lagos. As my girlfriend starts to melt when the temperature gets above 17 degrees, it's probably not practical but it could be a lot of fun.