If you could move anywhere out of your own country, where would you move?

Discussion in 'History and Culture' started by repugnant, Apr 28, 2012.

  1. lizarddust

    lizarddust Well-Known Member

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    Day trips only. I would go with a mate who has lived in Laos for nearly 15 years. We'd take only take bottled water because food (usually noodles) and snacks can be got in any village. You can also buy petrol in most villages as many villagers have motorbikes. We base ourselves in Luang Namtha town at a guest house which hires out motorbikes. One loop we ride is about 100 kays. Some roads are sealed, some aren't.

    We'd normally go in June just before the rains really set in. Being at highish altitude (around 1000 to 1500 metres) it's not as hot as in the lowlands. November to February the nights can get to zero in the mountains.

    I've never felt fearful or felt threatened and people are friendly. Language barriers is the biggest obstacles but generally we can make ourselves understood. Most don't even speak Lao language in these remote areas.
     
  2. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    You may want to reconsider after the UK leaves the EU.

    Serious question, what is it about Ireland that appeals to you. I'm Irish, both sides of the family...I've been to Ireland and there's a good reason why my ancestors left it...it's a sullen place. I don't get the appeal to actually live there. It's like New York City, nice place to visit, but you don't want to live there.

    As far as England goes, probably within 25 years it will be an Islamic satellite nation.
     
  3. Gorn Captain

    Gorn Captain Banned

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    It never STARTS with yellow armbands, RPA.
     
  4. egotripp

    egotripp Banned

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    Costa Rica. It's like a Mexico, without the corruption, violence and rape culture. Plus, unlike Mexico, Costa Rica is VERY CLEAN and does not smell like poo and puke on every street. I used to love Mexico, and my wife is Mexican, but we'll never set foot in that shat hole country again. F'em!
     
  5. raytri

    raytri Well-Known Member

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    If that becomes an issue, we'll live in the Republic, not Northern Ireland.

    Several reasons:

    -- My wife is of Irish descent, and just loves the place. She lived/worked in Dublin for an entire winter once, so she knows its warts as well as its good parts.
    -- Climate. I'm from Minnesota, and while I'm starting to get tired of the winters, I don't like really hot summers, either. Overcast skies don't bother me. The Irish weather is more or less perfect as far as I'm concerned. Plus I can grow vegetables year-round.
    -- The people. We've always had very good experiences with them.
    -- Location, as I mentioned in my first post.
    -- The history. You can't turn around with tripping over a passage tomb, or a castle, or some Stone Age site, or a battlefield.
    -- The beauty. Amazing yet accessible landscapes.
    -- Cost of living. Not that much different from Minnesota, overall.

    You've gotten more fearful, or worried, in recent years. The numbers just don't bear that out. England is less than 5% Muslim, and while their population is growing faster than England as a whole, it would take a long time, if ever, for England to become majority Muslim.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_Kingdom

    I think what's actually happening in the UK is that it's going to be largely secular (non-religious) in 25 years. Muslims may become one of the larger religious minorities, but they'll still be a distant minority in a largely secular nation.

    And if they ever do become majority Muslim, so what? People seem to think it will be some sort of terrible disaster. I just don't see it. But I guess that's because I'm an agnostic, and see no reason to be more scared of Islam than Christianity -- at the broad religious level, they're very similar.

    Islamic extremists are another matter, of course. But not Islam. Any more than Christian extremists mean there's a general problem with Christianity.

    Never mind that Islam is one of the most decentralized religions in the world, so the phrase "Islamic satellite nation" doesn't even make any sense. Islam is not monolithic; there is no Islamic Pope. The whole enterprise is basically Congregationalist.
     
  6. liberalminority

    liberalminority Well-Known Member

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    i recently learned that there is a treaty which lets all westerners not have to pay taxes in the cayman islands.

    so i would move there for the year round beach weather, and that. best of both worlds.
     
  7. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    A common thread for any expat is to expect to always be treated like a foreigner.

    Having a Celtic name and background meant nothing to most Irish I met when I was there. I was an American first and foremost, not an Irishman.

    So any expat should not go in with the attitude they will be embraced as anything but a foreigner who is there to take a job from a local, a real native.

    If folks think Americans are racist or xenophobic for wanting to tighten their borders....they ain't seen nothing yet. America is truly a place someone from a foreign land will be accepted as fully American. We embrace legal immigrants, because we were all at one point immigrants ourselves in our ancestry.

    No where else on Earth...on this God forsaken planet is this possible. This is why I would not choose to live anywhere else but here in these United States.

    You'll never be an Irishman and neither will your wife, you'll be regarded as foreigners.
     
  8. raytri

    raytri Well-Known Member

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    *Shrug.* Not interested in being an "Irishman"; I'm an American at heart (my dual citizenship comes from being born in Canada to American parents, but we left when I was two; I've lived my whole life in the United States, joined the U.S. Army, etc.). We just want to live in Ireland for a while. Probably wouldn't bother trying for Irish citizenship, unless we were there a long time and there were tangible advantages to doing so.

    And we'll either be retired, or my wife will be retired and I'll be working remotely for an American company (I do IT consulting, and can work from pretty much anywhere in the world). So no Irish jobs will be at stake.
     
  9. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    Well the question is if you could move anywhere, I had assumed this is worded to mean permanently, but initially as an expatriate.

    Seems to be you're going on an extended visit and your intent is to return here.

    You'll be back sooner than you think. Trust me.

    Plus anyone from the U.S., not just Canada, is not required to have a valid Irish visa. Don't know about staying beyond 3 months however. They may require some type of special visa for that.

    Don't move anywhere without a known source of income.
     
  10. raytri

    raytri Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, but 10+ years is a long time. We would actually buy a house and what not.

    Maybe. We've traveled a lot, both here and abroad, lived a lot of different places. I get the "you're not a native" thing. It can be intense here as well -- just try moving to a small town in South Dakota: You'll still be the "foreigner" 20 years later. That sort of thing just doesn't bother me much, in part because I agree. When I lived in Florida, I didn't consider myself a Floridian -- I considered myself a Minnesotan living in Florida. In Ireland we'll be Americans living in Ireland.

    While there are parts of the world that are hellholes -- or just plain dangerous for Americans -- Europe is not one of them. It's a civilized, pleasant place to live. Sure, it's different -- they speak other languages there, have different cultural traditions, etc. -- but that doesn't make it bad. I'm a little sad you have such a negative view of everything outside the United States.

    Longer stays require permission -- a permanent residency status.

    For the Republic, you can't immigrate unless you can show sufficient income to cover your stay - they don't want you coming over and going on the dole.

    For the UK, I guess they couldn't stop me, being a Commonwealth citizen. But it won't be an issue either way. We'll have assets, and either my work income or retirement income.

    I think another reason my wife wants to do that is that it will finally force us to throw away 30 years of accumulated junk. :)
     
  11. Herkdriver

    Herkdriver New Member

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    I PCSd about every two years in the service, and the job itself required 2 weeks of constant travel, all over Europe, all over the World really... every month; followed up with two weeks of compiling reports at the home base It's very unsettling. As soon as you get used to the routine of travel you sit at a desk, as soon as you get used to sitting at a desk, you travel.

    After the service I had a civilian job that required travel up and down the West coast from Seattle to Salt Lake, then the Southwest from Phoenix to Dallas.

    It was all exciting at the time, because it's your job so you're getting paid and there's less out of pocket costs.

    If you travel as a job, doing it for enjoyment seems, well like your job.

    I'm one of those oddballs that does not like to travel at this point.

    If you don't like the climate in Minnesota you could move to Texas or Florida...if you like cloudy moderate temperatures, move to Washington or Oregon. If you like the water, we've got thousands of miles of freshwater and ocean coasts.

    America is diverse. We don't have the history of Europe, we're fairly young, but I can't imagine moving away from here for 10 years outside the continental U.S.

    Dorothy said it best in the Wizard of Oz.

    There's no place like home.

    Anyway after all this anecdotal irrelevancy....If you want to move to Ireland, then move to Ireland.

    Life is short for sure, it's purpose is to die with as few regrets as possible.
     
  12. RPA1

    RPA1 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I never mentioned yellow armbands...What are you taking anyway?
     
  13. ChrisL

    ChrisL Well-Known Member

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    I wouldn't really want to live anywhere else, but I would like to travel the world and see everything and immerse myself in different cultures and experiences. America will always be "home" though.
     
  14. Abandon

    Abandon Member

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    Germany, Belgium, or one of the Scandinavian countries.
     
  15. dequ1

    dequ1 New Member

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    if i could move anywhere out of 'my' country, it would be somewhere a passport, a live-in visa, and monies would be necessary. Oh.... what a dream so far away.... :couch: until then, i'll just sit and relax...
     
  16. Ritter

    Ritter Well-Known Member

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    Meeeeh. :p
     
  17. unkotare

    unkotare Well-Known Member

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    Isn’t there always something to do everywhere, if you do it?
     
  18. Robert E Allen

    Robert E Allen Banned

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    Smithers or Terrace British Columbia.

    Maybe Belize or Costa Rica.
     
  19. Moi621

    Moi621 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    But, just like that
    <fingers snap>
    it could coup d'etat into something bad.

    Decades ago my uncle and Guatemalan wife were
    going to immigrate to Costa Rica and packed up & moved.
    When they told him how much they would tax him for his "stuff"
    he turned around and came back.
    Too bad he didn't leave the Guatemalan.



    I would chose New Zealand.
    Slow roasted Kiwi,
    YUM.


    Moi
    :oldman:


    No :flagcanada:
     
  20. XploreR

    XploreR Well-Known Member

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    There are several countries in W Europe that have more personal "freedoms" than we do here in America. But instead of learning from them, we demean them for not being more like us. Crazy, huh?
     
  21. XploreR

    XploreR Well-Known Member

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    If you could move anywhere out of your own country, where would you move?
    Alberta, Canada. Beautiful scenery, all the freedoms we enjoy here, & universal access to healthcare. :banana:
     
  22. ThelmaMay

    ThelmaMay Well-Known Member

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    Probably Paris. I was just there for Christmas vacation, my 6th visit to Paris. I've lived in Austria and Spain and have traveled in every Western European country. I've spent the whole summer in the south of France 3 times. I would move to France and have an apartment in Paris and one on the Cote d'Azur. I'd stay most of the year in Paris and travel during the spring and summer around the Mediterranean--Italy, Spain, Greece, France, etc. Yep.
     
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2020
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  23. ThelmaMay

    ThelmaMay Well-Known Member

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    They are likable, but I don't think they'd like being told they have 'ridiculous accents.'
     
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  24. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Nobody does, even when they have them.
     
  25. ThelmaMay

    ThelmaMay Well-Known Member

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    It must be so much fun to be mean spirited.
     
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