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Anyone just ever up and move to another country?

chrono1081

chrono1081

macrumors G3
Original poster
Jan 26, 2008
8,870
6,285
Isla Nublar
Has anyone just up and moved to another country? I'm thinking about it. (I know there are TONS of different things you have to do in order to do this).

After going to New Zealand in 2009 I have not been able to get that place out of my mind. Everything (that I saw) was amazing, and I loved the whole laid back nature of the place. Everything closes at 5, everyone (that I met) was super friendly, there is a TON of stuff to do, and everything feels so close to nature there. I love being close to oceans, rainforests, volcanos, mountains, etc. Its seriously the most awesome place I've ever been too.

Anyway I know it sounds crazy but I was just wondering if anyone else has done something similar?
 
Yep. Couldn't wait to escape, to get away from where I was living. I had big plans for my life and where I was, was getting in the way. It felt small, backward, parochial, inward-looking... violent.

In my mid 20s, I sold the car, threw almost everything away, put a few things in storage, bought a one-way plane ticket to London where I've lived since, without once returning. Lucky enough to have had the necessary immigration status, a place to stay when I got here and friends here to help me get started, I finally made the things happen that were important to me with some detours along the way. London is a city where you can make fresh starts and disappear if you need to, create a new life where you can be who you want, there's always something going on... the only other place that I've felt the same way about upon arrival is New York.

I miss where I've come from, but I suspect that I'm missing things with rose-tinted glasses. Where did I leave?

New Zealand.

It's not all roses. Do your research, read the other side.
 
I left the UK three years ago to come and live in Finland. At the time I had a small car restoration business, and four classic cars. Sold everything, and came to Finland where I met my beautiful wife whilst working in Finland many moons ago.
 
If you have the means, definitely go for it.

I'm currently trying to up and leave to a continental city (Austin, Raleigh, Charlotte, Charleston), I hate Northern Virginia. However, I can't find a job in D.C., which is supposed to be the best place to find a job at the moment. I don't know what to expect in another job market. However, I do know that any apartment I go for here is going to be at least 1100+ a month for a single room, and that is ridiculous...
 
I've been abroad since '03. Grew up in Minnesota, also lived in MT & CA. In '03 I went to Chile for a year. Now I'm on my sixth year in Japan. New Zealand is beautiful, I spent two summers (aka winters) there. Loved it.

With my experience abroad I think EVERYONE should spend at least a year living in another country so they can experience things like public transportation, customer service, health care, taxes, general quality-of-life, diets, societal/cultural norms, and the list goes on.

Then, when they go to the ballot box, they actually know what they're voting for. ;)

However, my biggest frustration is feeling a void in social situations. My 'old' friends from before I left seem incredibly closed-minded and my 'new' expat friends come from other cultural backgrounds themselves. It can be lonely, mate.

Once you just up and move to another country you leave a lot more behind than you anticipate.

With wisdom and experience comes the notion that all those around you are idiots. And, with loads of int'l experience you'll quickly discover how blissful life was in simple-ville.

Not to be all cynical, but the grass is always greener.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

A few years ago I spent one month in Tokyo. I fell in love. Now on the agenda is to go back in three months for a six month stay, to experience the culture once again before I fly back to California to attend a UC university.

In fact, I'm submitting my transferring application this weekend, knowing I'll be accepted to at least UCLA considering my array of research in anthropology and signed transfer agreements.

I think 6 months across the pacific is the medicine I need to bring me out if this funk I've felt all of 2010. Sleeping on a couch and not able to bring a girl back to my place really takes its toll on my sex life (or lack of).

Plus, I'd rather be teaching English in Tokyo than work for 6 months here in Cali, waiting to transfer to university.

I know 6 months isn't forever, yet I seriously can't wait to go back.
 
I worked for Verizon Wireless since 2003. My first five years there, I was averaging $94k a year as a salesman. I ended up moving to a store about five minutes from where I lived, and everything just went downhill from there. The store manager at the time was a complete dick, and the store had much less traffic than my original one. I still was making good money since I kept a lot of my business accounts, but I was working a lot of hours, and I was just getting tired of the situation. I worked 60 hours a week, and felt like doing nothing when I got home, or had a day off. So I started to think about moving to Greece.

I was living with my parents, when they decided that they were going to sell the house and move to Greece. I thought about what I was going to do for about six months, then I decided that I was going to make the move as well. Ive been coming here every summer of my life, I have lots of family here, and a good group of friends, so the transition wasnt going to be that hard. On top of that, we have a beautiful one bedroom apartment overlooking the sea here in the city, and another house in a village about 15 minutes away, so that meant that I finally get to live on my own. We own both places, so that meant no rent or mortgage, plus we have two cars here and a scooter here, so I have means of transportation.

I work at a electronics store six days a week, but its much different than the States. The stores here are open Mon-Sat, 8am-2pm, and only re-open on Tue, Thur, and Fri from 6pm-9pm. Obviously the pay is different, but I have so much more time on my hands to do the things that I want. I got a little side business going where I take old vhs cassettes and transfer them to DVDs, and that makes me some extra euros a month. I can walk into my own house, and do what I want to do, instead of walking into my parents house, and going to my room, which is a HUGE difference. While I gave up a lot in the States to move here, and while I miss some things there, including friends, this was definitely the right move for me. And thank god for the internet, because I dont miss any tv shows, sporting events, etc. from the States.
 
wvuwhat said:
If you have the means, definitely go for it.

I'm currently trying to up and leave to a continental city (Austin, Raleigh, Charlotte, Charleston), I hate Northern Virginia. However, I can't find a job in D.C., which is supposed to be the best place to find a job at the moment. I don't know what to expect in another job market. However, I do know that any apartment I go for here is going to be at least 1100+ a month for a single room, and that is ridiculous...
Click to expand...

Come to St Louis. I pay $520.00 a month for a two bedroom apartment. If you like beer and baseball you'll fit in fine.
 
wvuwhat said:
If you have the means, definitely go for it.

I'm currently trying to up and leave to a continental city (Austin, Raleigh, Charlotte, Charleston), I hate Northern Virginia. However, I can't find a job in D.C., which is supposed to be the best place to find a job at the moment. I don't know what to expect in another job market. However, I do know that any apartment I go for here is going to be at least 1100+ a month for a single room, and that is ridiculous...
Click to expand...

Northern VA sucks, doesn't it?

Can't wait to leave.
 
I'm considering working for Intel and moving to Costa Rica after I finish college at 22 (yet to finish high school). Nice climate, people and no virulent psycho Protestants running the country into the ground. That, India or China.
 
Yes several times, the first two to Australia then to Ireland then to London,I left a stultifying parochial backwater,yes another ex-New Zealander.I didn't go back for twenty-five years but have many times since,I can now see it's positives as well as the negatives.Don't think you know a country until you've lived there for a substantial amount of time.

P.S. I wasn't too enamoured of Australia either.
 
Yes.

When I was 19, I decided that I want to move to London and work. Problem: It was the beginning of Mad Cow hysteria, and I knew my parents wouldn't want me to go. So I decided not to ask. :p

I only decided that I wanted this 4 weeks before I eventually flew to London, and it took 3 days to get a passport (express service) and get the required photos and documents, and another 2 weeks to get my work visa. :p When I knew I had the passport and work visa, I bought plane tickets and told my parents after.

As I feared, my mum didn't want me to go to the country where there were daily news footage of large piles of dead cows forming, and entire villages being burned on our Canadian and American news stations.

Our convo went something like this:

Me: Mum, I want to go to the UK and live there for awhile.

Mum: No.

Me: But I already bought the ticket.

Mum: How did you buy a ticket with no passport?

Me: I got one. I also got a work visa.

Mum: WHAT!!!! No way!! You have no money, and it's not safe there. Haven't you seen the news recently.

Me: How can I find time to watch TV when I'm always so busy playing video games?

Mum: .............

Me: Listen, I promise not to eat beef when I'm there, and I'll get a job so that I don't become a hobo.

Mum: I think English people refer to homeless people as 'tramps' or something. Think about 'Lady and the Tramp'. There was the female dog, and then the poor dog. Anyway, you're not going.

Me: Ok....I promise not to become a financially disadvantaged dog while I'm over there.

Mum: .................

Me (again): Um.....I'll be good? Besides, I went jewish on the plane tickets and bought el-cheapo ones that are non-refundable.

Mum: Are you sure? Can you phone and ask?

Me: Sure. (why would I when I totally made that up?)



A few days later, my mum was begrudgingly driving me to the airport. :D
 
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I ALMOST did. :eek:

A very long time ago I had a proposition to "come visit and meet his parents". Where? Saudi Arabia! That rushed invitation is what killed things.
Caution and good advice saved the day, as a good friend later explained to me: "Don't EVER get off the plane in the Middle East!"

I've had several friends from around the world. I've known people from England, South Africa, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, Mexico, Guatemala, Japan, Palestine, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Estonia and Romania.

Chicago is a great place to meet people from many interesting places. That and many of my friends have travelled to faraway places all over the world. Sometimes they give me a little foreign pocket change for my collection.

Thinking about current events can give one the urge to pack up and leave.
But if you do, remember this: You'll always be a foreigner. At least you will be for a long time. And if you come back to your home country, you'll probably STILL get the "foreigner" treatment for some time.
This was told to me by my South African friends.


Come to Chicago if you want to see the world in one place.
Have Fun,
Keri
 
When I graduate from college I would really like to move to either London or somewhere in Japan, but I don't know what the job market is(or will be) like for Computer Science degrees, so I'll probably settle for moving from east coast to west coast to California(yeah, probably not any better job market for CS :eek:)
 
(marc) said:
Once I'm done with my education, I plan to move to the Bay Area.
Click to expand...
The Bay Area has a lot of stuff to do
nick1516 said:
When I graduate from college I would really like to move to either London or somewhere in Japan, but I don't know what the job market is(or will be) like for Computer Science degrees, so I'll probably settle for moving from east coast to west coast to California(yeah, probably not any better job market for CS :eek:)
Click to expand...

Maybe Austin, but that's in Texas
 
There was someone at my high school that suddenly moved from here in Loughborough to Canada...not sure why but it was quite random.
 
I did 5 years ago

I got up one night and moved from Wisconsin, USA to Tokyo Japan without giving anyone notice or contact info 5 years ago, and still no one knows today where I live or that I am still alive. Couldnt believe I was reported missing and last year found my name and social security# in the death records online, so it appears someone filed a death certificate for me already.

I just wanted to start a new life and move on without all the problems my old one back at home for 23 years started, well I guess now everyone thinks I am dead or just no longer existent.
 
white41990 said:
I got up one night and moved from Wisconsin, USA to Tokyo Japan without giving anyone notice or contact info 5 years ago, and still no one knows today where I live or that I am still alive. Couldnt believe I was reported missing and last year found my name and social security# in the death records online, so it appears someone filed a death certificate for me already.

I just wanted to start a new life and move on without all the problems my old one back at home for 23 years started, well I guess now everyone thinks I am dead or just no longer existent.
Click to expand...

Wow, are you serious? That's amazing if you are. You did what basically everyone wanted to do at least in one moment of their life.
 
My story probably doesn't qualify. But, my family and I moved here from the Philippines when I was 8; I'm now 31. Didn't really get much of a culture shock since my pre-school and elementary schools were taught in English. But, I've always toyed with the idea of moving to the UK. However, I can't imagine leaving my family.
 
Since I moved to Canada, I've never stopped dreaming of going back to my home country Bulgaria. I know that things there are hard, and the quality of life is not that good, but there is something that makes me feel secure when I'm there. There is no place like home.

And the winters in Canada are just terrible.
 
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