[Sweetbottoms]

Originally Posted by beachmouse

I'm not a fan of Southern culture or Southern politics and could never see moving to the Carolinas.

I did manage to fall in love with Colorado this summer while on vacation- so much nature, bike paths and hiking trails all over the place and a lot of locals who take advantage of all the recreation opportunities at every turn. Apparently when you're talking Denver or lower elevations, the winters aren't bad- you'll get a snowstorm move through on a Tuesday in February and then it all melts by Friday because it's sunny and 65F. The ski areas are all higher up in the mountains in order to get the reliable high elevation snow.

The down side is that a lot of the state is in a boom cycle and cost of living is on the high side right now.

NC did not feel southern. Not the Charlotte area at least. My husband and I put off going to the Carolinas for probably 10+ years because we had such a vision of what it was like. It was nothing like we thought. It felt like a southern New England more than anything. It reminded me very much of when I lived in NH with the tree lined streets. Constant hills up and down and home style.

[tonyff67]

If I left Florida, it would be to somewhere warm!

[StreetSmarts]

asheville or greenville sc

[smarino]

I'm just waiting on the interplanetary shuttle to be built.

[StreetSmarts]

Originally Posted by tonyff67

If I left Florida, it would be to somewhere warm!

is this a joke? warm? fl heat n humidity is miserable half the yr.

[crowsandcats]

Originally Posted by Sweetbottoms

At your age (we are just slightly older in our early 30's) I'd get the hell out of fla. it's a retirement state. Period. We are heading to NC (Charlotte) this coming summer. It's much more young, much cheaper than fla, and offers a large variety of things to do, places to go etc. mountains are an hour or so drive , beach is 2 hour drive. You're a day's drive to NYC or a days drive back to FLA. The people were so much friendlier . You hardly ever hear of people moving to the Carolinas and coming back to where they came from. I hear it over and over of people moving to either Fla or NE and leaving after a year. Asheville is suppose to be a great young hip city. My husband is in finance so Charlotte is a better fit for us and it's got huge job growth potential. You may want to check it out.

I like all the suggestions: Charlotte, Asheville, Greenville, SC....

One of the main reasons we decided on Florida in the first place is because my wife's first language is Spanish, and she is still learning English with an upper-intermediate ESL level. She worked in a bank as a teller for over a year in Peru when we met, and she worked for a car insurance agent in California that catered primarily to Spanish-speaking Mexicans. Therefore, I'm not sure how successful she would be at obtaining a job in the Carolinas. She has a technical degree in Accounting from Peru. Maybe you could ask your husband what he thinks? My wife would love to work as a bank teller here in the USA...or anywhere in the financial sector for that matter.

We have considered Miami, but the cost of living is high. Currently, we are gravitating towards the Orlando area...specifically Kissimmee, because there is a decent Spanish-speaking population there. My wife really doesn't want to be around lots of Latinos as she wants to integrate into American society as much as possible, but we both figure that for the short term she could probably much more easily get a low-paying job in an area with a sizeable Spanish-speaking population.

As long as I'm working for a post office in an area where the population is steadily increasing, then my career outlook is pretty good.

[StreetSmarts]

Kissimmee is kind of a dump. And mostly hispanic so she wont be able to get away from spanish speaking people if she wanted to. May have to go with.............................................. .. umm................................... Lake Mary, Oviedo or Winter Springs.

[crowsandcats]

Perhaps, but are there jobs for non English speakers in those areas?

[StreetSmarts]

Originally Posted by crowsandcats

Perhaps, but are there jobs for non English speakers in those areas?

Yes.

Just about anywhere in FL nowadays.

[LKJ1988]

Cuba.