Young couple Moving from England (Boston, Cambridge: apartments, lawyer, houses)

[nicmarie]

Hi there,

My boyfriend and i are thinking of moving from england to MA, maybe to Amherst or Ashfield, as these look like nice areas and the houses unbelievable!! We like outdoor pursuits like hiking and kayaking, are these available here?
We would also like to know if employment is good here? (my boyfriend is a lawyer so would probably work as a paralegal for a time and i will be a graduate Landscape Architect)?
Does anyone know if there are good oppurtunities for Landscape Architects in this sort of area or would you have to live in a city like Boston? (i know that is a more recognised proffesion in the US than in England where it is virtually unheard of!!)

Also, are foreigners welcome? I know with the Universities there must be a diverse culture but is it easy for ex-pats to settle in?

oh and one last question! Do you eat roast dinners in New England?! as in potatoes, gravy, yorkshire pudding??!

thank you

Nic x

[brightdoglover]

Hello, and welcome to coming to Massachusetts!
I'm not sure what you mean by "Ashfield"- do you mean "Ashland" or "Asburnham" or "Ashby?"
I doubt there's much Landscape Arch. work around Amherst. There are several colleges there, and UMass has a degree program in landscape architecture (under the agriculture school). Outside of the colleges, the local economy isn't particularly well-rounded, although the area is very nice. I'd suspect you'd need to live somewhere accessible to Boston or metro Boston to find that line of work.
But that leaves a whole lot of nice places, especially if you don't have to get right into Boston itself. I think you might do well north/northwest of Cambridge, into southern New Hampshire. I think there's less of your type of work south of Boston, and you get into serious traffic to get out of town. I'd strongly suggest you live northwest of Cambridge (disclaimer- I'm biased, I live 25 mi. NW of Cambridge, and could easily get into town, into a metro area, or out of town for outdoor activity).
It would probably help to nail down a job or area where jobs are likely to be before nailing down the area to live in. Maybe a relocation apartment would make sense until you were clearer on where to work and live. Avalon Apartments has multiple new complexes in many of the nicer towns (I'm not affiliated).
No one would notice you as a "foreigner" simply for being from England. In fact, around Boston, there's quite a bit of old-style Anglophilia! Every place I've worked has people from all over the world working there.
Dunno about "roast beef dinners." In and around Cambridge/Boston, there's every kind of ethnic food. The prime minister of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai's family, has the first Afghani restaurant in the area- the Helmand, great stuff. Outlying towns often have a little family ethnic place tucked away somewhere. In my area, the local immigrant group is Brazilian. (The second most common linguistic group in Massachusetts is Portuguese, not Spanish, due to the many immigrants from Cape Verde and Brazil).
Oh, and just to humor me- "Zen Associates" in Sudbury, MA, are a very interesting landscape arch. group. Pricey! but beautiful.
Good luck. You should be able to find a very suitable place for yourselves once you know where you should look for work.

[in_newengland]

"Ashfield"- do you mean "Ashland" or "Asburnham" or "Ashby?"

Ashfield is west of Amherst, located in what are known as the hilltowns. There is not any work there as it is rural and remote.

As for roasts, we have something you might like called pot roast. Also called Yankee (as in New England) pot roast. Mostly you don't get Yorkshire pudding over here but you can make it easily enough. Sometimes you can get something similar to YKS pudding in restaurants -- they're called popovers. (available at Judie's in Amherst THE BEST), Angela's?(Angelina's?) out in Eastern MA and a few other places. You can't get the frozen YKS puddings either but Yuck anyway. English people are well accepted here.

[theh]

Western Mass is a beautiful area and perfect if you enjoy hiking and kayaking (so long as you don't mind it being too damn cold and snowy to leave the house for like, 5 months out of the year).

Unfortunately, as has already been stated--the area is seriously lacking in jobs, especially for the past few years since our economy is completely down the tubes. The Northampton/Amherst areas are your best bet because of the colleges, but there still isn't much.

New Englanders love British people. We are charmed by their accents and sense of humor!

[tonrob]

Originally Posted by nicmarie

Hi there,

My boyfriend and i are thinking of moving from england to MA, maybe to Amherst or Ashfield, as these look like nice areas and the houses unbelievable!! We like outdoor pursuits like hiking and kayaking, are these available here?
We would also like to know if employment is good here? (my boyfriend is a lawyer so would probably work as a paralegal for a time and i will be a graduate Landscape Architect)?
Does anyone know if there are good oppurtunities for Landscape Architects in this sort of area or would you have to live in a city like Boston? (i know that is a more recognised proffesion in the US than in England where it is virtually unheard of!!)

Also, are foreigners welcome? I know with the Universities there must be a diverse culture but is it easy for ex-pats to settle in?

oh and one last question! Do you eat roast dinners in New England?! as in potatoes, gravy, yorkshire pudding??!

thank you

Nic x

What visas would you be coming on? Might help with recommendations regarding where you might best settle (e.g. employment-based etc,)