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Observations about North Carolina/Raleigh, low home prices, low cost of living, friendly polite residents, central location to beaches, mountains, slow paced
Pardon me if I was tailgating you. Improving from the low driving standards of california after my first 3 weeks here.
It is great to see kids from different cultures having fun in the afternoons on the streets in communities. We came here with the view of giving it a shot for at least an year before deciding to stay put long term. So far haven't come across any red flags. How I hated those hour long one way commutes and exorbitant house prices in the not-so-golden state.Thank god ! for coming to a saner place where your savings have some value
But I have a job which is probably making me look at life in a positive frame of mind.
Best of luck with your job hunt. Hope you really like it here.
How about any reasonable meat markets? I did find Aldi there while I visited. It was reasonable for basic needs such as canned goods, boxed goods, and frozen items.
Okay not that I disagree but I wanted to address two things here:
1) Has anyone EVER heard of a city where outsiders regularly COMPLIMENTED the drivers? Honestly, every single city the outsiders complain about the driving
2) Ground beef on sale for $4.99/lb? You can't compare ground beef prices until you look at whether it's lean, extra lean, or what have you - the cheapest stuff is always the 25-30% fat stuff and even regular price that's rarely going to be above 3 bucks a pound...likewise the 5% ultra-lean even on sale is always going to be expensive.
Having said all this, the things I've noticed as cheaper than LA are:
Real Estate
Car insurance
Lunch options (take-out food, etc)
Gas (about 20 cents/gallon)
I have been here 6mths and a friend of mine 5mths and she has not been able to find a job. People are very prejudice telling her "go home Yankee" where you came from. She gets interviews and no offers. The better jobs are for the Southerners and for the Northerners nothing. I found a spot after 5 mths and lost it after one month how great is that. However, I was offered 4 weeks pay in advance and driven home and given a letter of recommendation. I was doing a good job but they are bringing back their previous employee. It's just a lot of stupid political stuff going on and I hate it. I didn't like working there in the first place. The point is I am unemployed. I went to BB & T last week on an interview and I am invited to return next week hopefully. I am looking forward to it it's a good firm. I have some funds to live on but I don't have family or else I would return home to NY. True it's more expensive but I dont plan on buying a house so it doesn't matter to me. I can't afford a house by myself no matter how low the taxes are. Maybe some day if I land a job fast enough and get out of debt but otherwise I don't know. First things first. In any event, these southerners are prejudice. Wish they would get off the boat the civil war is over. They blame transplants for their overcrowded school and their children get moved around a lot and classrooms are in trailors. So they are not happy campers.
I find the "go home yankee" thing hard to believe. I was recruited to come down to the south by my employer here in Raleigh. That doesn't say "go home yankee" to me. It's a competitive market for jobs right now and to think the ONLY reason you didn't get a job offer is because you're from the north is small minded IMO. There's no "policial stuff" going on in the North? Office politics is not a southern thing. There's office politics in the north. Lots of them. I know because I'm from the north originally. It's the northern attitude of those coming from the north that turns the southerns off to northerners. I've been here 10 years and LOVE it. No plans to ever go back to the north. I thoroughly enjoy people saying hi to me when I'm walking. I enjoy the less frequent demonstrations of road range when I'm driving (it still happens down here but not as much as what I see when I go back north for visits). We're blessed with living in a free country. If you don't like it here go back north.
Hmmm.... this is a becoming a charged issue. I certainly have been told "Yankee go home." Actually, it was that I should "get back on 95 and head north." I've had an older gentleman drop my hand as he was shaking it when I said I moved here from San Francisco then walk away. I've also been told by several friends that they "hate" people from NY, present company excluded (I was born there) and that they wish they could get all the "yankees" to leave. I've been told that my kids (both born in Raleigh) aren't Southerners (kittens born in an oven aren't biscuits.) And most of those comments were from friends - people who have my family over for dinner! I actually have lots of friends who are natives, I'm gainfully employed, have been here for 15 years and I'm a Midwesterner!
I've lived all over the US and haven't personally experienced a situation like this any where else, but that may just be because I've lived in more metropolitan areas. Perhaps in areas where families have been there for generations, this kind of ambivalence is inevitable. Change is hard to accept - and this area changes on an almost daily basis. Usually, it doesn't benefit the families who have lived, farmed, worshiped, etc. here.
I often hear people say things like "well, move back to _____ then" or "if you don't like it, leave" whenever anyone discusses anything negative about the area. I hate that! Every place has its good points and its not so good points, doesn't it? I lived in Northern California - and it was common to hear people say "if only it weren't so expensive" or hear incredibly diverse political views (that area can be so extreme!) No one took it personally! In Chicago, traffic was a nightmare downtown. In Indiana, well, I mean, corn can be exciting. Really. On Long Island...
You catch my drift.
The negative part of the friendliness means that you probably will get questions about what church you belong to from strangers. The negative part about the North-South thing is that you may get comments about how it used to be around here and how the transplants all ruined it. Or you may not. But some people have.
That doesn't mean NC is a bad place. It just means that not everyone can give 100% glowing comments 100% of the time. Which makes sense, because no one place, person, situation is ever perfect.
Accepting criticism with poise may be an NC challenge... at least, it seems that way to me at times. But even I could be wrong. I am a Yankee, after all. But I do always use my turn signal.
harris teeter had a "sale" yesterday. the ground beef was $4.99 a pound. groceries are very high here!!!! compared to NJ
Go to Super Walmart in NC and you won't pay high prices.
I know the prices of ShopRite and Stop N Shop as I lived in NJ for a long long time before coming here. You can compare the Harris Teeter prices but you get grade A service there too which you DO NOT get in Shoprite and Stop N Shop.
And I have never been told "Yankee go home" or anything of that nature. I am here 2 yrs. I can't picture someone just saying that to say it. There has to be a trigger to make one so hostile in my opinion.
Bravo Kristen!!! I was glad to see that it wasnt just me seeing this kind of thing. We're recently moved here and having a hard time. The kids at the Elementary school age seem to be welcoming but my high schooler is having a heck of the time making friends. Its funny cause all the years they were in school back home, if a new kid came in in the middle of the year I would always tell my kids to go out of their way to befriend them and be nice b/c its gotta be hard to move to a new school where you dont know anybody. Seems most the kids here were never told that.
I'm way too nice to trigger comments like that! Seriously!
I'm just saying - I've sat around on night shift talking with groups of other nurses, RTs and doctors... and had several openly confirm that they felt this way. I empathize with their reasoning, too. But after hearing them talk, I guess I just really can see someone being on the receiving end of hostility and *not* necessarily doing anything to deserve it. I'm glad for the people who have never experienced negative comments - truly. But I also don't think that everyone who says that they've heard something like that is to blame for being on the receiving end. But as I said - that's JMO - for what it's worth!
It's only two of us so I shop at the Harris Teeter supermarket. I love it. I'm getting spoiled because they take your groceries out of the basket, bag them, put them in your cart, and they will take it out and put it in your car if you like. Lovin it.
Go to Super Walmart in NC and you won't pay high prices.
I know the prices of ShopRite and Stop N Shop as I lived in NJ for a long long time before coming here. You can compare the Harris Teeter prices but you get grade A service there too which you DO NOT get in Shoprite and Stop N Shop.
And I have never been told "Yankee go home" or anything of that nature. I am here 2 yrs. I can't picture someone just saying that to say it. There has to be a trigger to make one so hostile in my opinion.
L
I so agree with this. The people I have come across here are very polite and I cannot imagine anyone having the bad taste to just blurt that out for no reason. I wouldn't have liked anyone telling me what was wrong with NY when I was there, so I am very careful not to be negative. When in Rome do as the Romans do. Be polite.
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But I do always use my turn signal.
