Why we're moving back to the US (from Paris) (insurance, loan)

[nickels]

Originally Posted by cunparis

Great post WillysB and I agree with you, but..



1 - baguettes
2 - meeting people from all over the world
3 - hearing foreign languages (by foreign I mean not french or american) spoken every time I leave the house
4 - notre dame
5 - eiffel tower
6 - restaurants with food from countries all over the world (how many people have eaten at an Afghanistan restaurant?)
7 - interesting political discussions - I didn't know anything about politics when I came. I came to France a republican and I will leave a democrat
8 - being around people who are able to debate and challenge religion (most of the "young" French are not religious)
9 - the best tap water in the world
10 - being in a country that is not too puritan. seeing a woman's breast is actually not that bad.

I could probably think of more.

I'm an expat, but not in Paris, and most of those fit for me too. There's just something great and interesting about life in an international city, and it's hard to make the choice between it, and some of the comforts of the "American Dream."


I also agree with a previous poster who mentioned that it might possibly be city life in general, not necessarily Paris. Of course though, it's a moot point I suppose.

[mdm5]

Hi,
I can understand completely what you are saying.I have lived through that as well and left as well: now I only come back on vacation and have learned to enjoy the sheer beauty of Paris without the negative thoughts.Paris has so may wonderful things about it though...Your experience there is unfortunately similar to what many people would encounter in Big cities around the world.I hear similar things about LA, New-York, London all the time. I believe that it all due to people being on top of each other,overcrowded,overworked no space,overpriced...Smaller towns everywhere will also feel very different,no matter what country too... So it sounds more like you are fed up with the life in Big cities and would be happier in a smaller city... I've been there and since I moved to smaller town, we are much happier.
I am French and my husband is American. I was born and raised in France where I met my husband who is American and was studying to become a Chef. I lived two years in Paris and hated it !. I also lived in smaller cities in France , which were so nice with very pleasant people. French people are like everywhere else: nicer in smaller towns and not so nice in big towns such as Paris. Parisian are similar to New-Yorkers: over stressed and overworked, no time for quality life really. Although,just a NewYorkers, when you get to know them ( it takes a lot of efforts and time) they are very nice people. I disliked Paris for the same reasons as you and although I will always love France ( for the smaller towns), I decided to move to California 15 years ago. As for you to choose a place to move, you have to see what it is that you're looking for :
1) more laid back areas, small towns ?
2) Do-you like more hip towns
3) Are-you looking suburbs or nature ?
4) What job are -you looking for ?Some states or areas have more choice than others, depending on your line of work, and the pay varies greatly depending on that as well as where you go.
5) what type of weather do -you like ?
I would start by investigating jobs and how much they pay, as well as cost of living, housing ,schools. That way you can start by comparing your way of living there with a similar way of living here...
I think that there are so many beautiful areas in the US... I love California,Northern and southern both, however Northern is overpriced.On top of which, California it going through a very rough time right time between the loss of jobs and housing market falling. San Diego is a great area also but one of the most costly as far as housing, cost of living is really bad there. Where we live, which is Palm Desert ( near Palm Springs) is a very young , hip and cool town of 43,000 people with lots of families and great schools. Only thing is that you get 4 months of horrible heat ( desert) and it is an area that relies heavily on tourism and harder to keep jobs. We really enjoyed New England, which is great as far as education for kids and quality of life, and people are usually very friendly there.: especially Vermont where we met the most charming people, especially Burlington and Montpelier. I also like Colorado, especially Denver area and Colorado Springs, which are great for families and quality of life, housing and nature..I also heard that Austin, TX is a good place as far as jobs and housing too... Anyway, good luck to you and your family and I am sure that you will find your happiness...
One last thing: rent first so you can look around for the best places to settle.

[HookTheBrotherUp]

This to me is the quintessential 'The grass is always greener on the other side' syndrome. From speaking to my relatives in South America and Mexico, to my wife's family in Europe, just about all the young relatives want to come to the US to live/work. Only a couple have said they wanted to leave their country permanently, but overall, they too want to experience what America has to offer as many of us in the US want to experience what the rest of the world has to offer for a time.

Having spent time in Europe and the Middle East, I loved every minute of it and would not have done things any different, except maybe started living abroad earlier, but I always looked foward to coming 'home'. I think most people feel the same, regardless of where they are from. Of course, there are some places people don't really miss, that's understandable.

I agree with the OP regarding dog feces all over the street, urine on most of the walls in Paris, and in general, all the big cities, but that is just one facet of living in a metropolis. In fact, during my backpacking days in the 90s, when I first wrote back to family and frends about Paris, I described it as a dirty city. Hardly any reason to judge the entire experience on that alone. One can easily cust and paste the OP's first post and place a major US city in it's place and no one would know the difference. I loved all my time France, BTW.

My wife has family in Norway, and I saw homeless and mentally ill people wander the streets there as well, so no place is immune that I've visited with the exception of maybe the Middle East. I did not see homeless people in Doha/Dubai/Muscat, but that's not to say they don't exist, the government does a good job controlling the population and immigrants down there.

[WillysB]

I see the opportunity to move to another city, locale, country as an adventure. Therein my query 'what was there to lose'. I look forward to the OP giving his kids an opportunity to experience life in the pathetic ole U.S.a. To enhance their perspective as much as anything else. Maybe to instill the 'adventure' in them as well.

Anytime I'm in a foreign city I press the chance to walk the streets, sometimes forgetting there's a rapid transit to make life easier. Sometimes that metro had shut down for the nite. I don't think I ever had a problem with homeless, smog or dog poop.

My real question is, why would anyone want to spend a lifetime in one burg or city?

[Crew Chief]

Don't know that there's a lot I can add to this very thoughtful discussion except maybe to relate our experience... I'm an American married to a wonderful German woman who teaches. I met her while stationed in Germany with the USAF. I LOVED Germany in the 1980's and 1990's. And I had the best of both worlds, the comforts of "Little America" on base and an exotic foreign land right outside the gate. My wife came to love the U.S. as much as I loved Germany. I retired from the military after one more Stateside assignment. After a year or so, BOTH of us got itchy feet to return to Germany. My wife found a job teaching English in a former East German city. At first, she loved the job. It took her Eastern collegues some time getting used to her, but things worked out well. We considered buying an apartment. ("No lawn mower" I'm thinking...) But, unfortunately, my German is no better than a tourist's and I had no German technical training or certificates. We considered moving close to one of the U.S. military bases in Germany. But our rudimentary research showed us that most jobs in the areas near U.S. bases don't pay very well. And then there's the hassle of working through two different country's laws.

As Germany (especially the Eastern half) changed economically and socially and my wife got more frustrated with her teaching job, we decided to return to the U.S. Yes, we miss living in Europe. But we feel fortunate that we can buy many of our favorite Euro-products here (or on-line) and the computer has done away with the Atlantic in many ways. So we enjoy life here and look forward to the day we can return for a visit.

[cunparis]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

This to me is the quintessential 'The grass is always greener on the other side' syndrome.

That's what I'm always jumping the fence to check out the other side.

[laysayfair]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

This to me is the quintessential 'The grass is always greener on the other side' syndrome. From speaking to my relatives in South America and Mexico, to my wife's family in Europe, just about all the young relatives want to come to the US to live/work. Only a couple have said they wanted to leave their country permanently, but overall, they too want to experience what America has to offer as many of us in the US want to experience what the rest of the world has to offer for a time.

Having spent time in Europe and the Middle East, I loved every minute of it and would not have done things any different, except maybe started living abroad earlier, but I always looked foward to coming 'home'. I think most people feel the same, regardless of where they are from. Of course, there are some places people don't really miss, that's understandable.

I agree with the OP regarding dog feces all over the street, urine on most of the walls in Paris, and in general, all the big cities, but that is just one facet of living in a metropolis. In fact, during my backpacking days in the 90s, when I first wrote back to family and frends about Paris, I described it as a dirty city. Hardly any reason to judge the entire experience on that alone. One can easily cust and paste the OP's first post and place a major US city in it's place and no one would know the difference. I loved all my time France, BTW.

My wife has family in Norway, and I saw homeless and mentally ill people wander the streets there as well, so no place is immune that I've visited with the exception of maybe the Middle East. I did not see homeless people in Doha/Dubai/Muscat, but that's not to say they don't exist, the government does a good job controlling the population and immigrants down there.

I agree with everything you said EXCEPT I can't think of one single big American city that is known for having dog feces all over the place. I think that is the one thing you could not "cut and paste".

[bluepacific]

Originally Posted by laysayfair

I agree with everything you said EXCEPT I can't think of one single big American city that is known for having dog feces all over the place. I think that is the one thing you could not "cut and paste".

I think every city in every country has it's issues with cleanliness. Where I live in Gothenborg, Sweden, the city has issues with vandalism and Graffiti, but interestingly , no Dog crap issues that I have ever seen anywhere.

I love Prague in the Czech Republic, and even though the tourist areas are fairly clean, it's the residential areas in and around the outskirts of the city center that are a huge mess. Most of this comes from people living in former Communist bloc high rise housing projects. We're not talking about apartment dwellers who have little doggie doodoo issues. We're talking dogs the size of a small pony living in the cracker box apartments and doing what they do on the sidewalks of all places , not just vacant lots and parks. You literally have to watch your every footstep, it is just that bad. All cities need some sort of lead laws and rules on feces pickup by the owner. Everyone there acknowledges it's a problem, but nothing get's done.

The USA is going to have it's own issues and I'm sure there are areas in each city where they don't care despite any of the laws. I supervised the landscaping for a large residential management company in San Diego before coming here. My way of dealing with the doggie feces problem with the tenants with animals, was to find out which tenant was diliberately not picking up the feces and then to promptly have it picked up and put on their porch steps. That took care of the problem real fast and we had no one breaking the rules after that.

I'm sure some of you here find it diffcult to imagine I would take such drastic measures.

[laysayfair]

Originally Posted by bluepacific

I think every city in every country has it's issues with cleanliness. Where I live in Gothenborg, Sweden, the city has issues with vandalism and Graffiti, but interestingly , no Dog crap issues that I have ever seen anywhere.

I love Prague in the Czech Republic, and even though the tourist areas are fairly clean, it's the residential areas in and around the outskirts of the city center that are a huge mess. Most of this comes from people living in former Communist bloc high rise housing projects. We're not talking about apartment dwellers who have little doggie doodoo issues. We're talking dogs the size of a small pony living in the cracker box apartments and doing what they do on the sidewalks of all places , not just vacant lots and parks. You literally have to watch your every footstep, it is just that bad. All cities need some sort of lead laws and rules on feces pickup by the owner. Everyone there acknowledges it's a problem, but nothing get's done.

The USA is going to have it's own issues and I'm sure there are areas in each city where they don't care despite any of the laws. I supervised the landscaping for a large residential management company in San Diego before coming here. My way of dealing with the doggie feces problem with the tenants with animals, was to find out which tenant was diliberately not picking up the feces and then to promptly have it picked up and put on their porch steps. That took care of the problem real fast and we had no one breaking the rules after that.

I'm sure some of you here find it diffcult to imagine I would take such drastic measures.

Good solution! But unless you saw them do it how would you know which porch to put it on?

[bluepacific]

Originally Posted by laysayfair

Good solution! But unless you saw them do it how would you know which porch to put it on?

Oh trust me, I knew who they were because we followed them around the complex. They'd complain to the office and we just told them what they needed to do in order for it to stop. It was their responsibility and it was'nt fair for someone else to have a messed up lawn.

Ah, I miss those days