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Compared to Miami Beach, I would expect Miami to be a lot more normal (though more spanish speaking - something I don't mind but a lot do). I remember marveling at the different crowds going from Segafredos on Lincoln road to the one in Brickell.
On Lincoln road you'd get roided out guys in yellow spandex clutching Pomeranians like purses next to botox anorexic models on 6" heels. In Brickell, you'd just get normal people.
I feel if I lived in Miami instead of Miami Beach - I might have enjoyed it more. Miami Beach is just way too extreme in the people it attracts. It's like living in some reality tv show.
Only been here a few months, but thus far it seems to me that the Europeans are the ones adding that "weird" element to the beach. Every other group here feels very familiar, but there's just something odd about living amongst such a significant percentage of people from another continent...
Cubans are often blamed for making the area feel un-American, but perhaps it's my growing up in Texas that makes me more comfortable with Latin culture than most. I barely understand a lick of Spanish, but after hearing it all my life it's nothing more than background noise at this point.
I stayed in Vegas for 6 days. Very bad idea. Had to eventually drive to LA to escape before coming back to NYC!
what is it you didn't like? Sunny weather, low cost of living, no state income tax and great corporate environment, 24/7 activities, best shows and restaurants, awesome outdoor activities and being able to drive in open spaces in less that an hour while still being half a day away from CA beaches?
I was thinking of when I moved to Mexico. Living there was not the same as vacationing there at all. Not exactly hell, but just really frustrating. Mostly because of how long everything takes to accomplish. When you're on vacation, you want everything to be slow-paced and relaxed. When you're trying to live your normal life, like going to a hardware store and you have to try to explain to the guy behind the counter what you want in your not-so-fluent Spanish, and everything is behind the counter somewhere, so you can't just go grab what you want - it is frustrating. Try telling them that you want a #10 5/8" phillips head screw - when you have no idea how to explain that in Spanish and they use the metric system lol.
And then there is driving in Mexico or waiting 6 months to get a phone or internet....
I was thinking of when I moved to Mexico. Living there was not the same as vacationing there at all. Not exactly hell, but just really frustrating. Mostly because of how long everything takes to accomplish. When you're on vacation, you want everything to be slow-paced and relaxed. When you're trying to live your normal life, like going to a hardware store and you have to try to explain to the guy behind the counter what you want in your not-so-fluent Spanish, and everything is behind the counter somewhere, so you can't just go grab what you want - it is frustrating. Try telling them that you want a #10 5/8" phillips head screw - when you have no idea how to explain that in Spanish and they use the metric system lol.
And then there is driving in Mexico or waiting 6 months to get a phone or internet....
I loved vacationing there, but not living there.
Slow pace of life gets irritating. I lived in Wyoming and while it wasn't the extreme you mentioned, people were slow. They drove under the speed limit, walked slowly in stores, were slow to get things ordered for you, etc. etc. I don't like the rat race, but people still need to get **** done, even in small towns. So frustrating.
Slow pace of life gets irritating. I lived in Wyoming and while it wasn't the extreme you mentioned, people were slow. They drove under the speed limit, walked slowly in stores, were slow to get things ordered for you, etc. etc. I don't like the rat race, but people still need to get **** done, even in small towns. So frustrating.
LOL. That's how I felt when I moved to TN, too. Funny how in CA we hurry to the places we want to relax at. We can chill at the beach, but we want to get stuff done in-between at a faster pace.
For bigger cities, Orlando or Vegas- although I have no interest in visiting OR living in either. They're both efficient at moving people around to tourist attractions, so convenient in some respects for a vacation. But I'd never want to live in inland Florida in the culture-free suburban sprawlscape of Orlando, and I'm not sure you could pay me enough to live anywhere in the post-apocalyptic hellscape of Vegas, where there's literally nothing quaint or cute at all, and no semblance of a traditional city layout.
Going the total opposite direction, to me, tiny tourist towns can be fun to visit but get boring or lack some amenities to keep me there long-term. For example, years ago we moved from Denver to Glenwood Springs/No Name, CO- a little, isolated mountain town we always had a crush on and enjoyed visiting. It was a blast, though the seasonal fluctuation could be jarring. But it could be very cliquish, not much ever happened, and there wasn't a wide enough variety of shops, restaurants, people, etc. to keep us there more than two years. Great to visit for a weekend or a base for a vacation, but too small for us.
If Vegas had a rail line from the airport, it would be dramatically easier to visit.
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