Relocating to Iowa in May from the Philippines, Need Advice or Suggestions (Des Moines: apartment complexes, crime rate)

[IowaBoundinMay]

Hi. I have gone through almost every thread in this forum related to relocating in Iowa and I find most posts helpful and enlightening, save for a few conflicting information or description as to why one should stay in one place and avoid another.

Here's our story:

We are moving to Iowa in May 2010 from the Philippines. My husband (32 y.o) (29 y.o) have been given an exciting employment opportunity. Though we would be leaving a stable and well-compensated job (a therapy center for children with special needs), we took this new job anyway so we could travel to another country and try a different culture, without having to lose our income.

We would be working between Marshalltown, Boone, Perry, Stratford, and Gowrie. Our jobs will require us to travel between these locations to see our clients/patients in various nursing and rehabilitation facilities. We have a 1 year old daughter with us. We are thinking of moving to Ames as this seems to be the midpoint between the earlier given locations (based on Google maps and Yahoo! maps). I'd like to know if this is a diverse area in terms of recreation, shopping, culture education, etc. Is there a good child care or day care center within this vicinity?

Is Ames an easy drive between our work locations? I'm not to sure if we should rely on Google maps for time travel computation. Is crime rate in Ames tolerable? Minimal noise considering its a college town? Should we ever get bored, what are the things we could do on weekends? My daughter loves the outdoors as well as shopping malls, do this abound within the vicinity? How are the medical facilities within this area?

I have read of stories of discrimination within these forums, how do you think the Ames community would react to Filipinos?

Can you recommend any apartment complexes within Ames that's good to raise a 1 year old girl?

Any information, insight, suggestion, or advice you can provide will be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

[Persimmony]

Ames sounds like it will be a good location for where you'll be doing your work ... Also - I don't think you will have problems with discrimination, people in Iowa are pretty open minded and Ames has a lot of different cultures because of the University. Don't worry.

As far as apartments - I would look on apartmentfinder.com and search Ames to get an idea of what you want and what you're going to pay.

[IowaBoundinMay]

Thank You Persimmony. Im delighted to hear about what you said on not having to worry with discrimination. I will be heading to apartnmentfinder.com

[El Rhino]

If you get homesick for certain Filipino items, there is a Filipino store in Southridge Mall in Des Moines.

[IowaBoundinMay]

awwwww.... thank you for that information El Rhino. Appreciate it.

[capitalcityguy]

Ames sounds like a good match for what you're looking for and the capital of Iowa, Des Moines, is just a 45 minute Interstate away and will over additional cultural and shopping options.

[IowaBoundinMay]

thank you capitalcityguy. much appreciated.

[IowaBoundinMay]

What are my alternatives beside Ames?

[iowegian]

Given the cities you listed, (not including really small towns because it would be hard to find apartments) your only other real option would be Boone. Otherwise, you would be adding a lot to your commute time.

Boone is a nice town, quite a bit smaller than Ames (population about 13,000) but still large enough to have some nice stores. It is probably considerably cheaper than Ames, but also less diverse. There's nothing at all wrong with Boone, but I think if I were you, I would go with Ames. It sounds like you would like to have some things to do, and there is more to do in Ames than in Boone. Plus, it's closer to Des Moines, which has many more amenities.

[hawkeye2009]

Originally Posted by IowaBoundinMay

Hi. I have gone through almost every thread in this forum related to relocating in Iowa and I find most posts helpful and enlightening, save for a few conflicting information or description as to why one should stay in one place and avoid another.

Here's our story:

We are moving to Iowa in May 2010 from the Philippines. My husband (32 y.o) (29 y.o) have been given an exciting employment opportunity. Though we would be leaving a stable and well-compensated job (a therapy center for children with special needs), we took this new job anyway so we could travel to another country and try a different culture, without having to lose our income.

We would be working between Marshalltown, Boone, Perry, Stratford, and Gowrie. Our jobs will require us to travel between these locations to see our clients/patients in various nursing and rehabilitation facilities. We have a 1 year old daughter with us. We are thinking of moving to Ames as this seems to be the midpoint between the earlier given locations (based on Google maps and Yahoo! maps). I'd like to know if this is a diverse area in terms of recreation, shopping, culture education, etc. Is there a good child care or day care center within this vicinity?

Is Ames an easy drive between our work locations? I'm not to sure if we should rely on Google maps for time travel computation. Is crime rate in Ames tolerable? Minimal noise considering its a college town? Should we ever get bored, what are the things we could do on weekends? My daughter loves the outdoors as well as shopping malls, do this abound within the vicinity? How are the medical facilities within this area?

I have read of stories of discrimination within these forums, how do you think the Ames community would react to Filipinos?

Can you recommend any apartment complexes within Ames that's good to raise a 1 year old girl?

Any information, insight, suggestion, or advice you can provide will be very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Ames would be a great choice. There is a large Asian community there due to Iowa State University. The entire Ames high school girl's tennis team is Asian. The town is nice and has alot to offer regarding sports, theater, ect. Des Moines is a stone's throw away for more shopping, but personally, I like Ames better than Des Moines.