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Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: treefingers on 02 Jan 2008, 21:44
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I'm thinking of moving to the UK and am seeking some advice on the topic.
My questions are as follows:
-Which areas are worth reading into?
-How much money should I be saving to make this move?
-What are some big cultural differences? (I figure I should get an opinion from someone who actually knows seeing how my only means of education is google.)
I'm sure I have other questions but I can't remember them. I've done a bit of research but I'm still a bit cloudy on a few things. Any help or advice would really be appreciated. Thanks.
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The spelling is all wacky in the UK.
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They think that grilling things from above isn't completely ridiculous.
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What's ridiculous about it? How else do you possibly grill something?
Oh, they typically smoke a lot more than your average person can get used to, but I guess this depends on where you are living right now.
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illinois...
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Where in Illinois?
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about 45 minutes south of chicago in a town called manteno.
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Property in the UK is stupidly expensive, so if you're planning on living somewhere, take lots of money. Yeah, even if you'll just be renting.
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I sort of figured as much. Rent is payed per week, is it not?
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...Sorry, but I'm a little confused.
If you don't know anything about the UK why do you want to move there?
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It's somewhere I've always been interested in living. I've done a bit of research but I'd like a little more information from people who know it first hand. I certainly don't want to live in Shit town, USA my entire life either.
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The spelling is all wacky in the US.
FIX'D :-D
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The spelling is all wackuy in the UK.
fixd
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spelling, shmelling.
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Their desserts are wierd.
Exhibit A:
(http://img116.imageshack.us/img116/6408/50369552020301020062020cp8.jpg)
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is that dolphin safe?
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Their desserts are weird.
Fix'd
And yeah, they are. Brawn anyone?
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/00/Head_cheese.JPG/800px-Head_cheese.JPG)
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Spotted Dick is the least dolphin-safe thing in the entire world.
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Is... is that ham?
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Swing and a miss.
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(People rarely answer questions seriously here. Yeesh).
Eh, moving to the UK is silly, after Illinois.
Why move somewhere you can never ever be a citizen? And that has shit weather? And where the people pronounce "shit" as "shite"? And they call car trunks "boots"?
I say research the States a bit more before hopping across The Pond. Pick a state that has a coast line. We have much better food, that's for DAMN sure. mmmmm.. Mexican food.
If you super dooper want to move to the UK, go look at prices as far as living under a roof. Then try to secure a job before going. Then sit down and figure out if you'd be able to afford a living space with what they're going to pay you. Once you realize that's hopeless, don't give up hope on leaving Shit Town, USA. There are a lot of Less Shitty Towns here in the US, yannow. There are even cities.
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Steer clear of London and all surrounding areas (the "Home Counties"). There are some lovely places in that part of England, but there are too many people there and 90% of them are arseholes. If it weren't for family obligations whenever I visit the U.K. I'd never go south of Herefordshire (which is beautiful).
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Swing and a miss.
Google says it's headcheese. Close enough for me. My point was pork shouldn't be for dessert.
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I wasn't offering you desert, I was showing everyone a traditional English lunch meat.
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And that has shit weather?
I say research the States a bit more before hopping across The Pond. Pick a state that has a coast line. We have much better food, that's for DAMN sure. mmmmm.. Mexican food.
The weather is temperate which means where I live, at least, we get 6-7 months of really nice weather.
It's true there's actually an embargo on good food in the UK. We've been living off sheep brains for the past 6 years.
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I'm a spoiled brat. We get 12 months of smiley good time weather. Never drops below freezing, unless there's some sort of freak storm of doom.
Gets a little boring though, I'll give you that. And we get earthquakes every decade or two.
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Yeah, just move to a non-shitty part of the US. Probably much less of a hassle than trying to immigrate.
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Or emigrate.
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Steer clear of London and all surrounding areas (the "Home Counties"). There are some lovely places in that part of England, but there are too many people there and 90% of them are arseholes. If it weren't for family obligations whenever I visit the U.K. I'd never go south of Herefordshire (which is beautiful).
The Home Counties aren't that bad, they're just so expensive that the rent or a mortgage can render most people completely skint.
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Man, you guys have no sense of adventure do you?
Just to clear a few things up:
Nobody here eats spotted dick and I've never even heard of brawn. Curry is our national dish.
I'm damn sure you can become a citizen (were you thinking of Germany perhaps? I think it is nearly impossible there although I could be wrong).
The weather isn't all that bad.
'Shite' is an excellent word.
Yes, it's expensive to live here, but if you steer clear of London and the Home Counties then you'll be alright. For one thing they're expensive, and also the South is a rubbish cultural backwater with no style or sophistication.
Basically, your big problem will be: why should the UK government let you work in the country? Do you have a specific trade? Are you planning to study (this is probably the easiest way to get a visa). If you were just planning to move over here and take a minimum-wage job then I don't rate your chances of getting a work visa too highly.
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Not all the south is bad. London is ok, just busy and crowded and expensive. I live in Brighton which yes, is expensive but is also fucking amazing. Other than that I'd suggest Edinburgh, or Manchester. Maybe Bristol.
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I will trade you my room in Bournemouth for anything oh god please
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I'm aware of the cities in America, of course. I didn't say I was cultureless, I just implied that the town I live in sucks. I plan on studying art if I move to the UK. Also, I'm already working at a license for hairdressing (which I'm actually quite good at and could potentially make me a lot of money). I haven't finished school or saved enough money for my future plans yet, but I'll get there...slowly.
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I'm thinking of moving to the UK and am seeking some advice on the topic.
Where do you imply this? Because this looks a lot like you're saying you just want to move to another country...
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There's an art school here! Only £340 a month for my room!
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Whatever you do, you definitely shouldn't move to Chicago to go to art school. You might have me as a teacher. :-o
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(http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/724/flagjy6.png)
(http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/2863/armywq6.png)
(http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9137/castlevl2.jpg)
(http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9308/lamblz0.png)
(http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/326/baymg5.jpg)
(http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/5199/whiskeyum7.jpg)
(http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/8985/lakessr8.png)
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Lincoln and Derbyshire are beautiful places, I'd probably avoid Northern cities (and probably cities altogether) if you want to see anything other than commercial shops and crowds. A lot of English people don't take too kindly to Americans acting overly loud or boisterous so i'd probably try keep that to a minimum lest you care to be known as "that American kid" no matter how long you live here. British food isn't too bad, and if you don't like it you don't have to eat it. You can always eat Indian/m
Mexican/Chinese etc. Again, i don't know anyone that eats spotted dick and i have no idea what the other image is supposed to be of. You should also probably forget about british stereotype completely, we don't drink tea with the queen and we don't have bad teeth. Forget the word "British", i don't know anyone who would like to be referred to as British.
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Southern England isn't bad. Hampshire's a nice place to live, i've been here 18 years and I have no problem with it. Depends how far south you go really. You don't want to go to that South-East.South-West is much better. I'd also avoid too far North, Manchester and Liverpool have funny accents you can laugh at, but I can't see much else appealing there.
As far as food goes, you can't beat a good chippy or roast beef.
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I think the concerns brought up about jobs/visas/living expenses/housing are probably going to be the biggest ones you have to deal with when you move. With the Dollar as it is now the money you hoard to go over there and get you started will probably get you not that much once it's converted into Pounds. So it sounds to me like having a job lined up before you go would be pretty important since your savings won't last you long. Also there's the Visa thing. Right now if I remember right British real estate is even pricier than it is over here (based on household income, if I recall), so you'd probably want to move to a place where you can find work but the rents won't be out of reach (so, as far as I can tell, not London). 'Course, London is so pricey partly because it has so many jobs so finding one might be a bit harder in another town.
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Did people just insult Leeds? Somebody hold my coat, them's fighting words! Nothing but commercial shops? I'll have you know we have one of the best preserved Cistercian abbeys in the UK and one of the best autonomous social centres. So nyer. London is horrifically expensive not really because of the amount of jobs but because so many people want to live there prices get driven up. Unless you have a lot of money or a good job lined up, avoid it. It does actually have a lot of cool stuff going on it though, my comments about the South in general before were somewhat flippant (in case you can't guess, in the UK the North looks down on the South and vice versa, although often not in too serious a manner. The South is a lot more expensive in general though).
If you're thinking of going to art school, then you want to go here:
(http://www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk/jpgs/glasgow_school_art_11.jpg)
Glasgow School Of Art. It was designed by Rennie Mackintosh. Nuff said. Plus, Glasgow is a really nice city to live in, very friendly people and one of the best art scenes in the country.
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I'm damn sure you can become a citizen (were you thinking of Germany perhaps? I think it is nearly impossible there although I could be wrong).
Not impossible, but you just have to live there for eight years before you can even apply. So kind of a pain in the behind, if you will.
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True, and I very much wish it was easier for people to go and live where they'd like to. Still, I doubt there are many countries where gaining citizenship is a terribly easy process.
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There's an art school here! Only £340 a month for my room!
For the OP's benefit, that's $26,941.73 US.
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(People rarely answer questions seriously here. Yeesh).
Eh, moving to the UK is silly, after Illinois.
Why move somewhere you can never ever be a citizen? And that has shit weather? And where the people pronounce "shit" as "shite"? And they call car trunks "boots"?
I say research the States a bit more before hopping across The Pond. Pick a state that has a coast line. We have much better food, that's for DAMN sure. mmmmm.. Mexican food.
If you super dooper want to move to the UK, go look at prices as far as living under a roof. Then try to secure a job before going. Then sit down and figure out if you'd be able to afford a living space with what they're going to pay you. Once you realize that's hopeless, don't give up hope on leaving Shit Town, USA. There are a lot of Less Shitty Towns here in the US, yannow. There are even cities.
i completely agree. you live in the midwest... no wonder you think america sucks! (i lived in michigan up until a few months ago. now i live in california permanently and arizona temporarily for work). move somewhere else in the US first. choose a direction east or west and go until you hit ocean. hell, try moving there with no job even. you could be really adventurous and just start driving somewhere without even a place to live figured out yet. a friend of mine recently moved to LA from michigan with no job and no place to stay... i can't even imagine. find out how difficult it is to do it in your own country, then consider doing it in another country where you won't be a citizen and people might be more likely to discriminate against you when it comes to getting jobs, even minimum wage ones.
you say you want to go to art school in the UK... do you know anything about how tuition works over there? i'm not sure myself, but you have to know that in the US people that aren't citizens, even people that aren't residents in the state where the school is, pay a hell of a lot more in tuition than citizens and residents. find out what kind of criteria for citizenship and residency they have for university tuition, or what the costs are in general. you may be able to afford a flat in the UK, but can you also afford the tuition?
if you want to move to the UK, awesome. barring nuclear disaster and the polar ice caps melting, the UK will still be there after you've gotten your degree and have some kind of marketable skill that can get you a job over there. some patience and some intelligence about this now will save you a lot of trouble later.
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save up for at least 6 months and a plane tickey back if it doesnt' work out! then go and live off the savings until you find a job/get tired of england and move to somewhere better, like paris
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do you have any idea how depressed you are going to feel when you convert your dollars into pounds?! and then realize that the pound, although it is worth twice as much as the dollar, will only buy you half as much as the dollar does?! england does not make any sense!
i kind of wish people would stop posting boards about advice for moving to other countries. it seems really silly and pointless to me.
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Gordon Brown?
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move to somewhere better, like paris
I've never understod the atraction of Paris, or France for that matter. You now have to pay to use the freakin public toilets. If you're American, the people look down their greasy, unwashed noses at you like you were the piece of dog shit they just walked by. And you know why the river is brown? Its cause it isn't a real river, its an exposed sewage line. I found the whole city to be disgusting. The smell reminded me of the time I helped my local county fix a wastewater treatment plant. (Which is why you should never call the local Bishop, The Fueher in the middle of a catholic school assembly, but that's a different story).
As for the UK, I have a couple of friends who live there. They like it well enough. But the best thing to do before moving, make sure you have at least some place you can stay for several months and still be financially stable. Having a job and a place to stay is probably the best bet.
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Not really.
I actually think all of the problems the UK faces have their roots before most of the politicians of this era were even alive.
Thatcher?
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The main problem I find with the U.K. whenever I go there these days (I'm half English, so I've been going there every few years since I was a kid) is its trash celebrity culture. The British media is absolutely obsessed with z-grade nobodies, and this intellectual vacuum seems to have filtered through to other areas, too: the nightly news on T.V. is not informative in the slightest, regardless of which channel you watch, the newspapers are really badly edited and ill-informed about anything outside a very narrow field of vision, and football is ridiculously dominant of public life. Even in the arts the driving interest seems to be fame and image rather than ideas and intelligence. And worst of all, the media in the U.K. is unbelievably inward-looking: chances are the only news from outside the U.K. that you'll hear will be from the E.U., or from somewhere where there are British interests, such as Iraq. And even those stories will be pushed into the background by the tiniest minutiae about life in Britain. Basically intellectual curiosity seems to be a highly de-valued commodity in the U.K. at the moment. It's actually very depressing.
The countryside's pretty, though.
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Wait, are you talking about the right country? I mean, whatever happened to the BBC?
Thatcher?
Well damn, how old are your politicians?
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whatever happened to the BBC?
Exactly.
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Well damn, how old are your politicians?
Robert Byrd, Ted Stevens, Frank Lautenberg, Daniel Inouye, Daniel Akaka
C'mon Joe, you should know you senators.
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Exactly.
Well okay but still, that isn't any different than around here.
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That's not the point! Our news used to matter! Now at regular intervals in the day you get the fucking gossip read out to you in Received Pronunciation.
Actually I don't know how true that is, I don't watch the news or look at most media.
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the binge drinking phenomena
Oh Christ, I'd forgotten about that. One thing that gets really annoying as an Australian in Britain is that the attitudes of most people over there towards Australia are mired in cliches and stereotypes that largely stopped being accurate two or three decades ago. (No doubt this is not helped by the fact that most British people's exposure to Australia comes via the absurdly irrelevant depictions of it in Neighbours and Home and Away.) Of all the myths perpetuated by British people against Australians, the most hypocritical is the notion that Australians are big drinkers. There is no binge drinking culture in Australia that I'm aware of. There are some instances binge drinking, of course, but generally, while most nights out in Australia will revolve around alcohol to some extent, people here drink only to get drunk: drinking until you're unconscious is not generally a widespread cultural phenomenon in Australia. Whereas in Britain, from what I can tell, this approach to alcohol appears to be the norm. No country that I've ever been to has such an unhealthy drinking culture as Britain.
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And you fuckers scoffed at me (http://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,14831.0.html).
OH HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN
(I'm just taking the challenge piss.)
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Adding on what yelley said about finding out tuition...
Know that at my community college here in California, it's $22 a unit for California residents. For foreign peoples? Over $100 a unit. So, the class that costs me 66 bucks runs a foreigner back 300, not including books. I'll bet the situation is similar over 'dere, maybe even worse. Especially since the dollar is worth jack now.
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The British are also the ugliest race in the world.
Okay, now you're just getting silly.
The rest of the points raised on this page are incredibly correct though, I hate having to run the gauntlet of hammered students and LUFC hard nuts all equally bent on taking the lyrics to Annihilate This Week far too literally if I decide to go into the city centre on a weekend night. And then there's those friends who hit it too hard but you're not sure how you can talk them out of it since seemingly everyone's all smashed up all the time anyway and you can see them being the old wreck in the corner of the pub in a few years.
I can't watch the tv news anymore, it's too depressing. Not the subjects that are covered, it's the anglocentric position, obsession with celebrities and the terrifying fact that it seems to have been scripted by Chris Morris. In the BBC's defence The Today Programme on Radio 4 is still decent (if still prone to some of these problems) and From Our Own Correspondent is almost worth the license fee all on its own. The World Service has some fantastic programming too, its news programming is well worth listening to. It's just a shame that the same can't be said for any of the television news.
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And you fuckers scoffed at me (http://forums.questionablecontent.net/index.php/topic,14831.0.html).
As cringe inducing as that thread is, ode's post in the middle of the last page is epic hilarity.
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The World Service has some fantastic programming
This raises an interesting conundrum: when they're producing content for the consumption of the world in general, the British media can still come up with some outstanding results: the Guardian Weekly, for instance, is an outstanding publication and probably the best single source for world news in print form, at least in the English language. It's just the media for home-consumption that is so shocking in Britain.
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They're shutting down the world service. Well, trimming it down severely.
As cringe inducing as that thread is, ode's post in the middle of the last page is epic hilarity.
Edit: it's a bit better in the context, I guess. Also now I'm annoyed because I want to bring up more points about the debate but I don't want to drag the subject back up.
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Everything Tommy sad is basically true, but the people are plain stupid. And not very good at anything, we tend not to have skills. More than half of our post-16 children will leave school straight away and begin work without pursuing further education. Maybe half the people I know who did pursue further education FAILED.
Surprisingly, they all seem to think that this is a personal problem rather than something than is wrong with the country, even though it seems to affect a large number of the population.
For some reason that I haven't been able to figure out, the British have to be some of the most insecure people in the entire world. They hate what they see in the mirror, but look in every reflective surface, they won't make eye contact with anybody, they look at their feet when they walk. Harry, the girls you see throwing up on the streets with the exposed overhanging stomachs and small outfits? They don't like themselves. They probably don't have any dreams or aspirations other than finding a guy who won't leave her and the kids for some other girl. Similar, the guys you see getting into fights are looking for the exact same thing. They don't seem to think they're capable of achieving anything better.
The nation mentality seems to be 'Well, this is working and I'm not dead yet, why hope for anything better?'
I know that these people have to have some sort of ambition, I just haven't gotten them to talk about it yet. But one day, I will. I swear it.
As much as this is terribly depressing, I'm utterly convinced of it, as it's true for maybe 90% of everybody I have ever met in the UK.
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That is pretty much true, the education system and culture kicks the shit out of you and tells you 'tough' if you complain. But you're too scared to complain and don't really know how to because you're a kid.
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About the OP - I can see how moving to another country is appealing, but moving just because you hate your town is a bit silly. The midwest IS boring and I think just about everyone knows that, but is will be far less of a hassle for you if you move to one of the coasts. First, you're already a citizen, so you don't have to worry about anything but state residency, which is MUCH easier. This also includes the fact that you're already in the country, so you don't have to save money to fly and you don't have to go through customs and whatnot. Secondly, it is soooooooooooooooooooo expensive over there because our exchange rate is le crap, as other people have mentioned. If you want to live some place more interesting, move closer to a larger city (on a coast, obviously, since you're already near Chicago). Living IN a city will be more expensive, which is why I suggest this. On the east coast you have Philly, Boston, NY, and Washington D.C. and on the west coast you have LA, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. Even some of the larger cities in the south, like Atlanta and some of the cities in Texas that I've been to are "interesting". But the novelty will wear off, because then you realize most cities are exactly the same, except the weather and landscape will be a bit different depending on where you go. And I know you're thinking about going to school there, but considering how much of a price difference there is between in state and out of state tuition (which at my school is basically double the amount), imagine how much more it is going to be out of country, especially with the exchange rate. Also, getting a job while you're not even in the country sounds pretty scary.
Basically, I think you really need to try something in the U.S. first. I know it sucks, I live here too, but deal with it. I personally am considering a move out of country, but this probably won't happen in the next 10 years, because, well, I need a real job first to actually have money to save. And this is a large country! You've got a shot at being happier somewhere that isn't Illinois!
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Man. All of these descriptions of the UK just make it sound like a depressed version of the US now.
That makes me sad.
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drinking until you're unconscious is not generally a widespread cultural phenomenon south of the Tweed
Fixed that one for you
(I'm just taking the challenge piss.)
It is so good that when I highlighted that to copy and paste it into my browser window, it said "king the challenge piss"
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I wasn't planning on moving tomorrow, I was planning on going sometime in the future.
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Man. All of these descriptions of the UK just make it sound like a depressed version of the US now.
That makes me sad.
Given how disillusioned many Americans get about life over here I wonder if discontent with the nation of one's birth is something endemic in anglo-saxon culture, but then again the French supposedly do it a bunch too, at least according to the stereotypes I'm aware of (okay, they supposedly unleash self-loathing whenever they're not being snooty...feel free to contradict me if you actually know French people/are better versed in stereotypes than I).
You know, if you want food that it made out of the unmentionable bits of various beasts, you could always move to Philly. It's right in the middle of Scrapple country, and Scrapple's like America's answer to Haggis. (It's also delicious, if you ask me).
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Whereas in Britain, from what I can tell, this approach to alcohol appears to be the norm. No country that I've ever been to has such an unhealthy drinking culture as Britain.
Clearly you've never visited Wisconsin. True, the US as a whole might not be that bad, but the upper midwest, and Wisconsin in particular, has ridiculous rates of binge drinking and drunk driving.
Also, find someone who's been to Russia and ask them what it was like, and the UK will seem like a damn paradise.
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Things I wish were more british about the USofA:
More pubs. Less of this coffee house bullshit, at least percentagewise. I am very biased because I do not like coffee and so I see no reason to "meet for coffee", but I do not like beer either and I would still be more likely to "meet up for a pint".
More diversity in accents and slang. Hell, you can tell the difference between what part of London someone is probably from by his accent, and that's just one city! Here no one can really tell the difference between the slow talking twangs of the southern midwest and the southeast, or whether you're from the north or the south end of the west coast or what have you. We are so much huger, this does not make sense.
More ridiculously cool stone architecture. This probably comes with the general age of a lot of the awesome quaintly mismatched buildings in the UK, though, and since the States is so young I don't guess that's really possible. I still don't know why we don't have more narrow twisty staircases, though. Those are cool.
Public transit and trains. It would be nice to be able to walk more places, but things is just so spread out over here that also does not really seem entirely possible. Trains, however, would be most welcome.
Edit: Binge drinking is really bad in the UK because no one ever just says "it's ok, you can stop", I guess? I dunno. I am also unclear on the differences between binge drinking and alcoholism. I know we have lots of alcoholism, but I am unaware of any American binge drinking phenomenae.
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Given how disillusioned many Americans get about life over here I wonder if discontent with the nation of one's birth is something endemic in anglo-saxon culture
i think this is true of people from every culture. the grass is always greener on the other side.
i constantly hear americans saying they want to run off to europe, as if it is some sort of paradise. at the same time, many italians i know are mystified that i would want to study in italy when most italian youth would leap at the chance to leave italy and to travel to/live in america.
personally, as someone who's lived in/grown up between the two countries, i will never be content. when i am in italy i miss a million things about america, but when i am in america there are a million things i miss about italy. every country is fucked up in some way - they are all just fucked up in different ways.
going to live in another country is a great experience, but it won't solve anything. you may leave behind a hundred things you hate about the city you came from, but you will just find a hundred new things to hate about the new city you live in.
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I know we have lots of alcoholism, but I am unaware of any American binge drinking phenomenae.
Visit Cape Cod. It's literally a sand bar, and the view that young kids and teenagers have of the area is that the only thing to do is drink, so binge drinking becomes one of the only things our youth do to occupy their free time. It isn't unusual in the fall/early winter to walk down a beach at night and come across several groups of young kids (14 or 15) with 30 racks or handles drinking for the sake of drinking. Also, it's notable that binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a row for men and four for women. If you're an alcoholic, you are most likely also a binge drinker because alcoholics have a difficult time stopping drinking once they start.
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Given how disillusioned many Americans get about life over here I wonder if discontent with the nation of one's birth is something endemic in anglo-saxon culture
i think this is true of people from every culture. the grass is always greener on the other side.
I do not think it is true of every culture. I think there are plenty of people who identify as 'Chinese' even if their family has not been there for generations. I hear of Chinese moving to avoid strife and discrimination, but not out of dissatisfaction. This is somewhat less true of younger generations of Australian and American born Chinese.
Edit: Australia has a binge drinking problem
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Australia definitely has instances of binge drinking, and frankly even one person out binge drinking is too many, but it's not endemic the way it is in Britain. In Australia, at least the parts I've been to, binge drinking is the exception, not the rule. Sure, most people go out and get drunk on a Saturday night, but at least most of those who do can find their own way home at the end of the night. In Britain a much larger proportion of the population indulges in binge drinking than is the case in Australia.
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going to live in another country is a great experience, but it won't solve anything. you may leave behind a hundred things you hate about the city you came from, but you will just find a hundred new things to hate about the new city you live in.
this is true. no matter where you go, there are going to be things that you won't like about where you live. at least experience some other places in your own country before you decide that it's all junk and go to a different one.
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I think everyone is being a bit harsh of the uk. Maybe that is what it's like down in England but up in Scotland things maybe arn't so bad. True there is a huge binge drinking scene, the weather is shite and there isn't much to do, theres a lot of anti social behaviour and the weather is crap but you know, the public transport is dire and obesity is on the rise.
On the plus side we still have good countryside, good fishing and when the weather is good its a pretty magic place to be.
I wouldn't listen to the bad things though, i'm just being pessimistic because i've lived here all my life in a small town.
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From what I've heard American binge drinking is a concern more for specific demographics (ie, young folks). Wheras I hear more concerns from Britain about binge drinking among the general populace (this is all second or third hand including comments on this thread, mind you, so feel free to ignore me/correct me as appropriate).
As to the difference between binge drinking and alcoholism, alcoholism is an addiction to alcohol that causes all sorts of problems and may well take over one's life, while binge drinking is drinking to get really, really drunk, as opposed to a couple of glasses of wine over dinner or beers with friends. To use an example we're all familiar with, Faye might not be an alcoholic (though she might be heading there) but she does have a propensity to binge drinking. Binge drinkers don't necessarily feel a -need- to get drunk, it might happen a couple of times a month, but when a binge happens they generally get drunk enough to cause problems.
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Well where i stay the main occupation at the weekend for 15-18 year olds ish is pretty much to get smashed at the weekend. It's not nice drinking it's down a bottle of wine or drink a crate of beer or drink a bottle of vodka kind of drinking which is fair enough at a party but i know a lot of people who every weekend pretty much a couple of them head up to one of their houses and just get smashed.
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going to live in another country is a great experience, but it won't solve anything. you may leave behind a hundred things you hate about the city you came from, but you will just find a hundred new things to hate about the new city you live in.
this is true. no matter where you go, there are going to be things that you won't like about where you live. at least experience some other places in your own country before you decide that it's all junk and go to a different one.
I don't think this is necessarily true at all, some places are more suited to a person than others. There are innumerable problems with the UK in general (only a handful of which have been listed in this thread) and a ton of extra ones a little more specific to the city I live in (gentrification, high burglary rate, incredibly useless city council) but still, I love this place. There are other cities and they all have their good and bad points but Leeds is one very suited to me and my interests, probably more so than any other place in the UK with the possible exception of Glasgow.
I also think it isn't terribly helpful to keep assuming that the poster of this thread is completely ignorant of the rest of the US aside from the place they live in (particularly since they've said they aren't). Also, they aren't saying they're going to blindly run off the UK and land themselves in all kinds of disappointment because it doesn't solve their woes. All they said was that they were thinking of moving here, and based on the comments they've made it sounds like this is a long term plan they're considering. Good for them I say, the UK might not be the best place in the world but I admire the kind of person who's willing to up sticks and go and find out what living in a whole different country is like.
Sorry about the quote tunnel, but I rather wanted to respond to both those posts.
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I also think it isn't terribly helpful to keep assuming that the poster of this thread is completely ignorant of the rest of the US aside from the place they live in (particularly since they've said they aren't).
I do think that is a helpful assumption for many people to make. If that assumption is wrong then whatever, there's plenty of useful information being posted regardless and the person will just ignore the rest of the stuff. If that IS the case however, then the cautionary posts are an important dose of reality for the person to hear.
In other words, I see either a net gain or no net effect, but no net loss.
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i agree with you (a pack of wolves), some places are more suited to a person than others... the point that i (and i think moo and caiphana) are trying to make is that maybe the OP should try and find one of those places in the US before he (she?) moves to the UK or any other country for that matter.
honestly, i don't know a lot about treefingers. how old this person is, what sort of education/jobs this person already has, anything at all except the limited information i got from a couple posts in this thread. so while it may not be a helpful assumption, it leads me to think that the decision to move to the UK is ill-informed and probably not something that should be considered at this stage in life. true, the OP says that he is not ignorant of other cities in the US, but there is a big difference between liking a city and liking living there. i like chicago, i don't want to live there. it sounds like the OP is a disillusioned 20something that wants to escape the boredom of midwestern US life by moving to a new country... a good idea in theory, but in reality maybe not. this discussion shouldn't be about the binge drinking/bad weather/crime whatever issues in the UK or whether or not the UK is a good place to live... it should be about whether this kind of move would actually solve anything for the OP. i think it wouldn't... moving to a new country at an age/experience level where you can't get a good job (or any at all, maybe) and may not be able to afford anything isn't going to solve your problems. it might make your life more exciting, but exciting doesn't necessarily mean good.
the moral of the story is... moving to a new country is awesome and exciting, but i wouldn't do it unless i knew i could make at least the same quality of life for myself there. it sounds to me like that's not possible for the OP right now, so i think it's a bad idea.
yaaaaaaaaaay.
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Of course, yelley is a biased point of view here. After all, we're talking about a person who would never ever ever in a billion years live in a different country.
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moving to japan solved a lot of my problems. my skin got better, my lungs got better, i lost a lot of weight, my japanese got better, that bit of anger that i feel everyday towards religious people that feel they need to pray for my damned soul was completely gone, and i learned a lot about myself in the process. it really was the best thing that i've done for myself.
that being said, i also was lonely every day, i missed a ton of things about america, and i was living in a country where i would always be considered an outsider. i moved over there with a set job and a set place to live and people to help me out with anything that i'd ever need. it was an easy move.
my plan is to move back someday. once i know that i can get a job and find a place to live on my own over there. my irrational side tells me to save the money and go now. such a bad idea.
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I do think that is a helpful assumption for many people to make. If that assumption is wrong then whatever, there's plenty of useful information being posted regardless and the person will just ignore the rest of the stuff. If that IS the case however, then the cautionary posts are an important dose of reality for the person to hear.
In other words, I see either a net gain or no net effect, but no net loss.
I hadn't thought of it like that, good point.
As for knowing that you could have at least the same quality of life in a new country as your current one, I don't see how someone could ever know this. A friend of mine moved to Ireland for a while with no prospects except the likelihood (and not certainty) of the Irish dole. It was definitely the right thing for him. Not that I'm advocating such activities for everyone, I guess it's more that I think only the person doing it can really have any idea of whether it's a good thing to do or not. Also, why does a move have to solve anything? I've always quite fancied the idea of moving to Canada or the US. The only thing I can see this solving is never having lived in Canada or the US, but I still think it would be interesting.
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The thing about saying there's binge drinking in parts of Wisconsin and Cape Cod is exactly that - it's just those parts. In England it happens in every urban area. The only time I've seen people drinking a reasonable amount was when I went to a tiny village in Wales. I think everyone that lived there, apart from the kids, was in the pub and just enjoying the singer (who was quite good). There's roughly 45 clubs in Bournemouth - that's not counting all the pubs, either and the population of the town is only 164,000. It's a national attraction due to the amount of places to get pissed, which is popular for people doing hen and stag nights, apparently. How glamarous!
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The worst places for binge-drinking that I have encountered were rural areas, such as the Teeny-Weeny little town I live in. The reasoning for it here is that there is nothing better to do. It shows up primarily with the youth. In short, avoid po-dunk little towns.
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Guys is it weird that I actually kind of like the weather in the UK?
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I don't mind it at all.
Literally the only thing that bothers me about the climate is that it's a massive contributing factor to the general ugliness of the populace.
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So if it was sunnier you might actually see something in british females?
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The worst places for binge-drinking that I have encountered were rural areas, such as the Teeny-Weeny little town I live in. The reasoning for it here is that there is nothing better to do. It shows up primarily with the youth. In short, avoid po-dunk little towns.
This is what I've noticed, too. This also is a large part of the US, especially when you are not on a coast. Like the lovely midwest. Nobody really likes the midwest. If they claim they do, they are lying.
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In Australia, at least the parts I've been to, binge drinking is the exception, not the rule
Either you have not really been to Brisbane, or my job is really causing a massive upsurge in cynicism about the general quality of people here. Maybe it is just because I work in one of the busiest pubs in the city, across the road from several of the other busiest pubs in the city, and it is not particularly uncommon for me to see several people throw up in a garden within a few metres of me while I am on a half hour cigarette break. The record so far is nine.
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The worst places for binge-drinking that I have encountered were rural areas, such as the Teeny-Weeny little town I live in. The reasoning for it here is that there is nothing better to do. It shows up primarily with the youth. In short, avoid po-dunk little towns.
Where's your po-dunk town? Your profile says Maryland, and while I live in Annapolis most of the year, which is more like DC's overgrown Marina with attached bar (okay, two dozen or so attached bars) and I was wondering how po-dunk you're talking about.
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The worst places for binge-drinking that I have encountered were rural areas, such as the Teeny-Weeny little town I live in. The reasoning for it here is that there is nothing better to do. It shows up primarily with the youth. In short, avoid po-dunk little towns.
Where's your po-dunk town? Your profile says Maryland, and while I live in Annapolis most of the year, which is more like DC's overgrown Marina with attached bar (okay, two dozen or so attached bars) and I was wondering how po-dunk you're talking about. I suspect that living in Annapolis for a while could skew my perceptions of alcohol consumed in the US, but I'm not from here anyway.
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*Edit*I have no idea how that happened.
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did you just quote tunnel yourself?.... seriously?
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I imagine he was attempting to edit his previous post and accidentally clicked the wrong button and ended up quoting himself. It's not hard to do, I've done it before myself.
I like a lot of the bigger cities of the Midwest (Chicago, Minneapolis/ St. Paul, Madison), although I'm sorta biased. The rural small-town areas just depress me, however. I drove through rural Iowa last week and wanted to shoot myself. Just a bunch of ignorant, poor, obese rednecks with no purpose in life. Probably why they drink so much. Aside from binge drinking, there's also really high rates of meth use in rural midwest areas due to the availability of many of the chemical ingredients from fertilizers used on farms.
(I hope I haven't offended any rural midwest folk with this)
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In reference to binge drinking in Australia, all the"cool" kids do it.
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Is England really all that bad? I mean, Ireland has all the binge-drinking, gang crime, gossip-centric etcetera etcetera stuff, just we haven't had as much practice at them, and the same continual crying out about them in the papers. Thing is, I've lived in some of the (supposedly) worst areas of Dublin since I moved up there three years ago, and I've never really felt particularly unsafe, even wandering through Temple Bar at three in the morning on a weekend. So I'm wondering whether we're just lucky over here, or whether I'm just less concerned with personal safety or something.
Also, binge drinking means three pints in a day. How many people go out and have three pints on a night out?
A friend of mine moved to Ireland for a while with no prospects except the likelihood (and not certainty) of the Irish dole. It was definitely the right thing for him.
Fecking crusties, coming over here and stealing our squats. Or something. :-P
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Either you have not really been to Brisbane, or my job is really causing a massive upsurge in cynicism about the general quality of people here.
Not wanting to push a point too much, but as a matter of curiosity what proportion of your customers are British back-packers? I'd imagine there would be quite a number in a place like Brisbane.
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Not too many, surprisingly. Backpackers typically gravitate towards places with reasonably attractive women. Even the ugly ones.
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Gotta admire their confidence
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I like a lot of the bigger cities of the Midwest (Chicago, Minneapolis/ St. Paul, Madison), although I'm sorta biased. The rural small-town areas just depress me, however. I drove through rural Iowa last week and wanted to shoot myself. Just a bunch of ignorant, poor, obese rednecks with no purpose in life. Probably why they drink so much. Aside from binge drinking, there's also really high rates of meth use in rural midwest areas due to the availability of many of the chemical ingredients from fertilizers used on farms.
(I hope I haven't offended any rural midwest folk with this)
As a rural Midwesterner, I'm sorry that our meth isn't up to the snuff of the driveby shootings, gang beatings, and crack use in your big cities.
Hope you're not offended, either.;)
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Man, Iowa is quite possibly my least favorite state of those that I have been to.
I too grew up in the rural Midwest (Minnesota, yay!) and pretty much hated it. Now I am living in Fargo for college, which is a vast improvement aside from the fact that it's flat as all hell and windy all the time. Once I graduate from here I kinda want to go to grad school in Minneapolis or St. Paul so I can see how I like living in a bigger city. And from there, who knows?
So basically what I am saying with this is that you need to move around the U.S. a couple of times before you write the whole country off on account of one shitty area that you have lived in.
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Your idea of a big city is Minneapolis or St. Paul?
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a bigger city.
Say it with me. Bigger. Not big. Bigger. Minneapolis is a bigger city in relation to Fargo.
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I gave up reading this thread midway through page 2.
Most of the UK is shite, come tae fucking glasgae though, it's fucking braw.
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Minneapolis is a bigger city in relation to Fargo.
I haven't been to Fargo, so I can't compare the two, but Minneapolis was a nice city. I've spent a lot of time in both rural areas (because my grandpa lived in the middle of a corn/soybean field and I also hated it) and city areas (I've lived very close to a city all my life and I've been to other, large/r cities) and Minneapolis seems like a good middle-ground city ground to start off in. It seemed clean(er), not unfriendly, and not too big. And from what I remember, the airport wasn't very confusing, which is nice, but probably irrelevant.
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Fargo is pretty much a smaller, flatter version of Minneapolis, just a little less "hip" for lack of a better term. Minneapolis has lots of theaters, music venues, that sort of thing. Fargo, unfortunately, doesn't attract nearly as many good shows, but it has been getting better. This fall I saw Bright Eyes, Band of Horses, and Ted Leo here, so hopefully this area will continue to become more popular as a destination for touring acts.
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We are all moving.
Always.
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I was about to say, lay off the weed for a while. When my friend gets stoned he's always like " dude don't you think, that thats a metaphor for life. "
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Dude lay off the crack and get some sleep.
But he almost always says things like this!
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I think Slick's posting has been fantastic.
And with that as your avatar I am in no mood to agree with you ever.
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I gave up reading this thread midway through page 2.
Most of the UK is shite, come tae fucking glasgae though, it's fucking braw.
Hey how does the first week of March sound?
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Sounds fucking magic hen.
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Also, binge drinking means three pints in a day. How many people go out and have three pints on a night out?
What? binge drinking is 3 pints? that's not really that much.
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There's the health class definition of binge drinking (3 pints,) and then the definition everywhere else (projectile vomiting.)
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Yeah, that's what i understood, too.
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I seem to remember reading a statistic for binge drinking on my campus, classifying it as regularly consuming 5 or more drinks in a single sitting/night.
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That's not much.
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I had fourteen pints during 2 consecutive football games in october. I was there for a while before the football too so it worked out at about 5-6 hours of drinking, reading and watching the games.
Ah student life.
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Yeah, the medical definition of binge drinking is pretty ridiculous. People just need to know when to stop. I mean, if you are a twenty stone seven foot tall man mountain then maybe you can drink twenty pints tonight but do not try it please if you are a fourteen year old girl ok?