Hotscot

Downton Abbey...

fozzyb

I think there is a genuine cultural difference there that the movies reflect.

Americans do (generally) have a tendency to concentrate on the positives in a situation and suppress the negatives, whereas Brits (generally) tend to dwell on the downsides and downplay the positive. Its easy to see how that comes across as making the US seem more glamorous.

Example this week I was chatting with an American colleague before a conference call and he was telling me how much weight he had lost since taking up cycling. The day before chatting round the coffee machine I had a British colleague complaining about how stiff he was feeling after doing a sponsored bike ride at the weekend.

Sally Redux

Certainly an element of truth in that.

Nutmegger

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it or just let it slip?

Hotscot

Well instead you could always lose yourself in the music I suppose...

HumphreyC

Depends what movies you watch I guess. Growing up I think the only movies I saw that made the States look really appealing were 'Groundhog Day' and 'It's a Wonderful Life' (nice small town America). Most of the rest seemed to be set in LA and New York which don't appeal to me at all. Precious few were set in New England - there was 'Good Will Hunting' (which was mostly filmed in Toronto), 'The Shawshank Redemption' (supposed to be Maine, but shot in Ohio), and The Perfect Storm. Since then of course there's been a deluge because of tax credits; 'The Departed', 'The Town', 'Black Mass', 'Sea of Trees' etc etc..

There are of course movies that show life in the US in a good light but for every one of those there's one that takes a more dystopian view - recent example was 'The Fighter' which did a good job showing the gritty neighborhoods of Lowell and the city's issues with crack. Similarly with British movies - for every Full Monty or Billy Elliot there's a movie like 'The Holiday' which gives a rosy depiction of life in the UK.

A lot worse I think are TV shows - for example the characters in Friends, How I met your mother and Sex in the City all live in massive Manhattan apartments which should be completely unaffordable given the jobs they do.

md95065

OK, so what we appear to have here is the usual collection of old cynics (and I include myself in that category), who have all been there, done that and know that the grass everywhere is much the same shade of green, apparently all failing to remember what it was like to be young, naive and enthusiastic and also forgetting that most of the wisdom that they have acquired over the years is stuff that they had to learn for themselves because they didn't listen to other people telling them what they could or couldn't do either ...

Hotscot

Well we either provide the benefit of our experience or we don't...

Sally Redux

Sally Redux

Aw shaddup.

md95065

Oh, absolutely!

After all, the cycle of life has to repeat itself.

Just so long as you don't expect the OP (or anyone else) to pay any attention to you ...

Hotscot

That's part of the fun...seeing the cycle..

zzrmark

But on that note, had you stayed in your home country you may well have been kicking yourself for not going for it when you were younger.
I'm not cynical about people's hankerings for the US, just curious about the reasonings behind those hankerings. Just what appeals to people about the US and where does the idea come from that says the US will fulfil the criteria for those expectations?
For me it was always the draw the of mountainous wilderness areas which attracted me to emigration, I suppose there are the Rockies in the US but South Island, Western Canada, the Andes and Himalayas were always more appealing (and, to some extent, still are!)

Hotscot

I've enjoyed the desert areas, Nevada, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley etc..so different from Scotland.
But now, been there done it...

and also as alluded to markonline a few times. the Big Sur is nice but once you've driven it 20 or so times...

Tom12

What made you abandon your dream?

I definitely would consider returning to Australia for work as I have completed the required regional work for a second year. But being out there did not reduce my appetite for the USA at all.