Nutmegger

I presume that you are not close to Seattle? There is a great art museum there, and the Olympic Sculpture Park has top flight work.

kimilseung

I am a frequent visitor to SAM, but as I said earlier, living in the UK spoils one for provincial collections like SAM

Compare to the German expressionism collection in Leicester or the Walker collection in Liverpool (with the Moore's competition and Tate) and Seattle is second best. Never mind looking at London.

God I miss the exhibitions the RA used to put on, and no doubt still do.

Rete

Understood. Living close to and working in Manhattan spoilt me for the wonderful museums the city has to offer. Just as having the theatre, opera and classical concerts within easy reach are very missed and often yearned for, I now have to make the world of jazz and blue grass (never ever country) my choice of concert performances. Thankfully, there are universities and colleges which offer the world of dance and theater several times a year. We choose where we live and all too often have to change our preferences and broaden our tastes in order to find new pleasures and avenues of enjoyment.

LouisB

Completely agree. Where are you now? Being adaptable I think is key to getting the most out of any situation.

We're moving London to Manhattan, I think the shock will be minimal, as you say it has great offerings. I can imagine elsewhere the same doesn't apply, the average little town probably has a subway, McDonald's and gas station for social events. I'm exaggerating but I guess it's all part of the trade offs, one big appeal of places like Manhattan and London is their cultural offerings and diversity

sweetbee

I would suggest that the OP having lived in so many places around the world would have difficulty staying in the USA with it's narrow focus.

LouisB

Can it be the more you see and experience the less likely you'll settle for less? Could be the downside for moving around. Some people happily live their whole life in the town they were born and grew up in. I wonder if those people experienced the riches of living in different countries they would go back to being happy in that one place. Guess it'll all down to mental perspectives. The places don't change yet one person's dream location may be another's worst nightmare.

ian-mstm

It's an interesting dichotomy, to be sure. In your scenario, I'm not sure someone would even want to travel. All travel does is take them away from home... and to some, home is more precious than gold-pressed latinum!

Ian

tom169

That's a good way of looking at it.

Rete

The US is far from the be all and end all even for some Americans. It is home. It is our country and has many failings but then so do many other countries. Isn't that one of the many reasons why so many want to emigrate to the US? Yes, many of us are inexperienced in regards to life in countries outside of our own. I have a bit more knowledge due to having a mother who was born and raised in Europe and having done a bit of traveling myself over the years. It bears repeating that work life in the US only affords many workers with only 2 weeks per year of vacation time unlike much of Europe where 4 or more weeks is given to each employee. This limited time off makes the decision of where to spend those few weeks. Since the US land mass is so large and the geography and climate available within the confines of the lower 48 is so varied, an American can spend those few weeks exploring their own country. It is much like a Brit living in a small land mass having all of Europe next door to explore. We travel from the east coast to the west coast for vacation. Europeans will travel from the UK to Spain for vacation.

While I appreciate the wanderlust and fearlessness that many Europeans have for leaving their home countries and trying life in another country. I equate that with someone in the US wanting to move from Ohio to New Mexico. To move to a country in Latin America or Europe? Most Americans are only second or third generations from immigrants who came from those countries. I'm one such person as I'm only the first generation American on my mother's side. Yes, I would love to have the opportunity to live for six months or a year in her birth country. Alas, I had neither the ability nor opportunity to do so and frankly, never was dissatisfied with my life in the city I lived in my entire life.

I find it unsettling sometimes when we are cast in such a negative manner as being uncultured, unsophisticated, narrow minded, and lacking in intelligence. We are judged by some as a whole based on the few people they have met and the few places they have either lived or visited in the US. Suppose that is human nature. We are not all cut from the same cloth. I do wish that the judgment of a country or its people were not based on a small slice of ones experience in a vast country.

petitefrancaise

I've also lived in a few places where I had to start from scratch at making a life. I found it really hard until I found "my people" - real friends that I have a real connection with. I reckon it takes at least 2 years to do this. Well, that's my experience.

I also think that living in a country that isn't your own means a constant low level of stress. Even if it's the same language, there are enough differences to make you ever so slightly anxious at having to do stuff. Being able to retreat to "home" whether that is your house or your ex-pat friends or going back to your own country fortifies you so that you can cope with this on-going stress. My kids have told me that when I talked about this in France, they didn't really get it. I thought this meant that they didn't feel the stress. However, since moving to the US, they noticed the stress wasn't there so much anymore. They simply had been so young when we moved to France that they had no memory of life before.

Maybe the trip back to the UK is exactly what the OP needs - a bit of r and r.

The other thing to think about is what else has changed since the glory days of Mexico City? Maybe this is "normal" life in SLC - normal boring mundane life and you have to do all the chores. It's much easier to pick on external things to be unhappy with, when sometimes it's what inside you or your home or your marriage that could do with a bit of examining.

Pulaski

I think I have that in reverse - I feel like a fish out of water when I go back to the UK.

I only occasionally feel out of place in the US, and not as often as I used to, but I still have occasional flashes of "how TF did I come to be here? " .... Often, but not always, when I am in a crowd. Sometimes it's when I am out in my truck or Mustang, living the American dream!

Rete

Now a young mother with perhaps infants, toddlers or pre-schoolers and having to stay closer to home base because of circumstances and you have all the ingredients for unhappiness.

Do hope she and her husband can find a way to make her time in the US easier and more fulfilling for her.

elizabethsmum

I'd love to hear about Mexico City, i heard it was super dangerous and a place to avoid??

elizabethsmum

I visited Salt lake and absolutely loved it, id love to live there.

ddsrph

Museums are great, I have only been to two great ones, Cairo and the Simthsonian. But in the big picture that
Is life, just how important are they to being happy? A week has about 80 hours of useful waking time , how many of those does one normally spend in a museum on a weekly, monthly, yearly basis? I give much more weight on the happiness scale to plenty of space without people in your face 24/7. Also a variety of climates, and Terrain
to choose from within our borders. Turn off CNN and especially FAUX news and politics also largely disappears.
Most Americans have never been to NYC or DC and would have to be paid to go.