Been here 6 months today and...
 

I have to say so far I am absolutely loving it. Not had a single moment where I have missed London. I feel I have settled in and accomplished a lot in a relatively short timeframe, found a place to live, passed my US driving test, met some nice poeple that I socialise with, feel 100% settled into the new work environment, got my credit rating moving along nicely with 2 credit cards and a car loan. Don't miss the UK yob / jealousy / moaning / no national pride culture.

Also the weather here in CT has been fantastic since May which has helped, OK I know it will go downhill rapidly after Sept, but having a few months of consistent beautiful weather is a revelation after the UK.

All in all I couldn't be happier with the move or life over here, its gone far better than I could have imagined.

Wondering if I will be hit with the homesick bug in the future though? How did others react, was there a honeymoon period that wore off, or are you all still very content with life over here?

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

Possibly ...

... and possibly not.

Everyone is different - I have been here for just over 23 years and the only time I feel "homesick" is when I am back in the UK and can't wait to go home to the US.

Part of it was that I instantly felt "at home" in the US the first time that I came here - in a way that I had never felt back in the UK so the issue of being homesick for the place where I happened to have been born never really came up.

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

I think that most men settle here better than women - partly because women are more family oriented and often miss their family members back home. It took me a long time to settle in the US. I have been here 23 years and still think of going back to the UK - in fact the older I get and the longer I live here the more I think about going back. I don't hate it here, but there are some things about the US lifestyle that really bother me. My (adult) children tell me that I would never settle back in the UK because I have been here so long, but I'm not sure about that. They may be right.
Glad you like it here so far - let's see if you feel the same way in January when it's freezing cold and there's a foot of snow outside your front door :lol:

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

Everyone is different as they say.. personally I LOVE living over here, don't get homesick for the UK and although I miss my family it still doesn't make me homesick! Skype is wonderful and we try to either have them visit or us visit at least every couple of years, this is our 6th year here!!

Pleased all is going well for you and long may it continue :thumbsup:

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

I agree, I think the States is a Mans paradise.

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

Glad you are settling in. I will be here 10 years come November, and like most people, have had my ups and downs. I still go back to the UK regularly, which does tend to reinforce that coming here was the right decision to make. In fact, I just booked my flight back for 10 days in February, last night (where did all those taxes come from on the airfare?)

As for the weather, I love the change in seasons we have here. I am just over the water from you in Long Island, and this summer has been a killer. Winter is colder than I remember Scotland ever being, and the tropical storms (though no way as bad as the south) can be interesting to say the least.

You may have your moments of homesickness, but 6 months is a pretty good time in, to have an idea of whether you will take to the place or not. The idea is to be productive and move forward with your new-found opportunity; you appear to be doing that just fine.


Good luck.

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

Yes md but we are in Santa Cruz which is ridiculously nice.

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

So glad you are loving it here. I have been here for a year now, and have already got my green card - so I guess am here to stay for quite a while. I have only just begun to feel slightly homesick - but that is because I miss my 2 older girls who go to school in the UK. I think if I get a part time job it will help as well - I am currently a stay at home housewife.

I am also debating whether we should sell our UK house and buy here - that feels very final! If only I had a crystal ball. But when I see what you can buy here in relation to our house in the UK......

I agree that the lovely continued good weather is fantastic, and I have found that people here are much friendlier and helpful.

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

Glad that you are settling in so well, Eric. But you have hit it very lucky with the weather! Last "summer" -- I can hardly call it a summer! -- it just rained and rained and rained. I wondered why I even got my summer clothes out, as I wore a light dress about once.

If we're lucky it should stay pretty decent through September and into October. After that, all bets are off!

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

It's nice to hear you are happy and settling in and all that.

Not quite as easy to predict if you'll ever be homesick. You may be lucky and never get hit with it at all. I've been here 5 years and I have been hit with it twice. First was about 2 years in, and it lasted about 18 months.

Then again this year, believe it or not. I thought I had put it behind me, we had a new baby, I became a citizen and all that jazz, and then about a month ago I started seriously questioning whether I had made the right desicion in not spending more time on the idea of my (then) fiancee moving to Northern Ireland instead of the other way round. I'm not quite sure what kicked it all off, but probably a combination of severe resentment of the US work culture (an extension of this is not having enoug vacation days to actually visit home), my mum having an extended stay with us to visit the new baby and recently heading home, Google Streets and the flickr photo pages of my old home town.

I could go on, but I don't want to derail your thread of bring you down. Suffice it to say that right now, if I was to be honest, given the chance I'd move us all to the UK tomorrow and never look back. I know I'm vastly in the minority on this board, and that's fine. It's just hard to shake the feeling that I'm stuck here.

Ah, well, I'll get over it. I'll have to - the only person I have even hinted about this to was my mum, and only in passing. I don't think I can talk to my wife about this, she might take it the wrong way. I shall suffer in silence!

Sorry if I went off topic a little there - this has been on my mind a lot recently. I'm not bashing the US of course - the country itself (geographically) is a beautiful place. I'm not sure I like the people much any more though, horrible as that seems. I feel sort of displaced, very weird.

Again, as I say, I'm in the minority it would seem, and you don't sound like you're as much of a b'stard as my good self, so I bet you'll have a much better outcome!

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

For me the 'national pride culture' that this country has is one of the things that seriously makes me question whether I want to stay here long term or not. I cant stand the jingoistic nature of everything...the national anthem being played before every sport event, the way that so many people here simply dont think that the rest of the world matters, the ridiculous extremes of 'mainstream' politics. I like being English, I'm fairly patriotic, but lets be honest...I had no control over where I was born and neither did anyone else. I think a real patriot loves their country but should also be critical and question things....the idea of a 'patriot' here seems to simply be blindly defending the country no matter what.

Sometimes I love it here, and then other times I switch on something like Fox News...which is the most widely watched news channel in the country...and it makes me pretty sure that I couldnt imagine raising children in a place like this. The fact that there are lots and lots of people that would actually want someone like Sarah Palin for president genuinely terrifies me. In no other western country would you find such stupidity. I'm not even particularly left wing or liberal...at home I'm a conservative voter, but the right wing in this country are so right wing its crazy...the very thinly veiled racism, the selfishness...its insane. The religious aspect is the other thing that I cant stand. I really hope that one day we evolve beyond religion, but the US seems to be going in the opposite direction.

As for the homesick question...I've been here 2 and a half years, and I havent really suffered any serious homesickness yet. I love living in NYC, maybe I'm in something of a bubble, but I dont really feel an urge to go home at the moment. I havent been back in 9 months and I cant say I am in a huge rush...I'll go home at some point before xmas for a visit, but its not as important to me as it was in the first year I was here.

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

Glad it isn't just me who thinks like this! Been in the USA 3 years. Have had one 2 week trip to the UK and was glad to get back 'home' to the USA.

It does all depend on your circumstances though. Luckily I like where I live, can handle where I work (no one in their right mind says they 'like' their job) etc etc.

Will I say the same in 5 years time? Who knows - will worry about that then!

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

out of interest.....how much paid vacation do you get each year?

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

I was pretty happy here, until very recently - I arrived June 07.

I was let down by someone I thought of as a good friend, and that has affected me deeply.
I don't know if it's cultural or not, but the "Jersey shore drama" that happens with women I know isn't something I want to engage in, so I've effectively removed myself from that group.
(frankly, at age 40 plus, you should have grown out of this. No?)

Anyway, I've never put down deep roots, and my feet are itchy - not homesickness but a desire to move on.

The political extreems here drive me insane. So much so, I can't watch or listen to news programs right now without getting a racing heart beat and winding myself up further.
Due to a number of circumstances, we bought a house that I find too suburban now, no neighbourhood bar for a start!
So, it's not that I hate America, but have learnt more things about what makes me happy.
I love the hubster, and my new job, so that's keeping me at the very least somewhat sane!

Life is what you make it.

Re: Been here 6 months today and...
 

I get 15 days plus about a week at Xmas on top of that. Less than I had in the UK but pretty good for the USA.

Plus in the summer I can work flexi (do my hours over 4 days instead of 5). Gives me a lot of 3-day weekends.

Also - I often hear people say 'in the USA you are expected to be at work for more hours than you are paid to be'. Not here you ain't. In on time and leave on time. This is the Midwest. I like it.