Mallory

I was looking at Chester on the internet, as I've never been up that way before, and it's very pretty. I loved that big Tudor building. I live in a Tudor style house, and love everything Tudor! The city looks very interesting. Hope you find your flat.

penguinsix

I think part of the question that needs to be asked is whether the things that are annoying you now, or reasons you would want to go back now, were obvious from the start, or if they are things that developed over time and you learned about only from staying here?

Circus-of-Power

Surrounded by even bigger shitholes

Joking aside .....thats one of the main reasons why homesickness etc. was brief and mild. My hometown and the surrounding regions were not the greatest of places to begin with. So once you take off the rose tinted glasses and brush aside nostalgia... life in a new country becomes immeas'urably better. I miss lots of things but none of them would make me think of moving back....even for some Uncle Joes Mint Balls ...
At the end of the day .... life is what you make it ....
One last point ....employment and vacation ...once upon a time I could count on getting at least 35 days paid leave. Last year here in the USA the total was 5 .... it didn't kill me why would it ? ...in fact it wasn't until reading this thread that I thought about it....tell a lie ....I was miffed at working on Boxing Day....

another bloody yank

If I ever meet a Brit face to face (and where I live that would be akin to meeting a Martian) I now have a long list of things not to say and questions not to ask! Although I was looking at a world atlas with my son last week ( I was showing him where the "D-Day" beaches at Normandy were)and it appears that London is in England and not the other way around!

Dante

Don't a lot of your feelings about life in the US depend on what your life was like in the UK? In England I was living in a string of crappy, overpriced bedsits, working as a teacher in some of the worst schools in the country, never having any money, no time for a social life, friends all moving abroad. I didn't realise what a miserable bloody life it was until I left it.

In Los Angeles I'm earning twice what I did in the UK - a better job in a better work environment - I have a much better quality of life, a bunch of good friends, and just enough disposable income to actually live a life.

There is not a chance in hell that I would EVER move back to the UK. With my mother just having retired to France, there's not much reason to even visit more than once a decade.

snowbunny

You can safely talk about the weather. Another topic might be the disreputable state of transportation, but given that our passenger rail service is even worse than the UK.... that might be tricky.

jumping doris

Yes, they do.
We had a good life in the UK and hoped to have an equally good one here.
For me the problem is living in suburban Pittsburgh because at times I think it would be more fun to be buried alive.
The thing is we don't know if anywhere would be any better as we have only lived in Pittsburgh.

jumping doris

Most of the people I know here are Pittsburghers born and bred and for them it is Gods own acre. They really don't understand why anyone could dislike it. That's what makes it difficult to answer the "do you like it here" question because they mean do I like Pittsburgh. I sometimes think they are unaware of the rest of the USA let alone the world in general.

But they are lovely, lovely people who have made us so welcome and I feel mean that I don't really like living here.

TruBrit

you make a lot of valid points. ones circumstance does plays a large roll and fortunately we had a good uk standard of living and equally the same here however one of my main probs is location location location and that's something we cannot change.

another bloody yank

IMHO, suburbs are soulless, a neverending expanse of shoddily built cookie cutter houses and strip malls. A sterile, cultural wasteland. It's not just Pittsburgh, it's everywhere. My advice is go into the city once in a while. Eat at a good ethnic restaurant and see a blues band. Walk around and look at the buildings. Every city has it's own vibe, you'll never feel it out in the burbs, they are all the same by design.

TruBrit

yep we tried that and moved 18mths ago into a good part of the city complete with good restaurants but then when you're used to the buzz of london complete with the magnificent architecture this city is a bit soul destroying with zero atmosphere of an evening....certainly no vibes to be found here

jumping doris

We are 10 miles south of Pittsburgh (my OH works in the city) and we go in and do the museums, ball games, ethnic districts etc but Pittsburgh doesn't have much of a vibe.The down town is empty. It's like a ghost town even on a Saturday afternoon.
People who have lived here for ever say the same thing because they remember when it was in it's heyday..
I love cities and I though Pittsburgh would be really interesting. It does have some good architecture and it has lots of history.
Sadly it has very few Indian restaurants and the few we've been to have been only Ok.

When our daughters are all at college I think we will ask the company for a move somewhere else in the US. Only 6 years to go.

Having moaned about Pittsburgh I will balance the scales by saying there are quite a few towns in the UK which would be worse places to live. Watford, for one.

TruBrit

lol watford, one of my bessie mates lives in watford, nascot wood area and they love it so much so they have moved house 3 times within watford and would never dream of leaving lol ....tbh i go and visit her for the day and watford is not my cup of tea but then it's a good job we are all different, it's scary walking down watford high street even in the daytime

jumping doris

We lived there for 6 years, first out at Garston and then we moved into the town. West Watford, just round the corner from the football ground.
We did have some good times and it is very quick into London there but on the whole it's a horrible place. The traffic made going anywhere a nightmare.

Nylon

Jumping Doris that's because the majority of Americans have never lived anywhere else - let alone move to a different location other than where they grew up. I think being American I can pretty much stand by that although of course you don't like to generalize but I would suffice to say it is true. Hey what's the percentage of Americans who don't even hold passports!! Something like 20% I think or 1 out of four Americans. Take my brother for example he has **NEVER** traveled outside of the continential U.S. perhaps I'm being a bit hard (ok so Bahamas and Mexico ) and is living in the same town where we grew up in the same freakin' house! He doens't even hold a passport for a quick getaway if need be. So when you come across Americans giving you that confused look and not understanding why you would prefer to live somewhere else other than the good ol' USA just chuckle to yourself (because it's more than likely they themselves have never lived anywhere else). You don't know what you don't experience!

Cheers.