Usa
 

I am always flipping between this site and the moving back to the UK forum as I am one of those that would like to return back but am still here in the USA - Pittsburgh, PA to be precise. Anyway as we all know everyone in the UK always seems to think life if a bed of roses over here but never take into account the homesickness but I sometimes wonder if this is because I live in Pittsburgh. So my question is, how many of us living over here actually like/love it and would never dream of going back and is this because of the area you are living. I guess I am trying to find out if there is obviously a lot more to offer here than good old P.A.

Re: Usa
 

The things I miss about home will never be in the US no matter where I move to ie friends and family.
However certain places in the US may present you with the opportunity to partake in more activities to keep yourself busy and therefore spend less time moping around thinking about the UK.

No easy answers for you though I'm afraid.

Re: Usa
 

hiya and sounds like your dilemma continues...i am lucky as i go home to the uk frequently. part of the reason i don't care much for the u.s. is probably coz i live in an ugly metropolis..maybe if it was pretty with some character life might, just might be different...

Re: Usa
 

That's what I like about Nashville, has lots of areas with some character.
Is also not as redneck as it's made out to be. Several companies are realizing this & moving their offices here, so the job market is very good. Can recommend it as a great place to live.

Re: Usa
 

Hello Debbie,
I sympathise with you, Pittsburgh isn't exactly the most glamorous, happening, beautiful city in America.
I'm in State College, PA so not too far from you. Is there any way you can move from Pittsburgh? I'm stuck here for the next 4 years because my husband is doing his degree and then I'm doing my Masters, but after that we plan to move out of PA for good. Even though my husband is a PA native he knows it's one of the more analy-retentive states and too conservative for us really.
Why/how did you come to be living in Pittsburgh in the first place?

Re: Usa
 

good for you mick, sounds nice

Re: Usa
 

try moving because it could just be that city?

Re: Usa
 

You beat me to it!

Yes, as DavyG said, there are aspects of the US that will never be like the UK. You can get a lot of what you want (in terms of cultural variety, foods, etc.) from a city, but then most cities are overdeveloped, etc. .... except for Nashville!

So, two of us suggest you move to Nashville, so that must be a quorum. Pack your bags!

p.s. I'm leaving for the UK pretty soon (hopefully July), but of all the places I've lived in and visited in the US, the middle TN area is my absolute favorite. If I was staying in the US and had a choice of where to live in the US, I'd move back to middle TN in a heartbeat.

Re: Usa
 

Hi Sarah,

We have plenty of opportunity to move out of here, husband works for Waste Management and fortunately can transfer nearly anywhere. However, everytime we talk about the east coast and down starting from North Carolina all we ever hear about is how poor the schools are (both boys are in elementary) and obviously we cannot afford to put them in private. Florida would be ideal as he has family down there and my dad has a house but again, schools bad and I think it would be too hot in the summer - also a bit too flat even though we have too many hills here. Phoenix was another option but the above applies and he won't entertain the west coast although I don't think we could afford it anyway.

How I ended up here - aargh!!!! I met husband through work and then I came to set up a new office here for the UK company - got together, got really homesick, just ready to go back and then found out I was expecting - panic!!! so I ended up staying. We have good quality of life, good schools, nice house etc... but like you know it really doesn't offer anything much else here.

How did you manage to meet your other half? Where do you think you would like to go - life is so much easier without kids.

Re: Usa
 

Hey, anything is worth a try. I will have to read more about it - thanks to you both for the info.

Re: Usa
 

The people we leave behind in the UK often do think its pretty fantastic living in the US. Perhaps its in part, the grass being greener or people thinking that the places they have visited in the US represent the experience of living here.
I've never been to Pittsburgh, it might appear to be fairly glamorous if you lived in a less glam part of the UK.

If you have the freedom to choose where you want to live and work why not travel around the US and see if there is somewhere that suits you better.

I live in Washington DC and partly because it is a little like London ,I feel very much at home. I have also been to NY and Chicago and loved them both (but not their winter weather which was frighteningly cold) Las Vegas - Great for a few days but too superficial for everyday life. Minnesota/Wisconsin way too dull for me. Tampa - a great climate in the winter but too hot for comfort during the summer for me.

Its all a trade off really. If what you really miss are family, familiar people, familiar culture, food, work conditions and cant get over that perhaps it is a good idea to go back to the UK. I love living here but I can imagine it is very difficult for others to adjust. Good luck whatever your decision.

Re: Usa
 

hey just think how lucky you are...you could be here in this hot humid ugly city :rolleyes:

Re: Usa
 

I have been to Pittsburg and would be happy if I never set foot there again. There are much much nicer places to live in the US than there. I am in the NW and love it here. We don't have extreme weather, the cost of living (though going up) is reasonable.

J~

Re: Usa
 

Although I found the first few years very difficult, I have got more and more used to life here. It will never by 100% home but I don't think the UK would be anymore either. I think the longer you stay here the harder it is to go back, although some will disagree with me.

I actually like living in this part of the NE. It is very rural without being out in the boonies, the countryside is very much like England. It is also a very safe area with almost no crime. I also like being close to several large cities, NYC 45/60 mins away, DC 4 hrs, Boston 6 hrs, Philly 2 hrs etc. The Jersey shore is about 45/60 mins away as is the mountains. Saying that I would at some point like to live in California. I would say if you have the opportunity to move around take it, see what you can while you can.

Re: Usa
 

haha! and prepare to de descended on by thousands of nerds... they're holding the annual drosophila conference there this weekend :D

Re: Usa
 

omg don't i know it ...usually of course it's held in nawlins but alas not so this yr for obvious reasons...get me outta here :(

Re: Usa
 

Hi Debbie,
I work for a water waste management corp that has a HQ in P'burgh hmm maybe it could be the same one?
I met my other half when I came over in 2002 on a Camp America thing. It was in NE PA up in the pocono's, I taught for 5 months and he was helping out his Dad for the summer who was a manager. We got it on thanks to a lot of alcohol and somehow ended up falling for each other, we did the long distance thing until 2004 when we got hitched. No kids yet, don't plan on it for a while as we're too poor!
Why won't your husband entertain the idea of the West Coast? If he doesn't like California, then there's parts of Oregon - Salem and Portland - that are supposed to be really, really cool cities, same with Washington state.
As for Florida, there must be some decent schools somewhere surely? They can't all be shite, and I doubt P'burgh has the best schools in the country either! You could even look at different places in PA - Philadelphia, Lancaster, Harrisburg, even State College isn't that bad and a lot nicer than Pittsburgh imo!

Re: Usa
 

hardly new england though is it...CT doesn't count either, there tri-state, the unflusable one that no one wants :D

Re: Usa
 

You need Chicago....

Chicago is... my kind of town...... Chicago is....... my kind of town.....

Re: Usa
 

I agree Houston is a sh*%hole, but I like the people here. They're genuine and you can actually talk to them. Everywhere else I've lived the people have been either extremely self-centred automatons or downright obnoxious. There may be exceptions I don't know about--I haven't lived in every state.

Re: Usa
 

Its a bit Stepford Wifeish(?) here.

Re: Usa
 

I'd say it's living in Pittsburgh that's getting you down. When my spouse and I were looking to move to the US, Pittsburgh was an obvious place to move because my spouse had a job waiting for him there. However, I'd spent a week in Pittsburgh on biz and he'd spent three months training in Pittsburgh and we both agreed that we didn't want to live there. We took the plunge and moved to a city and state (NC) that neither of us had lived in or even visited in our lives.

So, if the only reason you and your spouse are living in Pittsburgh is to be close to family (his?), then you should think about moving elsewhere in the US. Pittsburgh is well served as an airline destination so cities in the NE and SE would not be too far of a flight away.


NC Penguin

Re: Usa
 

Where are you Jerseygirl?

Re: Usa
 

New Jersey :rolleyes:

Re: Usa
 

We all seem to have been "dumped" in some city and it's not always the right one. When my husband was head hunted by a company in Huntsville, Alabama it did not conjour up in my mind one of those must live in places. However, it was a start. As it was, after coming over for the initial look round my husband was more than pleasantly surprised. Having now lived here for eleven years and have done a fair amount of US travel there are few places that would make me pack up and move. My husband has since changed jobs and now works for a company based in Chicago but works from home. They are regularly looking for people to transfer elsewhere in the US and we have taken the opportunity to have a look round, but for one reason or another be it high cost of living, traffic congestion or just lack of choice, we have chosen to stay put.

My goddaughter and her family live in Pittsburgh and have done for some 14 years. Once she is in college her parents plan on moving. Right now I think its their love of hockey that keeps them there, but if the Pens decide to move on out I am sure they will do the same. lololol

Re: Usa
 

Actually on second thoughts its very Stepford wifeish/wifish(??) here.

Re: Usa
 

I'll just cross that one off the list shall I

Re: Usa
 

Not at all its very nice here, apart from the Stepford Wives.

Re: Usa
 

I agree with you. We don't live right in Houston (we are about 45mins south of downtown) but I think there are some of the friendliest and helpful people around here. We have been in Texas since the '80's and it certainly feels like home to us now ;)

Re: Usa
 

Yes I agree Chicago as a city is wonderful if you live in a nice apartment on Lake Shore Drive. However if you have kids and want to live outside the city OMG. Miles and miles and miles of new housing developments all centered around country clubs and church. Sorry but that's not my way of living.

Re: Usa
 

I have lived in this country 10 years this october. I have lived in California for most of that time in Orange County, a much nicer place than here in Kansas where once a week the beef plant burns blood and the smell is so strong it makes me gag. I only moved to kansas because my mother in law died and we decided to try and help deal with the situation. Although here you can buy a 3 or 4 bed detached house with a pretty big lot for less than 80K and thats not in the crackhead part of town. But so what, we are moving back to the UK this year as soon as we sort out all the paperwork etc. If you move to California be prepared for a massive cost of living increase to live anywhere half decent. San Francisco seems to be the best place in the US where I could live and that goes for the whole country even though I haven't seen the whole country and don't care to either anymore.

Re: Usa
 

I am going to have to start being careful on here! All these people with spouses in "waste management" sounds a bit like soprano's if you ask me! ;) :D

Re: Usa
 

[QUOTE=jibsymalone]I am going to have to start being careful on here! All these people with spouses in "waste management" sounds a bit like soprano's if you ask me! ;) :D[/QUOTE

Hey tell me about it I'm from Joisey right.

Re: Usa
 

Salem? You've got to be kidding. Portland IS cool, as are Eugene (where I spent ten years of my life - bring it on BigDavyG!) and Bend, but Salem? :D

Re: Usa
 

My husband supplied staff - up to 60 a time - for a conference. He traveled and employed temp staff all over the country, for 3 years. Saw the entire continuous 48, and says that out of all those cities, the only people whom he considered 'up to par' and efficient, were the ones in Houston. Go figure.

Re: Usa
 

hehe probably that was the illegal alien crews ..zillions of them here :p

Re: Usa
 

Actually, Waste Management is the name of the actual company, not only the industry. It's a very large, prestigious company, as these things go.

Re: Usa
 

Well crap, if he's going to go by 'conference efficiency', Orlando really should be on his list too. :rolleyes:

Re: Usa
 

3rd recomendation here, although its getting more devloped very quickly

as another poster said, its actually not redneck at all (outside of davidson county defintely is though!), nashville actually voted for kerry in the election

the next 10 days are all supposed to be over 70f and i expect to be 'grilling out' this weekend, shorts and flip flops here i come!

house prices are going up fast though (good for me)

Re: Usa
 

a friend just moved to this kind of development

shame theres no smiley for wrist-slitting