Jerseygirl

You have obviously seen very little of NJ.

hungryhorace

That is true. I'm simply commenting on what I see each time I come here for business.

NYer

Then try to get out more before commenting. Hanging out in the swamps of Secaucus or the industrial section of NJ (Newark/Kearny) is not seeing that state. Of course, the industrial section does provide energy to NYC and NJ as well as providing massive employment...no industrial section is attractive no matter what country you live in.

Princeton and Lambertville where I visit frequently, are absolutely beautiful. And that's the tip of the iceberg.

Jerseygirl

Maybe you should have said that your experience of NJ was extremely limited.

Steerpike

When I first came here, there was no internet to speak of, no forums, etc. I happened to be working with a bunch of other ex-pats, but the best thing I ever did was break away from them and start socializing with 'the locals'. I found my particular ex-pat associates to be a bunch of moaning, groaning whiners! They were always talking about what was wrong here ... beer's too cold, weather's too hot, etc ... so I cut myself off from them and life got better!

YMMV ...

Nutmegger

When I came here there was no Internet, period! I did "total immersion" in my new milieu and to this day I believe it was the best thing that could have happened in terms of my settling in and "getting on with it." It was only many years later that I was invited to a dinner to meet some ex-pats from the UK and was immediately reminded why my life here has been so satisfactory!

S.Susan

thanks for you suggestion. I have noticed you are in bay area, that's where we are moving to . I am feeling much positive this week and just need to get the last hurdle -packing ! then we will be there next month , enjoy the sunshine !!

Steerpike

I came in 1983, when did you arrive?

I say 'no internet to speak of ...' because there was the 'ARPANET', which pre-dates the Internet.

We had no internet, no email, no skype, and back then long distance calls were expensive and you made them sparingly. You wrote letters, on paper placed in envelopes, to family back home (!!!!!) and waited 2 weeks for a reply.

Steerpike

The Bay Area is a great place to come to - lots of cosmopolitan / diverse areas, great food options, lots of well-educated folks (due to both the high-tech environment and the presence of Stanford, UC Berkeley, etc). If you can cope with the congestion and high cost of living, you'll be fine! Where in the Bay Area are you headed?

S.Susan

We are planning to live in Dublin or Pleasanton. my husband will have to travel to San Jose to work . people here already warned me that the motor way 680 is awful , sounds like even worse than M25 in London .

Wintersong

And worked 26 hours a day down at t'mill, no doubt

Nutmegger

1972. Yes, I corresponded with my family by letter, with a long distance call (that had to be booked in advance) at Christmas and on birthdays!

Nutmegger

No way -- because we weren't staring at those little devices in our pockets and on our desks non-stop, we had a lot more time to party!!!

S.Susan

omg , cant imagine life was like this before...at least you can talk to you family on daily basis now if you like .

Wintersong

Bloody awful.

I'd put 'finding someone to carpool with to make use of free express lanes' top of the list of things to do on arrival.