dragonfly

I was recruited by an American nursing agency I have since left the agency and I am employed directly by a hospital. The money is good especially with overtime very good benefits and 4 weeks paid vacation per year and paid sick time! Pennsylvania was not our first choice but we ended up here not a bad area good school district. I do miss the UK sometimes especially members of my family.

Sophia_S

Met my husband while he was in the USAF based at Greenham Common,in '85,after a very long illness I was medivaced over here while he got posted back here to California in '88,with the two kids....I knew before I became sick that we'd eventually be posted back here and I saw it as a big adventure,so I knew I'd enjoy it...as it happened I was incredibly lucky that Don was in the USAF,because the English hospital was sure I'd never recover and was ready to stick me in a nursing home(at 31 yrs. old),I always knew I could get better,but they weren't willing to even give me the chance....so really I owe the USAF my life,I know being in a nursing home at that age would've killed me.....I've never been back to the UK,I do miss my family and friends,but their lives go on...and we keep in touch via phones and the computer.Maybe I will go back one day,to visit,but I'm not in any rush at all,the sad thing is that all my friends have told me several times that I'm really lucky to be over here,because things have changed SO much over there since I left.One of the guys I was at school with has lived over here for 20 odd years as well,in SC,he goes back every so often and even he and his English wife said they'll never live back in the UK...so I don't think I'm missing anything....Sophia

Rushman

Isn't the WHOLE of Livedrpool "Downtown"?

robskatie

Good to hear a positive story
Hope you have continued good health

Elvira

I feel your pain!

We live in - what to me is - a small town, where nothing much happens and the place is utterly dead on a Saturday night (or any night actually). If I couldn't go back to London (home) once or twice a year, I would go mad.

I was there recently, and in a week I saw 3 operas, 2 ballets and more than a dozen friends. Here, unless I make an effort and pull myself together, I just vegetate.

But hubby is happy, one of our sons is happy, and the rest of us are making the best of it, with varying success. The winter months are worst, but luckily winter only lasts a couple of months here. Now it is definitely spring and I'm feeling much more cheerful already.

Celtic_Angel

ouch...that sounds not too great like trubrit said it's not always a small town thing...hubby and i go out less in this huge city than we ever did in the small one we lived at....the bars and clubs are too far from the house and i worry about drinking and driving...at the other place we lived, several clubs were a straight road away but then Houston to me is like a city without a heart..there's no center....it's not like any European city I've ever seen it's just one big sprawling mass of concrete and roads....I do enjoy being in a city but we very rarely are able to take advantage of what it has to offer..either too skint or like i said...i prefer not to have to drive on the highway to go to a club....our very first night out here we got stuck for an hour in bad traffic and er pretty much got lost ....in that respect where we lived before was heaps better we knew exactly were to go to have fun...ah well sigh.....we tend to stay home ...the booze is cheaper

Elvira

I can identify with that too. Where we lived in London, even though it was actually a small town within London rather than 'the big city', there was a choice of literally dozens of pubs, wine bars, tapas bars and restaurants to go to - all within easy walking distance. We had a car, but hardly ever used it.

As for staying home here in the US, we do plenty of that too. The problem is, it's so damn difficult to get a good party going. People on the whole are just so anal - afraid of saying anything the least controversial (I don't think I've ever had a really good argument with anyone here, let alone anything even approaching a good row ).

And nobody drinks at lunchtime, so none of those lovely liquid lunches I used to have with my girlfriends in London I'm not a drinker, but I miss those...

jumping doris

OH went to a conference and the US company he now works for were there recruiting. We decided to apply and see what happened and here we are in Pittsburgh. Sometimes I love it and sometimes I want to put my ruby slippers on and go home Only been here 4 months ...time will tell.

Ozzidoc

hehe worked for me when I was living there!

Patrick

No, you mean rundown

TruBrit

nahh not any more...real posh parts now

NC Penguin

It's undoubtedly the town you live in that makes you unhappy. Why are you living where you're currently living? Is it because of the job (you don't like)? Your wife's from around there?

I know how you feel in some respects 'cos I'm from London originally and life in a small US city in the South is a world away from what I'm accustomed to. If it weren't for my spouse's job, we wouldn't be here. We had several options about where to move to before we left the UK and believe it or not, NC was the best option (weatherwise especially).


NC Penguin

Rushman

What? You mean no more streets without cobbles? No more houses with outside lavs?
Get out of it!!! You'll be telling me there's running water up there next.

TruBrit

lol you've been livin' too long in the land of the free....all mod cons now in the 'pool

Rushman

Well all cons living there anyways.