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I already started one topic today and wanted to add my question there, but I thought that this one is quite different and deserves its own discussion. So if you had a chance to just pick up and relocate wherever you wanted, which state/area would you choose and why? I personally would take into consideration how easy it would be to find a job, economical climate of the state, taxes, real estate prices, quality of public schools in the area, weather and proximity to other states where we could go and visit during holidays/vacations. How about you? If you were given a choice, what would it be?
I already did exactly that. I spend years researching places for certain criteria. Work wise I wanted a publicaly owned hospital not associated with a religion (my experience is that there is more accountabliety in public facilities), Non-Magnet status (my experience is that Magnet = crappy place to work), with a good union, good pay and benifits.
Lifestyle wise I wanted superb schools, low to reasonable cost of living, affordable housing, low crime and plenty of acess to outdoor activities like hunting, fishing, caming, etc.
I found all of that in the upper midwest. The best place I found was the Twin Cities area of MN for work while driving an hour or so to work so you can live in a nice safe smaller town with good schools and affordable housing. The pay relitive to cost of living was the best of anywhere I looked into.
The trade off is long cold winters. But worth it for me.
A close second was Madison Wisconsin, a distant third were the cities south of Portland oregon.
Now I make WELL over $100k/ year without OT and live in a really nice small town with inexpensive property and superb schools and no crime to speak of (seriously the bigges crime in the town I live near is cattle rusteling).
Now if I was to disregaurd all of that and really go anywhere it would be New Zealand. I spent 18 months living there and working as a nurse, and before that 9 months working on a farm and it is my favorite place in the world.
If I could, I'd love to go to different countries for months at a time and live amongst that nation's various populations. Fully blend in as much as possible, if you will. Dress as they dress, learn their language, eat their food, live their lives with them. That'd be such an interesting and varied perspective. It'd be nice to imagine the faces of friends when you hear the nations of the world referenced versus preconceived notions, stereotypes and photographs of places I've never been.
If I could, I'd love to go to different countries for months at a time and live amongst that nation's various populations. Fully blend in as much as possible, if you will. Dress as they dress, learn their language, eat their food, live their lives with them. That'd be such an interesting and varied perspective. It'd be nice to imagine the faces of friends when you hear the nations of the world referenced versus preconceived notions, stereotypes and photographs of places I've never been.
I did exactly that right after high school. I spend 18 months traveling around the work with a back pack and alomost no money. I worked on a pig farm in Sweden, a saw mill in Germany, a dairy farm in France, a tour guid in Moraco, at a creamatorium in India, a poultry farm in Thailand, Did yacht deliveries around the south pacific (sailing alone before the days of GPS), ending up in Austraila where I got a job on a huge 240,000 acre cattle ranch, unloaded fish in Fiji, was a bartender in New Zealand, and a surf instructor in Hawaii, among others.
I could not afford to stay in hotels so I always stayed with a local family, ate their food. It was great.
That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B
3,421 Posts
Boulder sucks. It is fun to visit but living there is awful. Trust me, there are plenty of other areas in the Denver Metro that are much better to live in. Hence why I am moving back there.