Hi all,
I am seriously considering moving to California because life there seems to me more attractive than in my native France. I like my home country, but the lifestyle does not fit me nor my husband. On the contrary, my parents and my brother love living in France.
Here is my dilemma: I am very attached to my close family and I wish to live very close to them; however, I do not want to stay in France. My dad being an expat, he would not mind leaving France, but my mom and my brother want to stay there. She told me that wherever I live, she would spend half year with me, and half year with my brother.
What I think is that I am lucky not too have a too extended family that would be impossible to move. But I doubt that my family would move close to me.
It is a difficult situation, if anyone has experienced it, please feel free to share.
Many thanks
Moving to the US, but parents and siblings stay home
California is great. I miss it.
I am an American and I was born in France of US parents. I would move if the hubby and you want to...let visits cure the attachments you have, especially if your mom will share time wu
with you and your brother....sent too fast....
Yea, living there is great. How about visiting again, and making sure?
Thank you for your answer. We are planning to go to California for 2 or 3 weeks to see how it is. I wrote another post about how is life there, and it would be very interesting if you could tell me what is the difference between living in France and in California. Thank you very much!
Hi everyone!
It seems many people are interested in moving to the US, especially to California. Please make sure you do all the research first before you make a permanent move because you may not be happy after you arrive...or you may love it. If you have never been here, it's always a good idea to make a trip for 1-2 weeks first to absorb the lifestyle here. It is very different than say Europe region. For example, in California there are 3 types of mentalities: In Southern part like San Diego, people are very conservative, not so educated, mostly whites,mexicans, and blacks, very expensive and not justified for the high prices, cold and dirty to swim beaches, and a great city to raise a family but very boring for a single person to live in.
In Central part like Los Angeles, people are semi-conservative, lot's of fun entertainment, great mix of cultures, like all Europeans, Middle Eastern, African, and Asians. It's not as pricey as San Diego down South. People generally are very healthy fit and into organic products. Many beaches to hang out at that are really nice, like Hermosa Beach, Huntington, Manhattan, Malibu, etc. LA is the movie capital of the world. It's also the second largest financial centre for the Western states of America.
In Northern part like San Francisco, people are very liberal, care-free minded. Drugs is considered normal to most people. The largest population of Asians in America is in San Francisco. The city is a part of what is known as the Bay Area, which includes San Jose/Silicon Valley, and Berkely and Oakland. It is VERY VERY expensive to live here, similar to New York and London.
People are the most friendliest in San Francisco than all of California. There are a lot of gays/lesbians here but they are very educated and make good money and contribute to the local economy and don't cause problems. The weather is cooler here than the rest of California because it's a higher elevation and you are closer to the mountains to go skiing year round..and some great hiking places.
San Franciso city is about 6 miles long and has more than 6,000 restaurants! Plenty of foods from all cultures indeed.
The Bay Area is where internet was created for the public access and many big name companies started here..Bill Gates got his money from investors here to start Microsoft, Apple's Steve Jobs is here and the company started here. Intel computer chips started in San Francisco. Oracle systems also...and many more. When something is started in the internet here, it gets world attention quickly. There are many fun things to do here also.
San Francisco is the Number 1 financial centre for the Western US. For the Eastern part it's New York. For the Central US it's Chicago.
I lived in all three main cities I mentioned in California. My favourite is San Francisco! I finished college there also and lived there about 7 years and Oakland about 2 years.
Any questions, please ask, Robert
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