Ever try moving to another state?

[MSP]

I'd would like to get to England & the USA sometime, like to see NASA althou thats a bit quiet now.
But my big fear is your population in the USA scars the hell out of me ….. so many many people !! 

It's not that bad.  In fact, it's very comparable, depending on where you are in each country.  Sure, Oz has a lower population density, but that's warped due to the fact that virtually no one lives in the interior.  Whereas the USA has more cities and towns spread out all over the country.  But in OZ you can drive from Melbourne to Cairns and be among people for most of the way, depending on the roads you take.  Some cities will be very different, like New Orleans or New York, but a lot of the time a city is a city in the Western world.  (I've been to 12 countries and 15 US states). 

If I fart too hard Oregon can smell it . . . I'm USED to working . . . for beans.

I think I see the problem here. 

Seriously, the best way to find a job--especially from a distance--is to have someone local ask around.  Get people there to spread the word and hopefully something will come up for you.

 

[hannaugh]

I'd would like to get to England & the USA sometime, like to see NASA althou thats a bit quiet now.
But my big fear is your population in the USA scars the hell out of me ….. so many many people !! 

DownUnder population just under 23,000,000 with a vast area of land.
For instance England would fit into one of our smallest states, Victoria.

We have a lot of people, but we have A LOT of open land because the country is so big.  If you fly over, you'd be amazed at how much is not populated.  It seems to go on forever. 

If you want to really see what the USA is like, I highly recommend the British series Stephen Fry in America.  I found it on Netfix instant.  He goes on a road trip to all 49 continental states and then pops over to Hawaii.  It's really fun to watch, you learn where everything is and what our different states and famous cities are known for, how the culture is different in those parts, and he drives through our most beautiful wilderness areas.  It's pretty interesting to watch it as an American, because it is made from a non-American perspective for non-Americans.  I would think if you've never been here that it would give you a pretty good idea of the places you want to see. 

 

[AGWAN]

I wouldn't say it's like moving right down the street.  Funny things do happen when state lines are crossed.  Sales tax or state income tax differences, change of state vehicle registration, etc.  Sometimes moving expenses can be deducted too.  And...if it's far enough away, accent differences and state stereotypes will come into play.  Does Utah have any stereotypes....?

The Mormons. The people that hate Mormons. Mexicans, People that hate Mexicans. Juggalo's... everyone hates Juggalo's.

a whole state where half the state hates the other half. passionately. and the booze sucks. but the scenery is breathtaking!

My best friend did graduated from CSU Humbolt a few years ago.  She lived in Arcata, and she loved it there.  It's a nice laidback place to live.  Plus, if you like the area, but don't want to live in California, you could just hop over the border and live in Oregon.  It's a little cheaper there because there's no sales tax (or is it no property tax?  I can never remember.) 

Anyways, as a resident of California who has lived in both the North and the Southern parts, I can tell you that NorCal is a slightly easier place to get by.  Rent and gas are not as bad on the wallet up there.  The public transportation is a little better up there too, so if you don't have a car, you can actually get around.  Most people in CA have a car though, just because it's a big state and things tend to be very spread out, especially in LA. 

You just have to REALLY be have a high tolerance for hippies up there because they're freaking EVERYWHERE.  I can't remember how many times we would be driving and the person in front of us would be going 5 mph in a 30 zone, and upon passing them, it would suddenly be obvious that they needed to just put the joint down and drive their car.  I remember when I got back down here being so happy to be around people who used actual deodorant instead of freaking mystical crystals to fight their BO, and to not see as many white guys with scraggly dreadlocks trying to get you to join their drum circle. 

One thing that is nice about living in crazy hippie land is the businesses and the art culture though.  There are a lot more quirky, independent businesses, and a lot more local art and music to get int (of course, quantity doesn't always equal quality, but at least there IS art there).  I remember when I lived up there that the restaurants were fantastic!

Keep in mind one thing though, this state is more screwed economically than most of the country at the moment.  The state is pretty much broke.  We're about 16 billion in the hole.  Unemployment is a tiny bit better than it was a few years ago, but it's still pretty bad.   

Good luck! I hope you get here okay and everything works out. 

The arty nature of the local is indeed a factor in my moving there. I've heard about the hippies... but coming from my family... I am skilled in handling people who think Dark side of the moon was the best album ever! I get on with most of them well! people talk about how bad the unemployment is in California, and that is indeed intimidating. but Utah has held little for me anyways nothing exists here but minimum wage factory work and fast food. anyone skilled either joins the air force or leaves. Mormons keep a lot of good employment for only other mormons...

Its a weird world in general. I am up for the adventure and challenge of California. perhaps I will find a place less hateful and insular than the place I left. hippies might smell, but the ones I know are tolerant people. which is a rare thing here. my girlfriend and I walk down main street with our mohawks (mine blue. hers purple) and the people would look at us as though we'd just beamed down from the mothership.

(Oddly enough, in Ogden, Utah... thats not as bad a thing... its the artiest city in the state, thus why I live here!)

 

[mero]

It's not as bad as it would seem from watching movies and such, although it is about 10 times what you're used to. We have roughly 32 people/Km, where you have 3/Km. If you want dense, go to Japan. They have 339/km, and a lot of their land is mountainous and not suitable to habitation. So, it's even denser than it sounds from just raw numbers.

Haha try 7300 people per square km where I'm from. 5 million people in an area of just 700 square km. Traffic's an absolute nightmare in the mornings when everyone goes to work and in the evening when everyone goes home from work. Efforts to restrict car ownership and alleviate congestion have resulted in having to pay for a certificate of at least 47k USD before you can even purchase a car, and on top of that, a 100% tax on the actual price of the car. Even the cheapest Chinese or Korean cars now cost near 80k USD. The high population density means almost everyone stays in high rise apartments like in Hong Kong or Japan, if you wanna get a piece of landed property it'll cost you over $1m USD.

On the plus side, it does take me only 30 minutes to get to most places in the country, at most an hour if they're on the extreme east or west side.

Oh and public transport in the mornings looks like the mythical Japanese squeeze we've all seen on the internet  :-\

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Same here, our country has an overall population density over 400/km2, but I live in London where it's more than ten times that. Double figures sounds pretty nice.

 

[Updown]

If you want to really see what the USA is like, I highly recommend the British series Stephen Fry in America. 

Yep just been on TV here in Oz  :icon_thumright:
Got heaps of pic's etc from my parents trips there, but thats a while ago they went.

If I went it would be more the middle to west coast than the east side, New York, Florida etc not interested in them.

Suppose if I stop buying Warmoth parts  :doh:  I might just get there someday.  :icon_biggrin: 
I reckon I could see a bit in a 3 month trip. 

I hate the cold so an England trip, is gotta be at the right time of year, or I'll freeze my ..... off  :toothy11:

 

[stubhead]

I'm hoping that your girlfriend (and her parents) see you as a good influence? Because if they're sending her away (in their minds, from YOU) and you show up there, you could really get hung out to dry. Every college campus generates a certain amount of hangers-on, and I fear they've been dealing with it far more strictly that they used to. If you're in a situation where you can get any kind of mail, if you pick out a few towns right in the region and e-mail their respective chambers of commerce, they'll send you lots of maps and tourist stuff, but you can use it to deduce more about the region. And I think included in any plans whatsoever, YOU NEED TO GET A CELL PHONE... I mean, the lack of one is costing you jobs right now, and it'll keep costing you jobs wherever you land.

I dunno, you're young, and it's the time to have adventures, but times are tight in this country and that tends to make people closed. But I've talked to people who ended up going through Utah because of the Mormonism, and I'd sure do better in a place that's 80% hippie than in a place that's 80% Mormon.

 

[Ddbltrbl]

Having lived in both states, I recommend you think it over some more. There are great things about both states, but taxes in CA are significantly higher! Its not totally obvious how much higher until you start to calculate the additional cost of goods and services because of the higher taxes! You will be poorer for living in CA.

As for density, I currently live in Yokohama and work in central Tokyo and pay higher taxes that they do in CA. YeeeHaaawww! I guess that makes me pretty dense, eh! :sad:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Coming from my experience in seeking employment in Washington State while I still lived in California, I can tell you that applying for jobs with an out of state address can be very difficult.

You may consider getting a P.O. box in the area you wish to settle, use it on applications & resume's, and have your mail forward to your current residence.  Be ready to fly out on a moment's notice for an interview.

Learn the lay of the land a bit, ie; research local chamber of commerce, find out what local newspapers/employment/classifieds are there and check them regularly, if not a couple of times a day.  Seeking employment out of state sucks, be prepared for a long process, no overnight success here, especially considering how messed up California is.  I moved here from Northern California, and my son still lives there in Modelsto & it's rough for him.  Even though he's working regularly, his terminal has been subbing him out to other terminals, ie; Reno, Porterville, San Luis Obispo, and in a few weeks Denver, Co.  This is due to lack of sufficient business in the Modesto area.  My son is a cable technician, you'd think there'd be loads of work, but this economy is affecting literally everyone.  My cousin was an EMT in Watts (Los Angeles, Ca) and of all places, he was laid off due to a reduction in force.  If that's not a sign of how messed up California is, I don't know what is.

In all honesty, unless I owned a home and had enough equity into it, I cannot fathom how I would ever be able to afford to move back to California, not that I would even want to, but the cost of living is so high there, especially in the Bay Area or So. Cal and work is so scarce.

 

[hannaugh]

Yeah, you definitely don't want to have a state government job in CA right now.  They've already put every state program on a skeleton crew, and they're supposed to be slashing the budget even more in the next year.  And I guess our extra federal funding for unemployment benefits got cut as well, so that will cut the time you can spend on unemployment down a few weeks. 

You can easily tell how bad off the state is just by comparing last year's summer school programs for community colleges with this year's.  A lot of schools don't offer any summer classes anymore, and if they do, it's just bare bones general education classes (which sucks for me because I was hoping to take Illustrator and a couple other digital design classes). 

And of course what is the solution they come up with most of the time?  Raise taxes and fees, which are already astronomical compared to most states.  Add in the constant barrage of ridiculous regulations for everything from having a wood fire in your own fireplace to how many forklifts you can own in one business without having to pay off the government, and more and more people and businesses get fed up and leave the state, which means instead of getting more money from them, they get no money from them at all.  Plus those jobs leave the state when the businesses pull out.  You can drive by in So Cal through any commercial area and see row after row at business parks and industrial centers with no businesses in them. 

I predict that in 20 years (maybe earlier than that), the only people living here will either be extremely poor or homeless, or millionaires.  I just can't see how they're going to keep regular average income folks here without some huge changes to how they run things, even if the federal economy gets a lot better. 

 

[m4rk0]

I moved to a different country twice ! so if I can do it......

Best advise, try to get a job before you move there... it is possible!

 

[bagman67]

Arcata's not THAT close to the Oregon border, Hannah - about 100 miles, actually.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

The area I live in Texas, very few people are from here.  As a result, there are a lot of permanent residents with no plans of moving with out of state license plates.  They'll keep paying the yearly homestate registration, borrowing a relative's address, than pay $600 for a new plate in their new home state for a car they already own.  If from OK, it's a double whammy because they don't have yearly inspections required.

 

[hannaugh]

Arcata's not THAT close to the Oregon border, Hannah - about 100 miles, actually.

Oh really, I thought it was closer?  Never been there.  Everyone I knew who went to school there made it sound like it was 10 ft from the state line.  Just shows how much we're used to things being far apart in CA.  My husband commutes 50 miles to work, and that's not really that unusual around here. 

 

[tubby.twins]

I moved from Oregon to Utah, spent 1.5 years there, and then moved back after being "redeployed".  I moved to Utah to be with my fiancee whom I then married shortly after the move, but that's another story.

Every state has its vibe, and different regions have their own vibes as well.  You may find that this particular stretch of Northern CA matches your style at least as well as your current locale.

Having moved for love and never regretted it, I'd say: go for it!  Take that chance.  If she's important to you, then make it happen.

Oh, and Hannaugh:  no sales tax. 

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

You don't pump your own gas either, so you've got that going for you...which is nice.

 

[tubby.twins]

You don't pump your own gas either, so you've got that going for you...which is nice.

True, but that doesn't make as much difference now.  Sometimes I'd rather pump my own than wait for the attendant.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

I didn't know that the first time I went there.  Then it felt weird, like I should tip them.  I wish they'd atleast top it off or get it to an even $ amount.

The other strange thing, strange being relative, all of the drive thru $1 espresso shot places.

 

[AGWAN]

I'm hoping that your girlfriend (and her parents) see you as a good influence? Because if they're sending her away (in their minds, from YOU) and you show up there, you could really get hung out to dry. Every college campus generates a certain amount of hangers-on, and I fear they've been dealing with it far more strictly that they used to. If you're in a situation where you can get any kind of mail, if you pick out a few towns right in the region and e-mail their respective chambers of commerce, they'll send you lots of maps and tourist stuff, but you can use it to deduce more about the region. And I think included in any plans whatsoever, YOU NEED TO GET A CELL PHONE... I mean, the lack of one is costing you jobs right now, and it'll keep costing you jobs wherever you land.

I dunno, you're young, and it's the time to have adventures, but times are tight in this country and that tends to make people closed. But I've talked to people who ended up going through Utah because of the Mormonism, and I'd sure do better in a place that's 80% hippie than in a place that's 80% Mormon.

I'm 26, she's 21. we are not that young. I am the ONLY boyfriend her parents have ever liked. they are well to do, thus why we've been able to spend so much time together in spite of the distances. These are people who gave her a 2010 honda accord because they felt it was too old for themselves. they're freaking out that she's going away. they like the idea of me trying to move there, so she won't be TOTALLY alone. Humboldt is the best school for her major (that she got accepted to) and as a biologist, the school really matters. As a fine artist... School is not necessarily a need for me. I just spent a year in college doing junior level arts classes and being bored out of my skull/upset at the lack of knowledge and ability in my professors. I've hosted at galleries, I know the skill and quality required of me to get SHOWN at galleries. I know how the fine arts and commercial arts worlds work and I am near the top in terms of talent. But living in Utah removes me from being able to take part in any of that. there is no art here. There is just no market. in moving to California I will also be moving closer to my prospective markets for both my fine arts and my design work.

I repeat that I am well aware how bad California's economy is. I also repeat that I don't need much to get by. and that I have virtually no debt.

I do need that cellphone. And I need it bad. of that I do agree.

 

[stubhead]

There are any number of cell phone providers who are giving away a basic, free cell phone, with something like 200 minutes a month free too (i.e., if you use up your minuted yakkin' to the babe, you won't have any when a job offer comes in)... the hitch is, you have to have some evidence that you are low income, like you've qualified for food stamps, had energy assistance, etc. Google "free cell phone low income" and dozens of 'em come up with a state-by-state breakdown. But again, you have to think of it as an income-seeking tool ONLY. It might seem logical to YOU to talk to your girl 200 minutes - once a month. :laughing7: