Anyone Else in the US

[allfurcoatnoknickers]

I've been an expat in NYC for three years now, but I'm having a very rare attack of home sickness today. Not sure what set it off, (maybe the drizzle?) but I just viscerally want to go home right now.

Anyone want to remind me of why living in the US/NYC is amazing to snap me out of it? Or anyone else feeling the same and want to commiserate?

Sorry only just seen this. I am in Northern California, only been here a year, but have good days and bad.

We have a much better social life here, the weather is better, it still feels like we are permanently on holiday, there are new areas to explore

However, I miss my family and friends and being so far away is really tough sometimes xxx

Lots of reasons living here is amazing. But maybe you just need a change of scene? Come up to New England - it's gorgeous right now.

I'm in NY up in Westchester and have increasingly been feeling the same. Mainly triggered by what's happening politically and the feeling of instability and unrest as a whole in the country.

Plus points of NYC:

• Bagels
• beaches
• brunch
• proper summer (we'll gloss over the crapulous winters!)
• decent cheap pedicures and spa stuff
• shopping (if thats your thing)
• easy and affordable to travel to central and south america compared to from the UK

I have a con list which is much much longer, but I'll keep it to myself

In NYC? You've got everything!

Remember the constant drizzle, dank grey skies and fewer sunny and bright days than you remember.

Think of the crappy graffiti covered underpasses on the A3 at Tolworth roundabout, the 60s monstrosities of Morden (I have no idea where you're from in the U.K., only the boys that depress the fuck out of me every time I return!)

NYC is my favorite city in the world but I get to visit regularly and enjoy it mostly with a drink in my hand and dining at novel restaurants, I don't have to live and breathe it daily so I get where you're coming from!

I've lived in the Caribbean nearly 10 years and there isn't much about the U.K. that I miss, other than my family and friends.

I used to miss rolling green hills and village shops with smoking chimneys until I realized I was thinking about England through vicar of dibley rose tinted goggles!

That being said, England in the summer is magic but then I remember that those memories are great because they're few and far between. 80% of it was waking up and going home in the dark, consistently having to wear a coat with a hood, and despair at watching crowds of yin bush youths crowded around bus stations outside the local KFC looking for trouble...

Boys = bits

Yin bush = yobbish

(Fucking autocorrect)

I am up in Northern Maine, and have been for 4 years. Just think of....

Better weather
Better pay
Space
Friendly people

It sounds like change of scene needed nyc is unique and intense

I'm in Michigan, so nothing like NY. A friend from work left here last year and moved to Brooklyn. She's desperate to come back to the mid-west. Our winters are WAY harsher than NY, but after 9 years here I think I would be heart broken to leave. It's a direct 7 hour flight to get home if I need to, so I don't feel too cut off.

But I love: wide open spaces, amazing summer, beaches and rivers & lakes galore. Canada is just next door if I want a change of scene. Housing here is much cheaper, my job is infinitely better (teacher) and I would be in despair if I had to go back to a UK school.

I do miss my family, but we never lived very close, and they're all pretty dysfunctional anyway (I'm the only sane one, honest). I also miss when you can just have a conversation about something like Britain in the 80s, and everyone just knows what you mean. But then I have MN for that.

I moved back to the UK two years ago after five years in NYC. I really miss it. I think the UK is comparably depressed and depressing. Obviously not all the time, but some of the things I miss are:
Blue blue skies in nyc, even in the bitter winter
Hot summers
Amazing food for delivery
Positive, open minded people from all over the world
Access to beautiful countryside
Art and culture on your doorstep
Wonderful parks
Cocktails

I wish I'd done more of two things - travel within the US and Americas, as well pop back to the UK more frequently for short trips to see family.

Thank you everyone! I've perked up a bit now. Was going through a particularly horrible time at work, and I think it was just making my hate NY and everyone in it especially as I work for a very "New York" company IYSWIM.

I also live near the Highline, and it so frantic and so busy that it all just gets a bit much sometimes. Although proximity to cheap nail spas and bottomless brunches does help, I have to admit.

4th of July weekend was ruined by my boss who made me work through the whole thing, even though I was on fire island so a break is desperately needed. DH and I are heading up to the Finger Lakes for Labor Day weekend, so hopefully that will calm me down a bit.

miss those are pretty much all my pluses too! That and it's cheaper and easier to have a dog in NY than in London.

I think the politics unrest does get to me, especially as I've had to renew my green card and I'm stuck in a massive backlog...

The 'work ethic' can be a bit much! I'm guessing that it can be even more so in NYC, but even my lovely little mid-west town can feel as though we're meant to be grateful and happy to spend the weekend working! DH has just taken a massive back-step for career to get away from all that as he hated his job. He's still settling into the new one, but we managed a week away last week and he didn't get any texts or emails so we totally relaxed.

The Finger Lakes is lovely! Enjoy yourselves :-)

kick Exactly! It's nuts here, people very much feel defined by what they do, and it's often seen that the more important you are, the more "needed" you are. I think I was suffering burn-out due to having to work through all my holidays for 18 months

Be Thank You! We went years ago and I just fell in love with the area. Really looking forward to a return visit. We're doing the state fair!

I live in UK but have traveled to USA a fair amount.

The UK at the moment is wet, windy colder than it should be. Were about to get cold wet and very dark.

It's people aren't happy. We are depressed with the current brexit/political uncertainty and poor management. It's increasingly expensive to do anything. Even parking to visit your GP it go into a town for 30 minutes means a charge. The quality of things is decreasing imo. Houses are small and extremely expensive. The population is increasing to the point of suffocating and the jobs market is crap.

Yes we have the NHS which is brilliant and such a luxury but it's inwardly imploding due to demand. Mental Health services are terrible, huge waiting lists and provision is so low and short term people get stuck in a cycle. Our social care and education systems are financially decimated and will remain in crisis for years.

As the pound lowers the more tourists decend this is good for our economy however the country just isn't big enough for all the people. I've seen a huge increase in tourists this year.

I'd rather be in the USA tbh. Yes family and friends are in the UK but there's video calling and flights. Your better where you are.

Ah fur thats shite; you ought to put ex-lax in the bosses coffee

Finger lakes is amazing tho, I hope you have a restorative time with lots of ice cream! (altho the food after NYC was a bit 'quaint', you should have seen the wait staff in one place when I asked for cutlery...)

My green card has another 6 years on it - if this carries on, I'm now wondering whether they'll change the rules and force citizenship on people or bust. Very unsettling times and as a permanent resident with no voting rights it makes me feel v impotent

Kickass. I am also a teacher here.I could not go back to UK teaching now. I love the creative freedom here and lack of scrutiny. I walk out on a Friday and don't think about work really, till I go back in. The UK has many qualities, but there is no doubt our quality of life is much better in the U.S.