(It’s time to talk about this.)
Having recently been to the USA for the first time and interacted with an incredible (truly!) number of immigrants and locals in a short amount of time, I made many interesting discoveries and conclusions. I thought a lot about many things, which I wish to share with you.
1. Is it worth dreaming about/moving to live in the USA? Is it really the best place on Earth?
It’s up to everyone to decide, but the place is indeed cool. It is obviously one of the most developed and, at the moment, the safest (probably?) countries, which is important. If you like where you are now – great 🙂 I would still consider this option for myself as the ideal one when there are unlimited resources.)
2. Do you need a million dollars to move to the USA?
I think you can move with any budget and circumstances if you want to or if the situation requires it. A talented and smart person will find themselves everywhere. But, undoubtedly, it will be more comfortable with money, especially if you have a family, children, etc. The more, the better) For example, renting a cool apartment of your dreams or a house in a decent place in the state (I’m talking about Florida and the Miami area) – $2000–5000 per month. This is just the rent. $1500 for food (for a family of 3 or more). I might be wrong, but let’s assume. Healthcare is expensive, education is expensive.
It’s clear that you will have to pay at least for plane tickets, moving expenses, and settling in, if we’re talking about visa processing – expenses for this process and lawyer fees. But I’m more talking about whether you need to be super rich to live in the USA after addressing all these issues.
For me, another downside is that Europe is far away; you can’t just travel back and forth. Although in America itself and close by, you can travel endlessly and see everything.
BUT! The quality of life, care for you, infrastructure, modernity, the absence of a necessity to learn any other language besides English, the simplicity of every step, and (in this place and state) safety – are worth it.
3. Finding your place – an unexpected but important thesis
I was surprised, but many, very many of our friends, acquaintances, and not only immigrants, but also pure Americans, have moved to another state at least once, and some 4 times (!).
THIS IS NORMAL – to live in one place, state, city, and try it out. If you don’t like it – move to another.
But it somehow happened that so many of them ended up gathering in one place.
So some friends lived in Reno (Nevada, relatively close to San Francisco and Las Vegas), then there, there, and there, finally – Boynton Beach (Florida). Others – North Carolina (Charlotte) – now Palm City (Florida). Third – Philadelphia, now – Miami (Florida). And so on.
Interestingly, everyone we talked to is very satisfied with their place of residence and lifestyle, and advocated for their city 🙂
4. KEY INTERESTING – Big city life vs One-story America
These are two entirely different things, sorry for the cliché.
And an important choice.
So, in the first days, we lived in the very center of Miami. This is undoubtedly BIG BIG CITY. Let me just say, I personally love it and am currently sticking with this option or at least “trying it out” (see point 3). The city is beautiful, warm, clean, interesting. It has everything you need. Moreover, if you can afford to live in a cool house, you might not even need your own car, as everything necessary – gym, cafes, shops, car rentals, taxis, and other transport – is either right in the building or very close. Tall beautiful skyscrapers, palm trees, bays, promenades, yachts. The skyscrapers don’t weigh you down at all, just so you know.
I love going somewhere (to work, for business) just through the city, grabbing coffee at a café, passing beautiful buildings, shops, libraries, gyms, parks, and so on. Isn’t that great?
You can go to Miami Beach (this is a city nearby, not a district) – it’s amazing and a resort.
The gyms and complexes are so incredible – it’s like a dream – you can spend the entire day there. All types of workouts, cafes, business zones, a children’s zone for three age groups starting from 3 months (!). And not just a room with toys, but classes with kids. Saunas, pools, beauty salons, and everything you can imagine.
If anyone is interested in the presence of homeless people (which is a frequent question and concern), there were a couple, but for a big city, it’s almost nothing, and they weren’t the worst, if you know what I mean. In London and Rome, there are more and worse. In Miami, there are just some oddballs walking down the street sometimes; they don’t bother anyone and are not sleeping under your feet.
Of course, it’s expensive. It’s possible to live on the outskirts for less, but I can’t say for sure.
THE PROBLEM AND CONCERN OF BIG CITY – it’s said that everything is bad regarding schools. It’s hard for me to say specifically, but many people have mentioned this. It seems that all schools are not very good, and that’s why not many students attend, so there is little funding. Therefore, there are poor teachers, and so on in a cycle. Or private schools – astronomically expensive (and even then, it’s not a fact that they’re good). In short, as soon as the question arises about schools for children – the desire to move to One-story America arises. Well, or maybe some people just don’t like big cities and all that. Or consider it unsafe.
But over there, it’s different. And here’s how.
One-story America. Smaller cities near Big City are actually huge too. All residential buildings are truly either one-story or at most two-stories. Three to five stories might only be found in some exceptional standalone buildings like hotels or business centers, but no skyscrapers.
Overall, it looks like in the movie “Back to the Future” – if you remember, Lyon Estates, it seems.
Such a stone meter-like fence, beautiful stone gates with the name of the area, you enter and there are only private houses. ONLY RESIDENTIAL.
School, store, gym, beauty salon – all of that is in a different place; you need to drive out of the area by car to go there.
The advantage is that all these gated communities (the official name) are super guarded, and it feels safe behind those meter-high fences, like being in grandma’s backyard. Or like in Estonia :))
Very quiet. Nature, greenery, birds, and BLESSING, as they say.
Having a car is a must. Houses come in various levels of luxury and different prices. The schools are cool.
Among these cities, in my assessment, there are ones that are very similar to this, and there are some that are supposedly an intermediate type between big city and one-story – like Boca Raton or Miami Beach, but still in my eyes, this is rather an “one-story” lifestyle.
In general, all this is clearly beautiful, but personally it seems a bit boring to me, and I don’t want to have to drive somewhere for every little thing. But maybe someday I’ll try and change my mind))
What do you think would be closer to you?
Here’s food for thought)
P.S. I hope none of my friends and acquaintances from the USA will knock me for this opinion and presentation.
But since we are talking about the USA, then freedom of speech and freedom of expression!
If any factual errors are found somewhere, let me know – we will correct them.
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