Living in/Moving to Europe
cheXzie
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm getting really bored and annoyed with living here in the US. I'm thinking of moving to somewhere in Europe in for maybe a year or so.
I think that living somewhere else in the world would really teach me some things and be a very interesting experience.
Currently I'm not done with school so I'm just thinking hypothetically and trying to plan ahead and to see if this is possible at all. My job (well... future job) will (hopefully) be independent from location, so that should help out with the job situation.
[*]How much should I save?
Obviously more for England.
[*]As you can see, England seems to be the most reasonable choice and the most expensive.
I still would like to explore the rest of Europe. How tough would that be?
Anyone have exeprience with something major like this?
Advice? things to consider?
[/list:u:944ef811b5]
I think that living somewhere else in the world would really teach me some things and be a very interesting experience.
Currently I'm not done with school so I'm just thinking hypothetically and trying to plan ahead and to see if this is possible at all. My job (well... future job) will (hopefully) be independent from location, so that should help out with the job situation.
- What do I need to do to be permitted residency in the EU?
I do have a Polish Citizenship (but expired Polish passport) and I was wondering if that would make it any easier for this to happen. - I've been looking into the living in the following countries (in order of favorability):
[list:944ef811b5] - England:
[list:944ef811b5]Specifically London, I have a friend moving there in a few weeks. Hopefully by the time I make my choice he'll be settled and I could save some money living with him. Plus he most likely will become my business partner.
-
It seems like a good choice simply becasue there so much to see there. The main problem obviously would be the Language.
-
Same as France but studying some very basic German the language seems easier. One positive is I would be closer to Poland + family
-
A big reason for these two being a choice is that they're just such big centers of creativity. These two will probably pose the biggest language barrier.
-
They're warm! Language wise these would be the easiest to learn. I can follow basic spanish so it should be easier for me to pick it up along with Italian.
-
If you dont know by now, I am Polish. Language is no problem. I just don't see a point in going there aside from family. The economy in Poland sucks and although I would be able to better communicate with people, hence increasing my chances of getting extra jobs locally, the requests for creatives is really really low canceling that choice out.
[*]How much should I save?
Obviously more for England.
[*]As you can see, England seems to be the most reasonable choice and the most expensive.
I still would like to explore the rest of Europe. How tough would that be?
Anyone have exeprience with something major like this?
Advice? things to consider?
[/list:u:944ef811b5]
cheXzie on
0
Posts
!!!!▓▓▓▓▓Gravy?▓▓▓▓▓!!!!!!
!!!!!!▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓!!!!!!!!!
of doom
But why not a city in Germany by the border of Poland, close enough to commute to work if need be? You could work on learning your german and still have a way to work if the language proves to be too difficult for you at first.
And I hear Czech girls are really hot. :winky: Shoot for a town a little bit east of Dresden and you could go south for fun times.
Personally, I want to live near the German-French border someday.
That's the way it seemed to me too.
Becuase the roads and railroads in Poland suck major ass. Not to mention all my family lives in the South East.
I was considering the Czech Republic too. It might be a bit easier for me to understand the Language. Dresden does seem like an good location.
My ideal location would be southern france. Maybe in a small city. I'd do my work then go ride my Bicycle through the country roads.
Yeah, the French expect you to speak there language, whilst the Italians and Germans actually try helping you.
Exploring the whole of Europe will be a bitch, it's amazingly expensive to use public transport such as trains. Some pan-european plane journies are cheaper than the East Anglia - London train journey.
Have fun
I lived in a small town near Nantes, in France, for 3 months at one point, and in Paris for a month and a half. I never had a negative experience with a French person while living in either place, although I saw other foreigners treated less politely. I never saw a foreigner treated badly for no reason, though.
My experience with the French language has been that if you barge in, demanding that people speak English, they will give you the cold shoulder, or worse. If you make the effort to speak what French you know, they will try their hardest to speak easy French or whatever English they know. When I lived in Paris, I had only taken high school French (I was still a high school student, as a matter of fact) so I had hardly mastered the language. When I lived near Nantes, I had taken one year of college French, so again, I was hardly fluent. By the time I left after 3 months, though, I was past conversational and moving toward fluency. Point being, the language is not that hard to pick up.
The job question is a little harder - if you're in a big city you can probably get a job teaching English at a private company, or as a tutor, but you will need to have some level of whatever language they speak in order to get a regular job.
Just don't expect it to be fast... it doesn't look like it is too far on a map, but travelling between countries can take a few hours.
Better than compared to the few hours just to travel between states!
I know. But they usually go early in the morning or late at night. It was never really a problem for me. Except for when you go to really touristy places in Spain or something. Damn teenagers.
I'd been studying the German language for 3 years beforehand, but even then, I could just say "Ich spreche kein Deutsch, auf Englisch bitte" (I don't speak German, in English please) and 9/10 times the person I was speaking to could say whatever they wanted to in pretty good English. Obviously, the more rural an area you go to, the less this is true. In Munich, Nuremberg, and Frankfurt, I never met a German that didn't understand me asking questions in somewhat simplified English, and they replied right back in English. Heck, they would reply back in English, even if I started the conversation in German, if they noticed my accent was lacking. In the smaller towns, this is much less true. I lived in a tiny village for 2 of those 3 weeks, and the only person I met in said village that could converse with me in English was my exchange partner. At the town the school was in, we met a total of one person outside of our own school who could speak English, and he was an English teacher for the Realschule in the town. However, all the students at our school could hold light English conversation pretty well, so, yeah. I guess what I'm saying here is that while learning German, stick to the major cities and you will have no problems. They also don't speak ridiculous dialects in the major cities, from what I've heard, which is another distinction that comes with the more rural areas
As for the country itself... wow. It really is an amazing country. If it hadn't been for my family, my best friend, and Taco Bell (!!!) staying behind in America, I would have never wanted to leave. The food is awesome - little cafes and snack stands and everything all littered about, everything being a whole lot healthier than the stuff we regularly eat in the US. Plus they have these things called Douners there, and basically they are the world's best food ever made EVER holy crap. Then there's the architecture. It really is a wonder to see a 15th century house one minute, and a modern-day skyscraper the next. If you go to Germany, I recommend visiting Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber, it's an entire town that, basically, has no building in it younger than the United States... I thought it was really cool. Also the people everywhere are generally helpful and pleasant. I didn't really meet any surly or mean Germans the entire time, no one was impolite to me, which is surprising when you take into account the fact that I was an American tourist that mainly spoke English to native Germans there and stuff.
So, yeah, I recommend Germany. The language barrier is almost nonexistant in the major cities, and the country itself is awesome.
Course, if you actually want to learn Finnish, that could be difficult.
However, it's dark and cold and everything is expensive.
I'm more concerened about the process to be granted residency and the issues thereafter (communication, getting around, etc)
Idealy I would like to learn the languge (and I've heard more than once of the difficulty of Finish).
Right now, it's all wishful thinking.