Help Tassadar find a place to Move To

Nubclear · December 29, 2002, 19:46

Alright, living in Utah, well, sucks. I need a place to move to. There are few job oppritunities, Mormon-centric teaching (Yes NYE, I live here. I would know.), and its just plain BORING.

I need a place to move to out of Utah. Heres my citeria:

-Needs to be fairly cheap.
-Good job oppritunities.
-Good education.
-Something to do!!!
-Fairly low crime. I don't want to get murdered on the way home.

Suggestions?

ixnay · December 29, 2002, 19:48

There's always Montana. Not sure about the good job opportunities part, though.

David Floyd · December 29, 2002, 19:48

Austin, Texas.

-Not incredibly expensive
-Quickly expanding, with job opportunities
-Hello? University of Texas!
-Lot's to do in Austin
-Crime rate isn't the lowest in the nation, but I've never had any problems.

Buck Birdseed · December 29, 2002, 19:50

Sweden is nice.

David Floyd · December 29, 2002, 19:53

Good point, and in Sweden, you can get by quite comfortably without even working, if you know what I mean

Nubclear · December 29, 2002, 19:54

Quote:

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
Sweden is nice.

But the shape of Sweden is ugly. I wouldn't want to live in an ugly-shaped country, now would I?

Ned · December 29, 2002, 19:56

Try Bagdad. Plenty of action and excitement. You might even have the opportunity to exercise your anti-Americanism up close and personal.

Jaakko · December 29, 2002, 19:57

Sweden is shaped like a limp penis on the 1 and 2 Euro coins.

Nubclear · December 29, 2002, 20:01

Quote:

Originally posted by Ned
Try Bagdad. Plenty of action and excitement. You might even have the opportunity to exercise your anti-Americanism up close and personal.

Hmm....I prefer English-Speaking countries, thanks.

Quote:

Sweden is shaped like a limp penis on the 1 and 2 Euro coins.

Jaakko · December 29, 2002, 20:16

MrWhereItsAt · December 29, 2002, 20:21

At the risk of sounding facetious (and I am NOT trying to Tass, me ole friend), how 'bout New Zealand?

Lessee..

Cheap? - US1$ is worth around NZ$2, so you would get here with a good start, and we do have a cheap cost to food and property - a decent family-sized house in the middle of Auckland (our largest city) would set you back something like $300k NZ, or maybe $500 NZ rent. Inflation is strictly controlled at around 1.5% too, so that may be a reason for the cheapness as well.

Jop ops? Anything in IT or most hard sciences will have them snapping you up. You won't make a tonne, but then again to live comfortably here you don't need to. Teachers are somewhat underpaid, but they are getting more raises all the time now, and are badly needed. Finance/Commerce I wouldn't know about, but all my Commerce studying friends seem to do OK once they finished Uni. Or you could always become a ski/skydiving/bungyjumping etc instructor.

Good education? You betcha. Our Unis are recognised internationally as (although somewhat lacking in the funds for high-tech machinery) world-class teaching Institutions. Almost the whole lot of them.

Something to do? Well we aren't very big, and if big city life is what you want - keep away. But if you like the outdoors, mountain climbing, tramping, surfing, sailing. rugby, cricket, hockey..... We do all that. Seen Lord of the Rings? Some of the things above you can do in that landscape.

Fairly low crime? Well sure we have murders and that, but the problem is low enough that our cops don't carry guns - there's a special squad for that. Murder cases in NZ are uncommon enough to make news for weeks at a time when they happen.

And since I'm, in Oz, I guess I should throw this in. For most of what I said above, that applies to Oz as well, only with bigger cities and things are more expensive, but then you make a bit more money too.

Just an idea. Hope these ideas help you think through what you really are looking for in a place, Tass.

Shi Huangdi · December 29, 2002, 20:28

"-Needs to be fairly cheap.
-Good job oppritunities.
-Good education.
-Something to do!!!
-Fairly low crime. I don't want to get murdered on the way home."

Pittsburgh is a pretty good place.

-Pittsbrugh has cheap housing available.
-Not sure on the job opportunities in the area. I know there is a lot of blue collar work in my area, plenty of stores with help wanted signs, but I assume you are a white-collar worker.
- Good public school system in the area, a whole slew of universities in the area too.
- If you are a college age then there are plenty of parites in the area. If not, there is still plenty to do, major sports teams, a nice big part, nightlife, etc. etc.
- Crime is not a big problem, I feel safe there. Supposedly we are one of the lower crime cities.

Juggernaut · December 29, 2002, 20:29

Quote:

Originally posted by Jaakko
Sweden is shaped like a limp penis on the 1 and 2 Euro coins.

Says the guy living in the scrotum.

Jaakko · December 29, 2002, 20:34

Looks like us Finns gave Sweden some balls in more than one way...

Datajack Franit · December 29, 2002, 21:49

If Sweden is the flaccid penis and Finland the scrotum, what the hell is Norway supposed to be?

Juggernaut · December 29, 2002, 22:44

Atleast we know what the Danish islands would be.

Urban Ranger · December 30, 2002, 00:02

Hong Kong, or maybe even Shanghai.

Nubclear · December 30, 2002, 00:15

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Hong Kong, or maybe even Shanghai.

Wouldn't that require knowledge in, um, Chinese?

Urban Ranger · December 30, 2002, 00:19

Not for a while, particularly in Hong Kong you can get by not knowing any Chinese at all. It is advisable to learn it, though.

Urban Ranger · December 30, 2002, 00:21

Quote:

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Jop ops? Anything in IT or most hard sciences will have them snapping you up.

How good is the IT market? It's sucking up here so I may need to look elsewhere.

monolith94 · December 30, 2002, 00:26

Come live in Massachusetts!
-Needs to be fairly cheap.
Hmmmm. Not cheap, but I wouldn't say it's THAT expensive. You can always go live in Lynn! *snicker*
-Good job oppritunities.
Yup. Route 128 is the Silicon Valley of the East!
-Good education.
Boston colleges, we founded public education, etc.
-Something to do!!!
Hell yeah! BOSTON!
-Fairly low crime. I don't want to get murdered on the way home.
Even in the most economically depressed areas, like Worcester and Lynn, crime isn't a huge issue. I wouldn't go walking around alone at night in all areas of those two cities but hey, nothing's perfect!

Nubclear · December 30, 2002, 00:38

Quote:

Originally posted by monolith94
Come live in Massachusetts!

That would be nice

Quote:

can always go live in Lynn! *snicker*

MrWhereItsAt · December 30, 2002, 00:38

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger

How good is the IT market? It's sucking up here so I may need to look elsewhere.

Put it this way. In my home city of Wellington (about 350,000, Auckland is the largest at over 1 million) the Maths and CompSci department of the University has had to increase the hourly wages of their second year tutors from the Uni standard of $12 to $20 so they don't lose all their undergraduates to downtown IT businesses. I can only imagine how much they pay their postgraduate tutors.

$20 NZ per hour may not sound like much, but this is for 18/19 year olds with no finished qualifications other than a College leaving certificate and our equivalent of Grade 12. And I have some friends who get away with only a year of Uni study (so no quals apart from the above) and within a year or two are up to near $100k/year. There's not much scope for making even more money in NZ, but you can reach that pretty much instantly.

Kontiki · December 30, 2002, 00:39

Toronto's got everything you're looking for, except the cheap part. Unfortunately, it's got one of the higher costs of living in the world.

Ned · December 30, 2002, 00:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Tassadar5000

Hmm....I prefer English-Speaking countries, thanks.

Give us a couple of months.

Tingkai · December 30, 2002, 01:04

Quote:

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Hong Kong, or maybe even Shanghai.

Tass is looking for a place that is fairly cheap and has a good education system so that rules out Hong Kong.

On the other hand, salaries for expats are usually high in HK and taxes are extremely low.

Nubclear · December 30, 2002, 01:33

Quote:

Originally posted by Ned

Give us a couple of months.

I also prefer countries that have cities that are, well, built not bombed,

Urban Ranger · December 30, 2002, 01:46

Quote:

Originally posted by Tingkai
Tass is looking for a place that is fairly cheap and has a good education system so that rules out Hong Kong.

On the other hand, salaries for expats are usually high in HK and taxes are extremely low.

Well, Hong Kong can be very cheap as long as you don't have dinners at Regent all the time and so on

Also the education system isn't half bad, depending on what he wants to learn.

But we have things to do here. Also, Hong Kong is a good jump off point to visit China.

Urban Ranger · December 30, 2002, 01:48

Quote:

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Put it this way. In my home city of Wellington (about 350,000, Auckland is the largest at over 1 million) the Maths and CompSci department of the University has had to increase the hourly wages of their second year tutors from the Uni standard of $12 to $20 so they don't lose all their undergraduates to downtown IT businesses. I can only imagine how much they pay their postgraduate tutors.

$20 NZ per hour may not sound like much, but this is for 18/19 year olds with no finished qualifications other than a College leaving certificate and our equivalent of Grade 12. And I have some friends who get away with only a year of Uni study (so no quals apart from the above) and within a year or two are up to near $100k/year. There's not much scope for making even more money in NZ, but you can reach that pretty much instantly.

Cool. Do I need to get a work visa or something like that? How do I start looking?

Apocalypse · December 30, 2002, 01:51

David Floyd is right about Texas. The cost of living and taxes are much lower than in most states. This is why many sports stars live here.