1 post tagged “another country”
If you could easily choose to live in another country without all the red tape and legal stuff, which one would you select and why?
Submitted by Matthew 25.
I didn't really decide to write a weekend post to answer this burning question, but rather, because I feel slightly anxious...or more than slightly. And indeed, this question is enough of a softball to give me the excuse to pick up e-pen and e-paper to briefly "voice" these feelings, all under the guise of answering a simple Question of the Day.
Although I've traveled abroad more often than some people, I've also traveled far less than others. My boss and I worked on renewing his passport last week, and just this current one of his had every page filled with stamps...of course, he does get to travel abroad for work, but he's just a world traveler in general, really...which is one of the reasons why he's awesome, but I digress. My passport would have stamps from Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Israel, and The Netherlands...so out of those places, I suppose I'd have to be relatively boring and say England, specifically London. Out of all of those places above, I've spent more time in England than any other, as my aunt, uncle and cousin took me on a 10-day trip there when I was 11 or 12, and then I studied abroad in London for four months during my junior year of college.
But while London would be my first choice (in fact, whenever I think about where I'll live when I make my millions, I figure on a "home base" in New York, a smaller house in LA [for work-related travel], and some sort of residence in London), it's not necessarily because I have the best memories from my time there. Oh, I had a good enough time whilst studying abroad, but I was also at quite a low point: I was nearly at my heaviest, I had practically no money to my name, the girl I liked came over to visit me for a week...but then sort of used the trip to see someone else that she actually liked, who was studying in Spain at the time, and sort of used me when she wanted to find a place for him to sleep, etc. And because I had no money, I couldn't really go do anything, outside of seeing movies (ugh...I remember I was so bored and desperate one day that I spent about £12 [which was, like, $24] to see a matinee of that wretched movie Ghost Ship...and was summarily freaked the fuck out by the opening scene, when everyone got cut in half), surfing the internet at school and eating. It all became quite the vicious circle.
However...none of that was London's fault. I loved the city, despite its ridiculous prices, and I knew that I would want to come back one day when I have money. Of course, if I were to hold a debate with myself over London vs. New York City, the latter would win, if only because of the "home turf" advantage...I feel I would be somewhat homesick if I lived in London permanently. Plus, New York feels like what I am, while London feels like what I want to be...if that makes any sense. I would go back and delete that, but I feel like it makes sense to me somehow...or maybe it just sounds pretentious. Either way.
In addition, London could serve as a hub for the rest of Europe. With cheap EasyJet prices (though I haven't followed their prices since 2003) and the existence of the Chunnel (once they fix it up after that Tom Cruise/helicopter incident from 1996), it would be easy to travel anywhere in Europe or Asia. That's not to say travel would be impossible from, say, Paris, but if I look at the world like one of those air-travel maps from Raiders of the Lost Ark (you know, with the little red lines connecting the cities), it just seems like the lines from London all go out in a few basic directions to get to the maximum number of places, whereas from Paris, it's a whole bunch of lines in a whole bunch of directions for a whole bunch of places. Okay, I know what I'm talking about...and that's really what matters.
Other than London, I think my follow-up choice would be Paris...but that's it. I haven't really traveled enough to make any further educated choices. I probably wouldn't live in Amsterdam, as I'm not into biking (or drugs, though I think that's more of a tourist trade, mostly) and it doesn't appeal to me as much...I was only in Rome for six days and it seemed nice, but I'd need to spend more time there to make any sort of decision...despite the security issues, I just don't think Israel (Tel Aviv or Jerusalem) would be for me, though they were nice cities, overall (and no, Vickie, all the buildings aren't bombed out shells)...and why would I live in Canada if I can live in the US? No offense to Canada or anything, but...blah. If I'm going to live abroad, it sure as fuck wouldn't be Canada.
So that's that. I woke up this morning at 3:30...then 3:45...then 4...and finally, 4:30. That girl and I are going to Legoland today (well, there's an 85% chance we are, at least) and even though it isn't a date...I'm still nervous. But who knows...maybe my new home of choice will be Legoland and not London. I hear their health care system is amazing and everyone can build their own house (complete with snap-on trees and flowers). Anyway...we'll see how it goes....
