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Building home across the pond

zvs — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:47:40 -0800

Make London work. Help a beleaguered New Yorker figure out how to acclimate. Griping follows. So, there's a decent chance I'll be trying to move to London next year for school and work. No visa issues (EU passport), no language issues, no real issues at all -- except that when I've visited London, it Just. Doesn't. Work. For me.

New York to London shouldn't be a big culture shock, right? But for some reason I've never found anywhere there that felt nearly as comfortable or useful as Brooklyn. I don't feel like I can pop in somewhere for quick food, I can't find any life (not nightlife) after 8 PM, I can't find more groceries than a Tesco Express... I realize some of these aren't reasonable London expectations, but that won't stop me from building a little homey bubble around myself!

So, your tips are welcomed for this oddly specific question: where's the appropriate London district that's similar to home? It doesn't have to be terribly central or TOO cheap. If you're familiar with both cities, comparable neighborhoods in New York would be Astoria, or Greenpoint, or Carroll Gardens -- the last three places I liked. All of them are sort of quiet, insulated, and very dense. A little off the beaten path.

The closest I found to something like this in London was the area near St-John-At-Hackney, and that wasn't all that close. Pleasant though.

(I've seen this, but it's not really what I mean)

What are the typical phases of "culture shock?"

filibuster — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:10:15 -0800

What are the typical phases of "culture shock?" I'm a Canadian who's been living in Japan for about four months now, with one of those dime-a-dozen English teacher jobs. And I'm not enjoying myself very much. Recently I feel like I've moved into a compulsive fault-finding phase, in which all I want to do is talk about how much Japan sucks in various ways, and how much I hate my work and regret coming.

Problem is, another part of me feels like I am just going through a phase. Intellectually, I still very much want to complete an entire year in this country, and the idea of leaving early goes against my most base instincts, which are to always finish what you start, and more importantly, promise to complete.

I'm just curious if other "living abroad" veterans have gone through similar phases, and what, if any, turning points snapped them out of their funk period. Or, if I may ask the same question another way- how does one distinguish between what I assume are traditional culture shock related feelings of regret and frustration, and legitimate, appropriate feelings that your move across the world was, in fact, a bad decision.

free me from my free time

Anonymous — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:48:59 -0800

How should I use my copious amounts of free time while being poor in a country where nobody understands me? Background: I am working in a foreign country. I get paid but only enough to get by. I am not legally allowed to get another job. The nature of my work means that I work two or three full days a week but have the other days free. I am here with my partner who has the same type of job.

I want to go out (or stay in) and do fun things but, with my almost non-existent budget, it is difficult to find activities in my price range. I feel that on my free days, I end up sitting and refreshing metafilter and other webpages instead of actually doing anything.

I have investigated the expat community but most of them are into the bar and club scene which I really can't afford. I don't know the language well enough to communicate effectively (ie: not sounding like a five-year-old) with citizens of the country (and, considering the short period of time that I'll be here, am unlikely to learn a sufficient amount). My partner and I go out to explore the city but my partner has different days off (and , of course, I don't want to rely on my partner for all of my entertainment).

So, I feel totally lame because I am in this foreign country where I should be running around and having a good time but, instead, am inside refreshing the internet and moping. I'm sure there's culture shock going on here but I feel like if I had things to do to keep myself busy I'd be happier and more at ease.

Things that I already do: exercise 45 minutes a day, cook, force myself to get out of bed and walk down random streets and look at things.

Anon because I feel like a jackass being in a cool foreign country and being incapable of enjoying myself.

What should I know about living with someone from Japan?

unknowncommand — Wed, 14 May 2008 20:08:38 -0800

What do I need to know about living with someone from Japan? I'm interviewing roommates from Craigslist, and one of them is from Japan. She doesn't speak or write English very well, though she seems really nice, and I think it would be interesting and fun to live with someone from a different culture. On the other hand, I'm somewhat worried that the language and culture difference will be a difficulty (especially in New York City?).

I have hundreds of insane worries, but I'm wondering if there are realistic concerns to such a living situation? Or, if I choose to live with someone experiencing a new language and culture, what should I expect or keep in mind? I'm not sure the extent to which this question is Japan-specific, so I welcome any advice.

Travel noob seeks advice regarding destination.

philomathoholic — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:28:48 -0800

I'd like to take a trip to somewhere outside the US, for about a month, for about $1k, during an undecided time of the year. Where are two or three good places to go and what are some good things to do for a single mid-20's dude who's looking for general first-time traveler stuff and a little culture shock?

VB? WTF? :(

(lambda (x) x) — Wed, 17 May 2006 12:57:03 -0800

After spending so many years in *nix environments, I need to get up to speed with Microsoft products (specifically vb.net) without losing my sanity. I'm graduating this weekend with a BS in computer science and am on the prowl for employment. I've been working primarily in a Linux environment for most of my life and was employed as a *nix admin at my university during the entire course of my stay there, dabbling with Microsoft products only when absolutely necessary.

Unfortunately there are very few opportunities for tech work in my area, and I can't immediately jump ship for a number of financial and personal reasons. In other words, I'm looking for just about anything now, hoping that I'll be able to perhaps move and find something more ideal in two years or so. The best prospect I've found so far is an almost exclusively-Microsoft shop. The pay is decent and I know a few of the employees who seem to be pretty happy there, but I was told that if I were hired, one of my first projects would be assisting in porting a pretty large application from VB5(!) to VB.NET. So, I guess I'm going to need to learn pre-and-post .NET VB. There are going to be a few more experienced developers on the project, but I'd like to get up to speed as quickly as possible in order to do my fair share. They're aware of my lack of experience with the environment, but have expressed interest in me anyway.

I'm aware of VB's rather.. lackluster reputation and so I ask you, dear mefites, if you can suggest anything to make this process less painful. What are some good VB/.NET books? Are there any IDEs besides visual studio worth checking out? (currently, I use emacs + gnumake + sometimes ant) What's up with unit testing in a .NET environment? Any other words of wisdom?

I want to make it clear that I'm not totally inexperienced with application development in general, just with VB or pretty much anything else Microsoft. Most of the graphical standalone applications I've had a hand in were Qt based, written in either c++ or one of the higher level languages with qt bindings (python). Thanks!