Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with europe and moving

Propitious places to move to & unusual living situations for having 3 or 4 days a week free to work on personal project

cotesdurhone — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:39:38 -0800

I'm working on a project that requires at least 3 or 4 full days attention each week. What are some places in the US or world I could move to, &/or unusual living situations, that would give me a good chance of doing this? Other considerations:

• Part-time job terminating Jan 1, and definitely want to move elsewhere (currently live in Boston)
• Have $5000 savings. Will probably also be able to continue receiving unemployment (about $1,000 month) if I move out of state (but not country, obviously)

• Age 30. US Citizen.
• Languages: English, Russian
• Skills: Writing and editing, visual art, Russian translation (but no graduate-level degrees to show this)
• BA from Liberal Arts college + semester (2 terms) at Oxford

Any and all reasonable options considered.

• Preferred urban environment: vibrant arts scene, inspiring architecture, not overrun with college students or sports fanatics, ethnically and age-ally diverse
• 'Ideal' destinations: Montreal, France
• Hypothetical order of preference: 1. Montreal & France (tie) 2. EU, Scandinavia, & Turkey 3. Eastern Europe 4. USA & Canada 5. South America 6. Asia 7. Australia/New Zealand 8. other

• Preferred rural environment: the more (interesting) people around, the better

• "unusual living situations" = housesitting - caretaking - living in some cabin - (earnest) meditative community - collective farm - kibbutz - teaching abroad - or anything else

• If it's helpful to know— the project is of a literary nature (a novel and other writings)

Finally, what are the very best resources (books, websites, magazines, etc) that might be of help?

What is the best way to move from London, UK, to Brussels, Belgium?

meso — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:07:30 -0800

Hey there! I'm moving to Brussels for a job early November, and I'm trying to plan my move from London. What is the best way to do this move? My latest plan is to drive there in a van with a friend, stay with him for a couple of days, and have him drive the empty van back to London. Am I missing something? Is there an obvious way to make it easier/cheaper?

Right now the costs would involve paying the van rental, the Eurotunnel transfer between the UK and the continent, paying for a hotel, and packing stuff myself.

More information: I don't have any furniture, just books and clothes. It's not a massive amount. I don't have a driving licence myself. I'm also hesitating between driving there with a friend, gonig there on Eurostar and leave my stuff, or send them to myself by post.

Any suggestion would be immensely appreciated... thank you!

Where should I live in the USA? I like music, culture, etc - but I need to be close to Europe.

wingless_angel — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:13:01 -0800

Where should I live in the USA? I like music, culture, etc - but I need to be close to Europe. So I have the opportunity to be a US permanent resident next year and am starting to research as much as I can about where I might live. But there's a glitch - the timing is kind of bad and I am going to need to spend a fair of time in Europe over the next 3 years for work. I've got the permanent residence maintenance issues in hand (assuming I get the visa next year of course! I'm a DV winner) but the big question is: where should I live in the US (probably a few months each time) and establish my life/residence until I move for good?

I have spent about 4 months in the US across the past 5 years for vacation and conferences, places I've liked best have been Seattle, Chicago, especially Evanston, Santa Monica (but not so much the rest of LA), New York. I have only spent a day in Boston, but it seemed good. I don't drive so public transport is critical. I would not move to San Francisco for this reason. Climate I am not so worried about.

I have previously lived in Sydney, The Hague, and currently London. I like areas that are lively but not on top of the action - we live just north of Camden Town, and I lived in Newtown when I was in Sydney. I eat a lot of Asian and ethnic foods - I like variety. I also like living in a place with a lot of music, good bars, bookstores, museums etc and access to open spaces and parks. Living in London and the Hague, I'm used to an overpriced cost of living. My husband is an academic so a city with lots of academia would be good. Most of my US friends live in NYC.

The kicker is that I would be going back and forth between the US and Europe often for a couple of years, so I would prefer somewhere that is close flightwise to keep costs and flight times down (7hr flight vs 11 hr, for instance). A city with ample short-term leases would be good (or long-stay holiday apartments). We also need someplace where establishing a life is not too difficult - places where you can open a bank account and get ID and build credit. London for example, is tedious at this.

Where should I go, MeFi?

How do we get our stuff to Germany without breaking the bank?

freudenschade — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:44:40 -0800

What's the best option for shipping several boxes of household items from Canada to Germany? In August, my girlfriend and I will be relocating from Toronto to Berlin. Seeing as we'll be there for at least a year, it would be great if we could bring more than just a couple of suitcases of stuff with us. Extra baggage charges on the plain are prohibitively expensive, as are the usual shipping options (Canada Post, UPS, FedEx, etc.). We've been looking for specific information on renting a small space in a shipping container, but online details are slim and mostly relate only to US companies.

We'd mostly be shipping some extra clothes, shoes, books and so on, and delivery time isn't that important. Any tips or experiences would be great. Thanks in advance!

Packing and Leaving

Unred — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 06:09:49 -0800

Say you want to move to Europe for just a few months. What logistically should I be preparing for? Do I give up my apartment (in case I want to stay longer than a couple of months)? How much money should I have saved? If you're in your 30's is it possible to find work without a work visa? Is it possible to get a work visa without a job beforehand?

Has anyone ever done this and want to share the things they wish they'd thought about before they did it? BTW the place I'm thinking of going is Amsterdam. I like the idea of actually living there, but I think trying it out first is a better idea than just jumping ship on America.

How can two Seattle residents best go about looking for jobs in London?

Anonymous — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:46:37 -0800

How can two Seattle residents best go about looking for jobs in London? My wife and I have been talking about moving to London for a while. Ideally, we'd like to both find jobs in London, live there for 2-3 years, then move back to the U.S.

We would like to have jobs and be living in London 1 year from today. We love Seattle... we just want an adventure before we have a baby.

- What has been your experience with finding (or not finding) a job in London?
- What should we expect with regard to potential time lines, snags, red tape, and pitfalls?
- What tools to job searching/networking have you found useful?
- What government agencies/government connections did you use in your quest? (i.e. if your Senator/Congressman was a good friend, could he/she help speed things along, side-step hang-up, and/or
- We want to live in London... not a 1-hour Tube ride from Central London.
- What have I not asked that I need to know?

Our employment backgrounds:
She is 26, I am 28. My background is business (primarily sales & marketing) and I've been fairly successful, despite my age. Her background is architecture, though she's looking to switch her focus to humanitarian efforts. Potentially working with organizations as a project manager for different efforts.

Our current combined income: $105,000/year (pre-tax)

Finland?

Lord_Pall — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 08:34:13 -0800

Anyone moved to Finland? US Expat, considering moving to Finland to take a cool job.

I currently live in the UK.

How do I move? How do I move my cats from the UK? Is it as simple as using BA and showing the EU pet passport they have?

I'm considering seven seas again for boxed shipping, but I'd like to keep a few pieces of furniture. That said, if they're too expensive to ship, I'll rebuy when I get there.

I don't mind using palettized freight services, or other oddball approaches. I think a full moving service will be too expensive..

Any thoughts on the whole thing?

Any commentary on Helsinki?

Terrible idea?

Which side of the pond should I live on?

hazelshade — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:04:39 -0800

Where-to-live filter: specifically, which side of the pond. Help me figure out where I should settle after grad school. If you have lived in both the U.S. and the UK/Europe, which did you prefer, and why? I've got EU citizenship and a U.S. green card (and will probably apply for U.S. citizenship soon), so I can live wherever. But I am having a hell of a time figuring out what I should do.

Some factors I'm thinking about:

- Quality of life: in the U.S., it seems more live-to-work than the EU's work-to-live ethos. (Well, maybe the UK is somewhere in the middle between the U.S. and the rest of the EU.) I've worked for two years in the U.S. but only been a student in the UK. For those of you who have worked on both continents, thoughts on this in practice?

- Political/intellectual climate: I'm a secular, liberal person, so the UK has been a nice change from the States, which have been so Republican-dominated since 2000. But it seems like the conservative tide in the U.S. is finally receding. Thoughts on this, or your perceptions in general of the political/intellectual climate of the U.S. and EU?

- Fun travel options. In the U.S., it's a long plane ride to get anywhere very exotic; in the EU, you can hop on an easyJet flight and be on the Dalmatian coast in a couple of hours.

- Social welfare system. I am all about the free health care in the EU, but what is the quality like?

Any comments on these factors, or suggestions for other factors I should be considering, would be much appreciated.

(A few more, possibly pertinent details about me: I grew up in D.C., which doesn't really do it for me, so if I move back to the U.S. it'll probably be to San Francisco, Seattle, or NYC. As for job stuff, I'll be doing general social science grad/research-type work, which at this early point in my career I can do anywhere. Distance from my D.C. friends/family will be roughly equivalent if I live in the pacific Northwest or the UK/western EU. Finally, if it matters, I'm female and will turn 25 in two weeks).

Thanks in advance for the advice!

Moving to Europe?

kaseijin — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 08:18:23 -0800

Interested in possibly moving abroad in a few years, either to the UK or to France... I am currently a graduate student looking to attend medical school starting next year. My girlfriend is a French teacher. We have been mulling over the idea of living abroad after I finish school, but Google gives me so many vastly different suggestions and answers as to be near useless.

Does anybody, either European national or US ex-pat, have any suggestions on moving to UK or France? I know she can find a job fairly easily, but how would it be for me as a future physican? What sort of exams are there, etc? Is there a demand there? I quite like the pace of living and attitudes of the people there, and could get along fine on a personal level, but I am worried about employment abroad.