I like living in America, Ellie and I are planning on moving back there as I am not happy in the UK, I gave it 15 years and frankly I am living in a lovely house in a culture that outside the valley I dislike so I remain in the valley and never leave it. As a teetotal I get on very well out there and all my US friends are asking me when I am coming back - a few days ago we decided to move. Portland or Seattle most likely, San Franciso is a bit too much but Santa Cruz is an option We don't need citizenship yet, our PhDs will enable us to move in the short term but a very real descision has been made so much so we booked an interview with the U.S. embassy and that is "a good thing."
So we will move and use UK rental income (and our RHI and Solar subsidies) as incomes to pay for rent in the USA.
For me America is the East Coast and the West coast, the stuff in the middle is too vast to really categorise one way or the other but a vast majority of working class middle Americans I have met have all been extremely easy to get along with, they don't pry, they don't want government in their lives like the British do and they are ok as long as you are ok with gun ownership. Healthcare is a problem but I am working on that.
My main reason to move is because I can get pony episodes a full 8 hours earlier than the UK.
Most of that resonates with me. Except the ponies, but I love my trek, so perhaps that will follow in time? As I mature...?
I was thinking about Portland recently as so much music I love seems to come from there, surely a sign I could feel at home there. However, I wonder if a place which rains so much would truly suit you? Maybe more sun is a consideration? Mind you, looking at where you are currently...
Laura Veirs is from Portland, her beautiful 'Sun Song' reflects what I'm getting at:
First rays of light are coming through
Been seven months since I saw that much blue
Water rushing in the banks
Freed from the ice, it has the sun, the sun to thank
It has the sun, the sun to thank
Matches inside your golden hair
Catch all the light, I fight to death, I swear
As all the other mothers would remember
Stalked by winter solace in a small, warm hand
We got the sun, the sun to thank
We got the sun, the sun to thank
Every morning rising to the East
Shadows fall behind me, shining never sleep
Till it'll be what I'm asking, no regret
That you pin the arrows in the wheel
Sun, the sun to thank
We've got the sun, the sun to thank
We got the sun, the sun to thank
We've got the sun, the sun to thank
There. Reading it again, I reckon I could get with that, sun or no. Achingly beautiful. Apparently it rains for 8 months of the year...