Do you consider to go back home? Or you want to make your curent location a home? And why?
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Canada is fucking awful compared to the UK. I honestly think this might be the worst country in the western world. There’s just nothing going for this place. It has high crime, high cost of living, low quality of life, and bad weather.
I think constantly about going home, although actually I think I’d be happier with a better European country like the Netherlands. The UK might not be the best place in Europe to live but goddamn even Russia seems great compared to Canada.
I’ve heard nothing good about Canada. What city did you end up in?
Sorry man I’m not going to dox my address fingerprint with specifics. Let’s just say I went from east to west with stops in the major cities. I’ve seen enough to know it’s the same ugly bullshit everywhere.
TBH a lot of this stuff I think requires living here for a long time to even become aware of. I didn’t feel homesick until I’d lived here for 4 years. That was when I started to realise that for a European you have SO many boxes Canada can’t check. The abundance of good food, the variety of scenery, the urban landscape, the endless list of things to see and do, the social life, affordable travel, the culture, the history… That realisation might come sooner or later but for most it will come.
Canada is basically the same 10 house styles in the same suburbs from the 80s, the same roads everywhere, the same strip malls, the same junkie-infested half abandoned “downtown”. If you want to go out to eat your options are pizza, burgers, Mexican, and steak, all of which mediocre. Nowhere does a good sandwich. Nowhere even sells good bread. Fruit and vegetables taste of nothing. There are basically no bakeries. You can’t really walk anywhere, everything is driving distance. People think there’s nothing else to life than working and hockey.
There are places you can live that tick SOME of the boxes, but nowhere near enough to outweigh the often enormous downsides. You’ll end up coming to the same conclusion over and over; there’s no place like home.
I’m from Canada and I lived in the UK for a year, and living in the UK was one of the worst experiences of my life. Granted, I might’ve enjoyed it more if the work culture was better, but a lot of the things that make you complain about Canada, make me complain about the UK.
The food in the UK is awful, the beer is too warm and the local stuff largely all tastes the same. When it comes to fresh food, I found no difference between fruits, veg, bread, milk, etc between the two countries. You’re right there aren’t any bakeries, but I never recalled seeing any when I lived in the UK. They’re everywhere in France, Italy, and Germany, but I can’t recall seeing a single one in England – except maybe a French cafe-style bakery here or there. Dependence on cars is real, but most everyone in Canada has a car anyway so it’s not that big of a deal. It’s the price you pay for big plots of land and front yards, I guess.
The countryside in the UK also never feels really isolated – there’s always a town or a freeway or other hikers in sight. It’s not like Canada where I can just got lost in the wilderness. Granted, some parts of the UK are very beautiful nonetheless.
I found the social life in the UK was lacking too. I find Brits dull and unattractive.
All this to say: to each their own.
to each their own
I don’t agree with much in your post, and tbh a lot of it sounds made up (particularly the warm beer) but I do agree with this. For some people Canada will have everything they want. For most Europeans I think they will find it will be lacking. The key is to know what it is and what it isn’t.
Some will read my description and say “yeah I don’t care about any of that” and will be happy with what it offers. If you want lots of land, don’t mind bears and mosquitos, don’t mind snow and lots of riving, Canada is a place where you can get that. For me I’m not interested in hunting, fishing, sledding, homesteading, etc and Canada doesn’t offer much else.
I came to Canada uninformed about the downsides and that was a mistake. Others may like it and that’s their prerogative.
I have always preferred Europe to the States. I love Nordic culture in particular. This is my home.
As a gay man coming from Indonesia to the Netherlands, I am never going back. Best time of my life, close to zero stress. Planning to switch citizenship too.
Nah.
I love Italy, but with the salary level it’s just not a serious option if you are even slightly career minded.
A vacation home, sure. Going back there permanently, hell no.
Nope. Leaving Australia/New Zealand is the best thing I’ve ever done.
Europe is amazing compared. (My 2c)
If I told you I love my 1822 house so much
that sometimes I actually kiss it
(the ancient wood beams)
you’d think I was nuts.And that´s AOK.
In CA as a kid, had a cool old brown shingle 1922 house, and my partner had a 1952 modernist USA house (with underfloor heating).
In the UK as a student had a room in a 1622 house, and all of these were great.
But the present 1822 one (in NL with underfloor heating!) is, for us, perfect in every way.
I’ve lived there in six countries. To which shall I compare. No desire to return.
I moved from Southern Europe to different countries for over 20 years and I am currently living in Belgium. For some reasons I find hard to consider home the place where I live, it’s a place where to work. I go back home for long periods since the lock down and I really feel much happier there. I can’t move because of personal reasons.
I moved US -> Central Europe. Going back to the US soon. I found people here to be cold and unfriendly, there’s way too much cigarette smoke, and I miss US National Parks.
From Washington DC. Crime-infested and too expensive. Annoyingly “woke” and ladder-climbing. Never going back. Now I am sometimes in low-cost Europe sometimes, in Latin America sometimes.
In my case: US -> NL -> SG -> AU -> NZ -> US
I moved from New Zealand back to the US, to Texas. NZ is just incredible, Texas is just dogshit.
Then moved from Texas to Kentucky. Kentucky is a massive improvement and I generally love it here. Two Southern(-ish) states yet with a lot of differences.
That said, while I remain in the US for various reasons (finances, family, friends, etc.), I don’t love the direction that the US is going. Also, Southerners may be friendly and polite by US standards, but they’re not so much by world standards IMO. I’d love to leave the country permanently.
Unfortunately as the Netherlands have shown, Europe is going in a bad direction as well. A far right party getting the most votes in Netherlands is pretty scary. At least the US seems to be fighting that tide.
Left UK want to go back. Will settle on a small Indonesian island for retirement. Currently in Korea for the cash and pleasant enough country.
I constantly go back and forth between wanting to move back to the US or stay in Europe, Luxembourg specifically.
Currently in Singapore and, no, this is home now, never going back (to NL). I’m open to other options, but I do think it will be difficult for me to find another place in the world which matches the quality of living I’ve become used to here.
Find myself in Miami, Florida, not sure I want this to become home. It’s a shithole - an expensive shithole, but a shithole nevertheless. Sure, if you have money, you can cover it all up and live on a waterfront McMansion property with a boat, nice views, garden service, a swimming pool, generator for when a hurricane takes out the power, etc., but if you’re an ordinary person…
The roads are in a terrible state, the I-95 is full of crazed drivers; drainage systems have not kept pace with increase in inhabitants; everything is expensive, even cheap food at the grocer, and mediocre food at restaurants; people try constantly to scam you with hidden fees or ghost fees; people are never on time (“Oh, that’s just Miami time”); there is this weird, excessive politeness that is transparently fake; when I open my apartment windows on cool mornings, I just smell dog shit; the arrogance of many of the people of Cuban descent, especially the light-skinned ones, of which the elders are openly racist, and fervently in support of rightwing fascists like Desantis and Trump. Home insurance and auto insurance premiums have gone through the roof.
I could go on, but yeah, it’s a sunny place. For shady people. And I come from one of those countries derided as “shit hole countries” by Trump. Smh.