Whats it like to live in England?

Hey everyone.
I was just curious...Do you like living in England?
It seems to me it would be a cool place to live. The country and
cities look amazing, what I've seen in pictures anyways.

Also have any of you been to York or Manchester? What are they like?
My college does a exchange program with these cities. So I may try
to go over for a semester. Not anytime soon, I'm only a first year student
right now. Mabye in my third or forth year I may try to do this.

Pete

 

It's great. We have nectar points

 

Okay, I know I'm going to offend a few people here, but I don't care. I'm going to have my say, and be done with it...

Well, to answer your question, Starfish, I've lived in several places around the world, and I have to say, I dislike living in England, very much so.

The place is so compacted, everyone is everyone elses face - the English are a rude race of people; albeit not as rude as the Scottish or the Northern Irish. Work-wise, the bosses here try to screw you down and pay you very little (admittedly, our minimum wage is slightly more than the US), and they try to make you feel obligated to them for working for them...And they make you feel trapped, because they don't care if you leave because if you do, they know there are a million other suckers out there to fill your shoes.

The British are jealous of success.

The weather here is miserable...Don't expect a summer, because you will never get one.

The houses here are small, and to buy something decent, in a decent area can cost you over £300,000 (That's about $550,000 to you).

Speaking of expensive...Wait until the prices of things hit you...Been to New York? Think that expensive? Ha! You haven't been to London...That place will grab you by the testicles and twists them until they turn blue!

Food here is a lot more expensive.

Cost of living here is more expensive.

Here's an example...You know over the course of the last 12 months in the states, you've all been in a snit about the price of gas going over $2 a gallon? Guess what! We pay double that already!!!

Trust me...I had the same preconceptions about England before I came here...It's going to be this...It's going to be that...It all looks great from the photographs.

BOLLOCKS! Boy, was I wrong!

Another example...When I was at University, I was in a meeting with exchange students from the USA...University of Arizona, I think they were from. All of them said that during the time they were living in England, not one of them had not been mugged! - One girl even had her laptop stolen that had 3 years of course work on it.

Trust me, for the love of god, you are better off where you are.

 

Well, offence isn't something I do well.

But still, not all Scottish people are rude, just:

Drunk Glaswegians
Celtic and Rangers fans at derbies


But not ranting.

However, most of your points are valid. House prices over here (Unless you really like living in Small Terraced Inner City areas up north) are seriously high. Something that Blair seems to want to change. He wants to put them up, probably, although he claims otherwise.

Sure, all of the pics look nice, but you've got:

Birmingham Race Divides
BBC, ITV, C4 and five.
The EastEnd of London
Millwall fans
Some ridiculous byelaws (Although not quite as far fetched as America's)
and a buch of other stuff.

But, if you insist, some of the nicer stuff is:

Countryside
The Scottish Highlands
The Welsh Mountains
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwwllllandysiliogogogoch
etc.

So, do as you please.

 

I was just curious...Do you like living in England?

Yes, yes I do.

I've lived in NZ most of my life, and while it's cleaner, greener and more spacious, it's also boring. Something this country isn't. I like the people, the culture, the many different places to see and go, and its proximity to Europe.

(off-topic - and NZ certainly isn't warmer than England. It's pretty temperate and cool ALL year round, except winter, where it gets colder. English summers are hotter, and last longer.)

So yeah, I love living here.

 

We also have Argos

Ahhhh, the laminated book of dreams which catches the tears of joy

 

"I was just curious...Do you like living in England? "

The north -aye aye. People are very friendly up t' north

But there is bugger all to do

 

I like it, but the East Midlands are not the best place to spend your time.

However I just got back from Lincoln and it was great

 

I am not sure I agree with some of the views here.
Sure the place can be many of the negative things mentioned above but I think alot is according to location within England.
In my experience London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester are horrid.(And I am London born and bred)
The worst is London. Sure there is much life in the city, many things to do, art, culture and history.
Many tend to gloss over the obscene amount of muggings and crimes. The dirt, the rudeness, the 'Chavs' and the numerous 'ghetto style' council estates full of druggies and Vicky Pollards.(True of many densly (SP?) populated areas.)

But England CAN also be a beautiful place. I LOVE Exmouth in Devon and many of the small towns that surround it. Most of Gloucstershire, Leeds, the out skirts of Peterborough and nearly all of Suffolk.

It all depends what you look for and what the circumstances are where you live now.
I mean, if you live in a war torn hell hole then London would seem like a great place. But if you come from paradise, London would be the pits of hell.

It is all relative.

But the best way to find out ... experience it for yourself.

Good luck and have fun.

 

I'm staying out of this one.

 

London - great to visit , terrible to live

 

Salisbury is nice, except for that big thing that hits the sky.

 

I am originally from your area of the US
(the northeast) and I moved here back in 1989. I had originally come here on business and holiday and I really liked it. Luckily the company I was with had a position open in the UK that I applied for and they brought me over, so all the work permit bureaucracy was handled by their solicitor (lawyer). Currently I live in the outer London area (near Heathrow) and my area is quite suburban (and expensive). I like it a lot but there is a lot that irritates me as well - mostly to do with the bureaucracy that has increased both under Labour and the EU. Also the political correctness can be maddening at times. (Sample - councils banning the mentioning of Christmas by their employees because nationalities that don't celebrate it might be offended). It can be exasperating at times but there are things in the US just as maddening. I would suggest visiting here, maybe with family or friends and experiencing it with an eye toward how you would like living here.

 

Drunk Glaswegians
Celtic and Rangers fans at derbies

Exactly.

 

Well, to answer your question, Starfish, I've lived in several places around the world, and I have to say, I dislike living in England, very much so.

The place is so compacted, everyone is everyone elses face - the English are a rude race of people; albeit not as rude as the Scottish or the Northern Irish. Work-wise, the bosses here try to screw you down and pay you very little (admittedly, our minimum wage is slightly more than the US), and they try to make you feel obligated to them for working for them...And they make you feel trapped, because they don't care if you leave because if you do, they know there are a million other suckers out there to fill your shoes.

The British are jealous of success.

The weather here is miserable...Don't expect a summer, because you will never get one.

The houses here are small, and to buy something decent, in a decent area can cost you over £300,000 (That's about $550,000 to you).

Speaking of expensive...Wait until the prices of things hit you...Been to New York? Think that expensive? Ha! You haven't been to London...That place will grab you by the testicles and twists them until they turn blue!

Food here is a lot more expensive.

Cost of living here is more expensive.

Here's an example...You know over the course of the last 12 months in the states, you've all been in a snit about the price of gas going over $2 a gallon? Guess what! We pay double that already!!!

Trust me...I had the same preconceptions about England before I came here...It's going to be this...It's going to be that...It all looks great from the photographs.

BOLLOCKS! Boy, was I wrong!

Another example...When I was at University, I was in a meeting with exchange students from the USA...University of Arizona, I think they were from. All of them said that during the time they were living in England, not one of them had not been mugged! - One girl even had her laptop stolen that had 3 years of course work on it.

Trust me, for the love of god, you are better off where you are.

Well... don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out of our country

England is a wonderful place, it's just a shame there's a minority of people who let the place down.

The country itself is absolutely beautiful in most places, the people are pretty much as rude or as pleasant as anywhere else in the world.

Sure it has it's problems like every other country in the world and to be quite honest I'm peed off with people running this country down... if they don't like they should sod off somewhere else!

 

Birmingham Race Divides

Care to elaborate on that?

 

"if they don't like they should sod off somewhere else!"

That's just a typical response from someone who don't like it when someone highlights a problem.

Don't think I haven't tried!

Hey, what do you want? I said I'm not going to sugarcoat my answer. I'm going to say what I honestly think...That's the beauty of living in a democracy! So what if I happen to highlight the negatives of this place? Better for me to tell him now then for him to come over and then find them out for himself.

You know what your problem is? Because you've never lived anywhere else apart from the UK, you have no frame of reference. If you have, you would see the bad points as well. My parents, born and raised in this country, have told me that they would NEVER live anywhere else, but they have also said that this place is a shadow of its former self. You haven't noticed these things, because you've got accustomed to them.

I admit, there are some nice things about the UK, but I happen to feel that the bad far outweighs the good.


Yoshee Edit: No swearing, not even in part please! Removed swearing.

 

Care to elaborate on that?

Aston vs. The Other part that I can't remember.

Unless the Geography Teachers are getting it wrong, there is lots of violence at the divide between Aston and the other part which I can't remember the name of. This drives down the house prices, and allows them to be bought up as drug/hooker houses.

Now this is what I've been taught. I've never visited it, but if the teachers are wrong, tell me, and I'll tell them what a load of bull they're telling us.

 

Thank you everyone for your opinions. I appreciate it...
though I didn't expect quite so many replys. lol. But
its cool to hear all of your different points of view.

Um,
well I don't really have a lot of time right now, I
have to get ready to go back to Uni as I leave tomorrow. But
I'll try to post a real reply over the weekend.

Thanks again.
Pete

 

Please keep this thread Friendly or I'll lock it.

Anyway, over the years I have visited pretty much everywhere in this country. And one thing I have noticed, is that if I put a big line between the North of England and the South, the people in the North are much friendlier and sociable, compared to down here in the south, where to be fair, people are totaly different. They're pretentious, selfish, anti-social to strangers to the point of being uncomfortable if you tried to start a conversation with them out of the blue. That's not true of all of us of course, but it is a difference I've noticed over the years.

There are alot of things that Ninja hi-lighted, that are quite accurate in my oppinion.

But, Nic's response is typical (and justified imo, if not a little harshly), not just of her but anyone else to be honest, myself included. The reason being, is that if I don't like something, I won't do it. If I don't like someone, I simply won't bother talking to them, if I go somewhere and don't like it, I would leave, be it a cafe or another country.

What is the point in complaining (this isn't aimed at anyone here) about how crap a country and it's people are, if you were there from choice anyway??

I aliken that kind of thing to going to a friends as a dinner guest for the first time, then start telling them I don't like the decor, the kids, the wife, the food or the brand of toilet roll they use. It's just plain bad manners!

 

You know what your problem is? Because you've never lived anywhere else apart from the UK, you have no frame of reference.

Actually I have lived outside this country and I have always wanted to come back here so I do have a frame of reference thanks all the same.

What do you expect people to say when you are so venomous about the country they are proud and happy to live in?

Yes, I have my problems with this country but I'm just really sick of people deriding it and it's people with sweeping generalisations.

Mayhap the reason you get such a bad opinion of the people you speak to is you are getting a mirroring of your negitivity? I've certainly never found such a problem with the English, Scots, Irish or even the Welsh...

 

First, whilst it is good for people to be honest with how the feel, attacking/insulting each other ain't exactly gonna get you anywhere but Narkville (tm) is it? I reckon anyone getting to annoyed in this thread, take a breather.

Pete is a good friend from the Dark Horse Comic boards, and I think you may be scaring him lol

As far as I am concerned, Britain is a mixed bag, there are things I love, things I don't. I haven't lived in other countries for a long time (I was in India for more than the average holiday time, and I wasn't on holiday there - long story, ends miserably too lol, but that's for another day/year/lifetime ) , but I do think I pick up the essence of different culture's quickly - I'd say I have got a "handle" on Greece (well Rhodes) and the USA (as in metropolitian area - New York) as I have been to these the longest. I ain't a beach-dweller, so I see the real places more than I see their "holiday image". I can safetly say, that both New York and Rhodes have become my "second homes" I love them both, and each has a special place in my heart. But England has the strongest place.

There is something about travelling on the train in the UK, watching the countryside fly by, that makes me love this place. Maybe something in the air. A couple of years ago I went up to Arnside (Morecambe Bay, just at the start of the Lake District) quite regularly with my parents ... it was all I needed to fall in love with this country again. Go to places like that, the small rural villages surrounded by gorgeous countryside and you'll get what is best here. The villagers and people living up there are friendly, like most Brits a little reserved, but overall not rude. Of course you get rude people, you get rude people everywhere. In every country. There is something about that place and places like Appleby where my parents still go up a lot, that makes you realise this is the land you love. I want to move to New York, to be with the woman I love, it'll be hard to get a visa since they require geniuses over there (and despite 5 years of uni, where one of several the degrees I got was a 1st Class BA honours, I am not really that super-duper smart lol nor am I working for lots of £££ since I help my Dad in his factory, but I am not knocking it as it is something that makes me very proud of my Dad - a business he built up from nothing and is as old as me) but I know that I can be happy in NYC, since I was happy in Manchester when I lived there, but I will miss Arnside and Appleby. But just one trip on Christmas Day 2004 to Moriah's friend's who lives up near Sleepy Hollow (yep, the same as the film and that legend is "real" btw), and I saw that the US definitely has to offer much of the same. But it won't be the UK, it won't be home, it will be instead a new home (when I Blahdy get there lol).

Like I said a mixed bag - our society is leisured on the pubs and nightclubs, fun when it lasts but often a drunken fool can ruin a night out. It didn't happen often to me, but the small loutish culture that ruins our land really does get up my nose. I don't drink (for personal reasons) but neither do I look down on those wishing to get themselves sloshed, as long as they don't affect me. When they do, it's damn annoying. So the drinking culture here is a negative in my view. I know in cities where there are concentrations of students, students do have to be a little careful, not all local people "like" students, and students often become targets for abuse and worse (eg muggings, burglaries). It's just a matter of being sensible, avoid the obvious troublemakers, don't get yourself into drunken messes and peeve someone off lol. Having said that, people DO enjoy a good social life here.

I can use where I live, Southport, for a good example of British life I guess. It's a seaside town that needs tourism so we have a "quaint feel" to the town - a promenade and pier with arcade machines lol. We have many pubs/nightclubs - in an evening that is the most common pastime. We also now have a good cinema and bowling alley. I

 

Thats one long post!

I myself used to live and work in Pennsylvania and Manhattan for a while, in what seems like another lifetime now. You get used to it so quickly that you just forget everything bad about your home country (drink culture, yobs etc) and think that it couldn't be as bad as you remember.

Then the visa runs out and your faced to make the trip home. Driving up through the Valleys on the bus was one of the most depressing and sad moments of my life. I realised that my adventure was over, the towering, spectuacular skyscrapers and passionate, fun, people replaced by narrow cold mountains with old, near deralict soulless buildings crumbling into the street hanging off the one solitary road through the Valleyes while drunks, drug addicts and single mothers puffing away on their first fag of giro-day litter the streets. It was heart wrentching to think that only a day earlier I had been in one of the most vibrant and biggest cities in the world and now here I was, in a country that is blighted by its own bitterness and spite.

Do yourself a favour. Don't move to Britian. Unless your a terrorist that is, in which case come on in!

 

Well as far as I'm concerned there is no better place than the English countryside in midsummer.

Yes, England has its negatives, just like any place on the little blue planet but I like to look on the bright side of things (mostly) and I love living in England.

 

Ah England
Land of grey clouds, grey cities and rain.

But we do have some great historic sites all over the country, and they're great to visit