Okay, personally I think moving just for the sense of humour is nonsense, but you wanted an opinion about living in the UK, so here we go.
? Ignore everybody giving you advice about where specifically to live. All you're going to get is information biased for or against a place based on one person's experience; for example I thought Cornwall was a community of small-minded, Daily-Mail-reading snobs who sneered at me for not being from there and generally acted superior to everybody else, whereas I find Wiltshire a lovely place to live (if you ignore the knife-crime and pregnancy rate in Swindon). But that is just my personal view; others will have one that is completely different. Instead, I suggest writing a list of things you are interested in and judging areas accordingly. Remember that the further into a city you go, the more expensive the houses will become, whereas the further out into the country you go, the less likely you are to have broadband.
? Similarly, the UK often gets shafted in the areas of collectibles, graphic novels and some video games. If you're a big geek like me, you may find this particularly frustrating.
? We are currently going through an extremely hard time, with many people being laid off and the atmosphere of the country is generally downbeat. (I myself am losing my job on Friday.) Because of this you may (a) find it hard moving here from a practical perspective, and (b) may face some opposition from those around you. I'm not saying we're all a bunch of ignorant, racist idiots (although according to the NMA 4m people read the Daily Mail last year, and that's just depressing), but you know how people react unreasonably in a situation like this. ("THEY'RE TAKEN OUR JERBS." springs to mind).
? The weather is generally cold and shite until about mid-year, where it suddenly becomes unreasonably warm. During these periods everybody will mention the weather to you at least once in a given day.
? The UK is more expensive than the USA (from comparing my own situation to several American friends I have), particularly in the area of maintaining homes and cars (you think your guys' gas is expensive over there? Hah!). At the present my supervisor at work, who is 30 years old and has been employed since he was 18, still cannot afford to leave home or run a car. We have flats being built near us that are £170,000 per anum to rent. It's ridiculous.
? I'm not sure how it works for newcomers, but we do have the free healthcare thing. I consider this a massive bonus for the UK, despite the number of people trying to undermine the system because they had to wait a couple of hours in a waiting room. It's better than losing your home to a common cold.
We're a grouchy lot, and tend to be a bit surly and grumpy out and about on the streets, and we have too much paperwork and complain about everything (except when we're queuing), and we also have Simon Cowell and ITV - but on the plus side we have some of the best theatres in the world (IMO), free healthcare, kick-ass television (...again, ignore ITV), and a simple childish delight in people like the Time Team and Alan Titmarsh. Moving here for our sense of humour probably isn't the best idea, but by all means take a vacation here and see if it suits you.
? Ignore everybody giving you advice about where specifically to live. All you're going to get is information biased for or against a place based on one person's experience; for example I thought Cornwall was a community of small-minded, Daily-Mail-reading snobs who sneered at me for not being from there and generally acted superior to everybody else, whereas I find Wiltshire a lovely place to live (if you ignore the knife-crime and pregnancy rate in Swindon). But that is just my personal view; others will have one that is completely different. Instead, I suggest writing a list of things you are interested in and judging areas accordingly. Remember that the further into a city you go, the more expensive the houses will become, whereas the further out into the country you go, the less likely you are to have broadband.
? Similarly, the UK often gets shafted in the areas of collectibles, graphic novels and some video games. If you're a big geek like me, you may find this particularly frustrating.
? We are currently going through an extremely hard time, with many people being laid off and the atmosphere of the country is generally downbeat. (I myself am losing my job on Friday.) Because of this you may (a) find it hard moving here from a practical perspective, and (b) may face some opposition from those around you. I'm not saying we're all a bunch of ignorant, racist idiots (although according to the NMA 4m people read the Daily Mail last year, and that's just depressing), but you know how people react unreasonably in a situation like this. ("THEY'RE TAKEN OUR JERBS." springs to mind).
? The weather is generally cold and shite until about mid-year, where it suddenly becomes unreasonably warm. During these periods everybody will mention the weather to you at least once in a given day.
? The UK is more expensive than the USA (from comparing my own situation to several American friends I have), particularly in the area of maintaining homes and cars (you think your guys' gas is expensive over there? Hah!). At the present my supervisor at work, who is 30 years old and has been employed since he was 18, still cannot afford to leave home or run a car. We have flats being built near us that are £170,000 per anum to rent. It's ridiculous.
? I'm not sure how it works for newcomers, but we do have the free healthcare thing. I consider this a massive bonus for the UK, despite the number of people trying to undermine the system because they had to wait a couple of hours in a waiting room. It's better than losing your home to a common cold.
We're a grouchy lot, and tend to be a bit surly and grumpy out and about on the streets, and we have too much paperwork and complain about everything (except when we're queuing), and we also have Simon Cowell and ITV - but on the plus side we have some of the best theatres in the world (IMO), free healthcare, kick-ass television (...again, ignore ITV), and a simple childish delight in people like the Time Team and Alan Titmarsh. Moving here for our sense of humour probably isn't the best idea, but by all means take a vacation here and see if it suits you.
