.

You should move to Montreal, Canada. No seriously, if you ever want to go back to school, it's way way cheaper than in the US, it's got some vg companies including Ubisoft if you ever feel like working as a full fledge vg composer, it's got the cold in Winter but nice Summers, lots of different people, you can freely speak english and still be understood (as opposed to the rest of Quebec), its got lots of restaurants, people have good fashion tastes (although I don't know if that's relevent). I'd say it's kinda expensive to rent there ($600 for 1 bedroom apt, add $200 per room but then you can have roomate) but then again I live in Quebec city and it's cheaper here. If for some reason you'd rather live in the States, which you probably want, maye I suggest Boston? For some reason I keep going back there whenever I visit the States. I'd also suggest San Francisco or San Diego, cities I've also visited and liked, but it might be too hot for you. As for tips when moving away in general, I wouldn't know since I've always lived here. I hope that helped a bit (doubtful )

.

I hate to be a downer, but you need to know that places like SF, SD, and Boston are some of the most expensive places to live in the U.S.  As for Canada, I have no idea what kinds of immigration they allow from the U.S., but keep in mind that it is a different county and you would have to actually emigrate there (with all the legal stuff that process entails).

Just as a counterpoint, my friend is obsessed with the upper West Coast (Oregon, Washington...I call him a Seattle Fanboy) and he's got me looking at stuff over there a bit. VERY attractive apartment prices over there...At least a $200 difference from the Mid-East Coast area I'm in and things look extremely nice overall (low crime rate, nice weather). I'm almost tempted to see what I can do over there, just because of how much money I can save and because I'm sick of Maryland/Delaware/Virginia and want to check out the other side of the country. Just something I'll keep in mind when my own relocation time comes...

.

Yeah, Boston is very expensive!  I lived in the Midwest before moving to Boston, and I must say that Boston is much more exciting!  Still, I think before you take off somewhere you should have a plan.  For instance, where are you going to stay?  How are you going to make a living?  I don't know what your reasons are for moving, but I suggest finishing your studies first.  Of course, many big cities have good institutions for that as well.  The biggest problem (in my opinion) is being able to

1)find a place to live
2)afford it

rent in Boston is about 1500 for a 2 bedroom.  Food is expensive, and so is everything else (if you have a car, you'll pay a lot, of course you don't need a car around here).  Despite the higher cost, I think it has more social and professional possibilities than many parts of the country!

keep us informed of your plans,

-avatar!

I live in Seattle. Compared to other cities, the prices aren't too bad. One-bedrooms here go for around $750-800 a month.

I love it here. The people are friendly, there's plenty to do and the weather agrees with me. Traffic's a bitch but you can't win them all.

.

You should move to Owensboro in the Western Kentucky area so I can tell you how much Falcom sucks in person ;p.

.

It's a stereotype. In all truth, there are many eastern coast cities that rain a hell of a lot more than Seattle does. The catch is that Seattle is often cloudy and chilly. Of course, it tends to get quite warm in the summer to balance this all out.

I only have a fair amount of knowledge about Western Kentcuky as I don't travel that much(though I know my why around some parts of Nashville) but it is very nice here with good weather most of the time with balanced temperatures. While it isn't extremely boring over here you won't be busy every minute of the day. Good neighborhoods and a good non-community college in town.

.

There's a coastline? I suppose I'd describe it as... cityish. You know, tall skyscrapers, lots of people, noises, that kind of thing. If you want a peaceful ocean, you have to drive about three hours west to reach the true coast...

I know it sounds like I'm plugging Canada here, but what about my town, Calgary, Alberta? It's not as crowded as some of the major metropolitan areas in the US, we're friendly down here, and the selection of schools are pretty awesome, too (plus they have a pretty good arcade at the University of Calgary. We can totally throw down in Initial D).

Oh, and the scenery is absolutely beautiful, too.

definitely check the cost of living for wherever your planning on going...  then decide whether its better to have a long commute to your job, or live where the cost of living (and pay) is higher...   i decided that id rather live 5 minutes from work, even new 2br condos here go for 225-275k.  sure the planes taking off from O'hare go right over me,,, but thats what noise abatement procedures are for...

when i retire,, then ill sell it all and move out to some cornfields where i can get something 10x the size with a grass airstrip for the same price...

Affordability is key, since it wouldn't do any good to live in a great city that's awesome as hell but is more expensive than your job would allow, thus swimming over your head into debt and eventually having to just move out of there.

You definitially need a concrete plan for any out-of-state move, and securing a new job *with 100% certainty!!* at the new location is a MUST, way before you even THINK of starting to box up and pack your belongings.

You'll run out of cash FAST no matter how much you have saved up, and you don't want to get stuck in a desperation mode and be forced to take any lowest job there is just to get some (any!) income again.

Thus you'll need to make some quick vacation visits to your potential locations, and this can be part of the fun!   3-5 days in person can give you quite a bit of time to scout out both jobs AND nearby housing pretty quickly so you'll get a better feel for what it's really like over there. 

So you can sightsee/job-hunt/apartment-hunt all at the same time (and get paid!) by using your 1 or 2 week vacation time which most employers give each year, so this is precisely the situation where that vacation time comes in very handy.

Major cities I've independantly moved to and from include Phoenix AZ, Nashville TN, and Chicago IL and each of them had their own advantages and disadvantages, so yes you'll be doing plenty of weighing your preferences (wanting colder climates and mountains/oceans) against the costs of livings for those areas. 

Some states like TN have hidden advantages like No State Income Taxes deducted from your paycheck!  (that equaled $800/year which got to stay in my pocket intead of going to the gov. = Bonus!)

Fortunately I was able to switch jobs with relative ease since I work for a big-box retail store which has locations *everywhere*, and was able to just put in a job transfer to a different store, and knew that my job was still secure.  Obviously that's not going to be the case for many people during a move, so I was lucky in that regard.

In summary, make a list of 2-3 top choice locations you'd enjoy, and do a bunch of online research about the nearby jobs/apartments/colleges in that area, so you'll have an estimated itinerary of places to stop by once you get there. 

Then book a week-long trip over to one of the towns (fly there, then do a car-rental so you can drive around at will) and bring with your list of potential employers/housings and just go around asking at those companies/apartments for their openings and hand out your resume & contact info and see if you can get an interview and go from there.

Seattle has two redeeming qualities:

1. It's where my job is.
2. No state income tax.

Since you don't have my job, nor in fact any other job which would justify any great concern over state income tax rates, I cannot in all good conscience recommend it to you.

On the other hand, if you're planning on stealing to eat, it might not be such a bad place for you after all. You can steal a lot of cars for very little jail time here.

.

Hey Conn,

I realize this isn't really my business, but I can't help but wonder why this sudden need to move?  I could be completely mistaken, and you might not want to answer, but believe me I have no harmful intensions at all!  I simply am wondering if you had some serious issues with your family?  Again, I don't know what the situation is, but if you did have some issues (and I could be COMPLETELY WRONG here), is it not possible to try and mend things?  Anyway, I'm just trying to figure out what's best for you

cheers,

-avatar!

.

I understand you. I'd go utterly nuts if I had to move back in with my mom. She's a lovely woman and all, but... she's my mom!

Here was the gameplan that I used when I first lived away from the folks:

1. Have friend get job and move to faraway locale (in this case, Chicago; we lived in Colorado before that).
2. Move to faraway locale to share apartment with said friend.
3. Have friend get recruiter for me.
4. Have recruiter get me job interviews.
5. Interview.
6. Get offered job.
7. Accept job.
8. Have friend move back to Colorado.

Granted, this won't work for everyone, but...

The key points I would recommend if you're going to move somewhere are:

1. Make sure it is a place you can enjoy living.  When I was looking to move from Chicago, I spent a good three months looking into which places I would most like to live.  This was aided greatly by this book:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076452 … oding=UTF8

I then narrowed that list down to 8 (Portland, OR; Atlanta, GA; Denver, CO; Hartford, CT; Houston, TX; and I can't remember the rest).  Every place had its distinct advantages and disadvantages.  For example, there's no sales tax in Oregon, Montana, Alaska, and a few other states; there's no income tax in Texas, Florida, Washington, Alaska, New Hampshire (unless you have dividends) and a few other states; the climate in the Pacific Northwest was most agreeable; crime was lower in some places than others; there are more parks in some places; etc.  Once I had this list of 8 potential places, I started looking for jobs in those areas.

2. Find a job in the place you want to move.  Use Monster, Career Builder, or some other job placement website, post your resume (make sure someone proofreads it first), and look at available jobs in the places you want to go.  If you can find a headhunter/recruiter, he/she can set you up with some availabilities that you might not be aware of, and he/she can arrange interviews, whether by phone or in person.  The hiring company pays the recruiter, so you don't have to lay out any money for his/her services.

3. Have a good friend in the area you want to move.  This is not really essential, unless you can't line up a job before you move.  If you don't have a job, you will not be able to rent an apartment on your own (no landlord is going to sign you to a lease unless you have a sufficient income stream).  You can crash at your friend's place for a little while while you canvass the area for jobs.  If you can't find a job in a couple months, you can just go back home.

4. Know when to say when.  If you do move to a new place, and after six months or so, things aren't working out, don't be afraid to leave and go back home.  Having a supportive family makes moving away much easier because you have a safety net should your situation worsen.  Living with the folks isn't particularly glamorous or fun, but you can save up money really fast to prepare for your next journey.

In my case, I ended up moving to Minneapolis because there was a job opening at a company with an international presence and fantastic benefits.  They have offices all over the world, so if I want to live somewhere else, I have the potential to do so while staying with the same employer.  The deciding point was probably the fact that they had a Denver office.

Best of luck to you.

.

Part of me wonders what the east coast is like. For the most part, I've never left the Washington/Oregon/California coast. Hell, I've never even been to Canada and I live three hours away from it!

This is an interesting thread for me, simply because I haven't decided yet where I'm going to be heading when I come back to the states from Japan.  Crime rates are slowly rising around the area in Northwest Indiana (near Chicago) where I grew up, and Indiana teacher salaries are abysmal anyway, so I doubt I'll be moving back to the same place.  I guess for me teaching salary is a big thing, as it varies drastically from state to state.  While I obviously didn't enter the profession for money, I also would like to be able to afford the odd game music CD now and then.

Anyway, a couple people have mentioned CO - can you talk a bit more about advantages/disadvantages of living there?  I have a couple friends who will probably be heading to Colorado Springs in a few years, and I really don't want to be all that far from the people who are closest to me once I'm in my permanent locale.

I'm pretty well traveled within the states, and have seen nearly everything there is to see as far as possible places to move, with the exception of the far Northwest.  I know I won't be heading South/Southeast and the New England area doesn't have the same allure it once did for me.  I'm thinking somewhere west-ish, though I despise hot climates, so I'll likely avoid the Arizona/Nevada/New Mexico areas.  Blah... I can't believe I have to have decided on something a year from now.  >_<

.

As Conn said, Colorado is a pretty neat area to live.  The climate is...well, unpredictable is the best way to describe it.  It can be 65 degrees in December, or 35 degrees in June (it snowed once during my final exams on May 31).  Because it's at such a high elevation, it's very dry, and the weather doesn't really have any inertia.  It can be 75 degrees one day and 45 the next.  During the summertime, there are afternoon thundershowers pretty often, but they are rarely severe.  I really like the weather there.  When I lived in southern California, we had pretty much the same weather all the time, and it just felt like time wasn't passing.  You're never in danger of that in Colorado.

I grew up in Aurora, which is a suburb of Denver (but is still among the 100 largest cities in America).  I've been to Colorado Springs a couple of times, and it seems like a nice place; a little more laid-back than Denver is.  It's also cheaper to live there than it is to live in Denver.  Over the past few years, prices of real estate in Denver have climbed pretty fast, although I'm not sure how that has translated into rent prices.  Denver and Colorado Springs aren't too far apart (about 70 miles), so you can easily live in the Springs and drive up to Denver to see a Broncos/Nuggets/Rockies/Avalanche game or just for an ordinary night on the town.

There are a lot of California transplants in Colorado.  A LOT.  I would guess that around 25% of the population moved there from California.  There are a lot of health freaks in Colorado, which translates into the lowest percentage of overweight people in the country (so, no fat chicks).  There are plenty of outdoor activities within a couple of hours of Denver:  camping, fishing, mountain climbing, skiing, bike trails.  Colorado National Monument and the Sand Dunes are highly recommended  As Conn mentioned, you can visit Boulder for a glimpse into hippie life circa 1970. (Strangely, real estate prices in Boulder are totally outrageous, so most of these "hippie deadbeats" have plenty of money.)

Advantages of Colorado:
-Weather.
-No centipedes.  I never saw one of those things until I moved to Rhode Island in 2000.  Creeped me the heck out.
-Relatively low taxes.  Sales tax can be as under 4% in some places, though the cities are in the 7-8% range; income tax is a flat 4.62%; property tax is reasonable.
-Access to a lot of outdoor activities.
-Easy geographical orientation.  If you get lost, look for the mountains, and you'll know which direction is west--or east if you're on the Western slope.

Disadvantages of Colorado:
-Denver is not as diverse as other large cities.  There is a large Hispanic population, but that's pretty much it.
-(in Denver) Air pollution.  Because of the mountains, Denver sits in a bowl-shaped depression, and air currents don't whisk away the pollutants, which causes the infamous "brown cloud".  It's not as bad now as it was, but it does happen from time to time.
-Elevation.  When you first get there, you will get tired more easily because of the decreased oxygen in the atmosphere, but your body will adjust.  It is very dry there.  Sometimes, I would get nosebleeds because my nose was dried out.  If you are fair-skinned, bring some sunscreen.  Higher elevation means less atmospheric protection from sunlight, so you will burn quicker.
-Interstate highway renovations have been going on there for the last several years, and aren't scheduled to be completed anytime soon.

Honestly, I would love to go back there.  I've lived in eight states (Ohio, Colorado, California, Maine, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Illinois, and Minnesota), and I liked Colorado the best.  Of course, that might just be nostalgia...

Everybody has his or her reason to live in a place.  I'm currently doing good research and work, so I'm not leaving Boston for a little while at least, but if I was a free entity and could go wherever I wish, it would either be New York (NYC) or California (LA).

cheers,

-avatar!

Hey Conn,

Wha't up with the change in your avatar?  I personally preferred the old avatar, but hey I realize now that you're moving you are trying to take on a new identity!  However... well, maybe it's just me (I don't from which game that character is from), but he kinda looks like he's about to burst out crying!  Anyway, not saying you should change it, I'm just more curious than anyting else

cheers,

-avatar!

.

Busy, crowded, hectic and expensive, all brought to you by this mess: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_95 and its' similarly overpacked neighboring highways. I've been as far down as Virginia and up to New Jersey (right before going into New York) and it doesn't really change. A traffic jam is a daily ritual on the EC.

I'm used to it though (and I'm now in Delaware which is MUCH nicer than Maryland, where I grew up), but I can't wait to leave it behind.

Likewise though...First place inside the lower 48 states I've always wanted to see was California.

Eh. I'm used to traffic jams. I live in a major city and I always seem to find myself stuck in them.

(At least we don't have to deal with tolls though)

And California? Well, it's hot... and there's a lot of people there...and it's hot. I really don't like warm weather. Can't you tell? I've been to San Diego a few times and it agrees with me but Los Angeles is miserable. The air quality is a nightmare.

Heh, but how are they outside of city? I live in a pretty remote area and my work is a good 15-20 minutes from Wilmington, DE (not a HUGE city, but about as big as such a puny state can come up with) and I still get hit with traffic mostly going in that direction in the morning, though mostly due to lane closures and the occasional person who runs out of gas on the road. Then coming home today, I saw nothing but a parking lot going in that direction (towards Wilmington/Philadelphia/NY)...Mercifully, I got to go the other way. I-95 needs about 2 more working lanes, both ways...

I've only had to deal with tolls when I've gotten lost...My exit is right before the toll booth. But when I went up to New Jersey...I forget how, but there were a good $13-$17 worth of tolls easily.

Philadelphia, you can see the degraded air quality from afar. I've heard LA is pretty bad as well. People from Philly are pretty cool though...Best combination of being rowdy and knowledgable I've ever seen/met.