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Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

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Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#41

Post by hpkuarg »

syki wrote: post #36
boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

I grew up in an American colony; the Canal Zone. We had our own schools and were taught U.S. curriculum and about the U.S. I was a rabid nationalist. I had never lived in the U.S. until I went to college but had visited it. Ever since coming to the U.S. I slowly became more and more liberal and less and less nationalistic. The myths I was taught about the U.S. did not withstand my experience of the country. Everythin…

Isn't that the plot of Jack Reacher?

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#42

Post by emj »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #19
boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

Just curious: how long since you moved out of USA? How long it took to learn German well enough (in your personal opinion) to integrate well?

I teached in a forgein language it took me 8-12 months to be able to give classes in the native language. German is rated at 750 hours on the FSI scale, which seems a bit much in my experience but that is personal.

https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#43

Post by inglor_cz »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #19
boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

Just curious: how long since you moved out of USA? How long it took to learn German well enough (in your personal opinion) to integrate well?

Not the OP, but Europeans are fairly tribal and "becoming" an Austrian or Czech isn't the same as becoming an American. An expat who speaks the language and gained citizenship will be known as "someone who has the Austrian/Czech/German" passport. Only the kids who speak without accent will probably be fully embraced as natives.

In my case, I am a native Czech who speaks flawless Czech, but some people actually refuse to acknowledge me as a Czech on account of my Bulgarian surname. (Funnily some of them cannot even write properly, but hey, they are Nováks or Kučeras and I am not.) Not a majority, but this kind of tribalism is more widespread here than in countries that were founded on mass immigration.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#44

Post by yosito »

Me! I grew up in Ohio and live in Hungary. The biggest sacrifice has been a native English speaking community around me. Virtually everyone I know in Hungary speaks fluent English, and I learned Hungarian, but there's still a big gap when it comes to the ability to feel intimately understood and connected with my peers. But I've gained a language, an amazing and very livable captial city (great public transport, amazing coffee shops, coworking spaces, parks, hiking, boating and museums), an extremely affordable lifestyle (since I still have a US-based income), an EU passport, and countless other things. For me, one of the nicest things currently is that there's a lot more trust in society and muted culture wars. People in public are more peaceful and reasonable, and there's very little fear of getting cancelled over political disagreements. Not saying it's perfect, and there are still political dramas going on, it just doesn't infect daily life as much.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#45

Post by pbourke »

jzellis wrote: post #15

I'm just outside London, moved here to marry my English wife from Vegas. I work part time doing basic IT for a US law firm due to health issues after heart surgery, and Yankee dollars are worth jack shit here - I'm not making serious tech industry money, but over here it's barely enough to survive on. Housing is always smaller than you'd get in (at least the western) US for the same price, and I'd bet that's true pre…

> It's like a fucking Joy Division video here from October through April. :-D

So people used to the Pacific Northwest would fit right in.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#46

Post by boffinAudio »

FPGAhacker wrote: post #23
boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

I don’t know how much of the US you experienced, but LA is hardly representative of the country.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#47

Post by et-al »

dukeyukey wrote: post #17
boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

How does LA and Vienna compare to Australia?

Speaking in broad strokes, America is culturally closer to Australia than Vienna.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#48

Post by holdenbruce »

killdisk wrote: post #6

I can't answer all these questions, but I'm doing this right now. Moving from Denver, CO -> Berlin, Germany. I start in May. I'm taking about a 50% pay cut on paper (for a Senior Software Engineer position), although what's interesting is Berlin has a lower cost of living, and in particular rental prices are actually reasonable. My plan is for this to be a ~5 year thing, just because it would be hard to leave my fami…

doing a similar thing this summer, moving from nyc to berlin

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#49

Post by starik36 »

boffinAudio wrote: post #4

I've done it, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. WHERE: I'm Australian, moved to LA when I was 18 and lived there for 15 years. Then, I moved from Los Angeles to Germany (Duesseldorf), and then to Vienna, Austria. WHAT SACRIFICE: No more In 'n Out Burger, no more decent Mexican/TexMex food, no more LA food trucks. These are literally the only things I miss about the USA. Literally every other aspect of…

Being able to go on a road trip and end up in a different culture sounds awesome. I do that often in California, but there are only so many places you can go.

Re: Ask HN: Who has moved from the U.S. to Europe?

#50

Post by adreamingsoul »

Moved to Oslo, Norway in 2019.

By far the biggest sacrifices are family, friends and social network.

However, the opportunities for growth and learning far outweigh the cons.

Staying connected with people in different time zones can be challenging, but technology provides so many solutions.

For example I use FaceTime to talk with family. It doesn’t cost anyone anything (if they are connected to WIFI) and I don’t have to deal with the cost for international calls.

Building a new social network is hard. Meeting people (especially now) is hard. You will want to dedicate a large portion of time to put yourself in environments that can allow you to meet people, who will hopefully become friends.

The growth and learning opportunities are life changing and I think it is certainly worth trying to live and work abroad for a couple of years.

I can try to answer any questions or clarify if anyone has any more questions.

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