International Nesties
dulcemariamar1
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Okay so what about the hardest IN?
Lane jumps out just because she's lived in so many places, with just 2 suitcases and for such a short amount of time!
Otherwise it seems like Italy can be really difficult, with the beaurocracy problems and how difficult it seems to be to get anything done.
(Also, the phrasing of these questions is making me giggle. Because I'm 12)
BFP Apr 2012, EDD Dec 19 2012 * twin h/b at 6wk, 9wk scan * Baby A lost at 12wks, Baby B was my rainbow born at 36wks
I think Russia would be hardest. Do we still have someone in Russia? I think this because of the cold, the language and corruption.
I actually think Canada would be the easiest (If I was American) just because you pretty much have all the comforts from home (except Target), same language (mostly), tv shows, not far to travel back home and relatively cheap, good schooling, health care, similar cultures. If they were up in Iqaluit, then I'd say that Canada would be extremely hard.
Canada was super easy for me but I was also a kid when I was there. I would think anywhere you have to live on a compound is hard but then again the compound is like a self-sustaining city, right?
I thought Israel was difficult but definitely not the hardest. I would vote anywhere that you can't go out alone or are geographically isolated (i.e. small town in Japan like onesly)
Small town Korea was REALLY hard for me. Ethiopia wasn't easy either but at least there I was in the capital and I was only there a couple months. In both Korea and Ethiopia language was an issue, it was hard to find familiar products and foods, and people often pointed, stared or laughed at me because I was a) white and b) fat. Impossible to get clothes my size (18/20) in either place also.
Ethiopia has the added challenge of having almost exclusively dial up Internet access and frequent extended power outages due to limited supply. I never went very far outside Addis Ababa but I can only imagine these issues are even more pronounced in smaller cities and towns.
It is, but a gilded cage is still a cage. I hated compound living along with being so geographically isolated that you can only fly out twice a week on a charter flight, made the Russian far east my hardest place to live. The town and people were quite nice, much friendlier than Moscow, but the infrastructure wasn't there.
OTOH I think my quality if life in Moscow was better than it is in the UK. Not speaking the local language gives you an instant connection to other English speakers. You don't have that in English speaking countries so it's harder to make connections.
I thought the Aussie girls would beat me in travel time, but I think they can get more direct flights. It's impossible to fly from SA in less than 35 hours. I have panic attacks when I think about it. Especially now that we're thinking of starting a family...
Safety hasn't been an issue for us so far, though we won't walk even a few blocks once it gets late. Cape Town is better than Joburg in terms of non-compound living.
Other than those issues, like Publius said, we can live pretty well. We eat at world-class restaurants, could have domestic workers for nothing, get invited to big social events...etc.
ETA: and the weather and outdoor space vs. city living is great.
I'd have a tough time anywhere really, really rural/underdeveloped (ie no running water/indoor potties) or, what in my view, is oppressive (e.g. women can't vote, or walk around alone w/o an escort, etc). I understand that not all cultures find that 'oppressive', but rather, consider it respectful and/or protective. That's swell. I do understand the logic and respect different opinions, but for me, that's so very foreign/180 from the way I prefer to live that living in such a society would be uncomfortably for me.
Italy-- small potatoes. The bureaucracy and, in the South, corruption, is tedious/frustrating. But, generally, it's pretty easy here, I think
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Canada, the English speaking part would probably be pretty easy. But French Canada, specifically Quebec City is not like living in the US, really, in my opinion. It's a really insular place and extremely Francophone.
A lot of our channels are in French, I often have to navigate government offices in French, get a haircut in French - all kinds of things like that, which I expected - not complaining but it can be isolating and frustrating. It isn't like moving to another state, which I think is the misconception if you move to Canada.
Also, their winter makes Chicago's look like child's play. Again, all things I expected. And I've never lived elsewhere abroad, so I don't have anything to compare it to.