USA: Where should I live?

[Mook Jong]

Along with everything that 10 tigers said about long island, i believe that Chris Serras has a Wing Chung school located somewhere in Suffolk. Apparently in suffolk alone there are about 300 hundred MA schools. In all of those one has to have some credible wing chung.

[Yum Cha]

Taos is about the most depressing little town in New Mex. Pretty ribbon for the tourists, but underneath its racism, poverty, crime and broken dreams. Its a split community between wealthy retirees enamoured with the way it used to be (but never was) and generations of some of the deepest poverty in the US. Illustrated with could-be and wanna-be artists, general losers posing as "alternative lifestyle" and euro trash all struggling to make enough to ski the winter and pi$$ it up at Eskys brew pub. But, it has beautiful surrounds, and tremendous hispanic/native american culture, fair enough. I'd drown my children rather than raise them there.

Its fun for a few weeks, but after that, bail, all the rest of the young folk do, if they can.

I'm surprised that nobody mentions the Pacific Northwest besides Seattle. Oregon has much of the same, but less populated, Portland, Eugene are both groovy, or head over the cascades to Bend and lose the rains. But, all the rain brings beautiful forests and wildlife. The coast is probably comparable to new england, but the warm currents coming up the coast keep it a bit warmer.

Northern California, like Arcada and Humbolt County is pretty laid back.

Arizona has seasons, just go to altitude.

[CoRWiN]

Greetings Quiet Man, i've been doing a lot of thinking about this exact thought lately. My girlfriend will be finishing college this semester and we have plans to live together right away, she being a teacher we want to find the ideal place to start. Now personally i'm going upstate New York, to Orange/Sullivan/Ulster county some big towns around there are Middletown, Montgomery. Here's some of the adavantages...

A. Train that goes to New York City is right in Middletown, it takes about 1 hour and is only like 7 bucks.

B. Much cheaper taxes then Long Island, which is the typical sub-urb of the city.

C. LOTS of space for development, I use to live up their and it's amazing the poulation boom goin on up their. Theirs a ridiculus amount of more space available. I laugh when people talk about thier big 1/4 acre property acre here, when i was living on 17 acres (very typical) up there.

D. Combination of small quaint towns, with mass market areas. Middletown for instance has a huge strip with mall, walmart, etc... where as the town of montgomery is all mom and pop stores.

E. If your interested in opening your own business it's ideal to the massive influx of population.

F. Don't know your family situation, but this area has some Excellent School districts.

Now the other area I want to check out is North East Pennsylvania. The reason for this is it has all the things listed above except MUCH cheaper taxes. From what i've researched though land is being quickly bought up.

If you live in either place and you can get a job in the city, you have plenty of top options in terms of Martial Arts.

[Chief Fox]

Greetings Quiet Man, i've been doing a lot of thinking about this exact thought lately. My girlfriend will be finishing college this semester and we have plans to live together right away, she being a teacher we want to find the ideal place to start. Now personally i'm going upstate New York, to Orange/Sullivan/Ulster county some big towns around there are Middletown, Montgomery. Here's some of the adavantages...

A. Train that goes to New York City is right in Middletown, it takes about 1 hour and is only like 7 bucks.

B. Much cheaper taxes then Long Island, which is the typical sub-urb of the city.

C. LOTS of space for development, I use to live up their and it's amazing the poulation boom goin on up their. Theirs a ridiculus amount of more space available. I laugh when people talk about thier big 1/4 acre property acre here, when i was living on 17 acres (very typical) up there.

D. Combination of small quaint towns, with mass market areas. Middletown for instance has a huge strip with mall, walmart, etc... where as the town of montgomery is all mom and pop stores.

E. If your interested in opening your own business it's ideal to the massive influx of population.

F. Don't know your family situation, but this area has some Excellent School districts.

Now the other area I want to check out is North East Pennsylvania. The reason for this is it has all the things listed above except MUCH cheaper taxes. From what i've researched though land is being quickly bought up.

If you live in either place and you can get a job in the city, you have plenty of top options in terms of Martial Arts.

Wow, upstate New York sounds great.

[CoRWiN]

Dude there's nothing like waking up on a cold winter's morning, with snow all around and having a nice cup of tea as you stare out at the Catskill mountains. Or during the night bundled up on your proch as snow falls listening to the trees crack. BTW if your into rock climbing the town of Gardnier which is in between the town of Pine Bush and New Paltz has some of the best Climbing and Spelunking in the world.

[Oso]

man, caving is cold & wet in new england/new york area

[fa_jing]

I have a friend from Portland, OR and he says it's great.

[Ronin22]

Thanks, guys. Some very good responses here.

Vermont, Maine, New England - based on my own research, yes, they were my favorites too. Especially love the scenery there. But I always thought they were like this predominantly WASP, upper-class-caucasian, stiff-upper-lip sort of place, something like that... must have confused them with Connecticut .

Colorado - like CF says, I always thought Colorado had winters only. The way he describes it here, it sounds much better now...

Georgia - thanks, but I think I'll pass. I'm a little wary about the South (but not when it comes to southern belles though)...

NC - sounds interesting, have to look into it more.

Easy on Connecticut my man. We are not all stuffy, Burberry wearing, BMW/huge SUV driving, soccor crazed elitist snobs. Southern CT is pretty cool, it's right on the coast just outside of NYC and pretty close to the hills of Vermont and NY. Also if a hurricane comes up this way we have Long Island to block it for us;-). It has a lot to offer , check it somethime.



R

[Ford Prefect]

and, I'm gonna figure out where Ford's land is and go homestead on it.

I did some research on the White and Green mountains when I thought I was gonna thru hike the AT back in the early 90's ...beautiful.

You had better come armed and a good shot! I have signs posted for no tresspassing, trapping, or hunting on my land since its 4 acres sitting snuggled up to nothing but miles and miles of wilderness, and I enforce it. There is a great veiw of the mountains in Franconia Notch (along the AT) from the land. I can't wait to put a cabin up there.

[Oso]

if you see me then I have failed....



























sounds sweet. I remember reading about the Franconia Notch.

I miss the mountains. Funny, I still live above 2000' and the highest mountains in the east are less than 5 miles away....but I'm definitely living in the city.

[Pork Chop]

*Hi-5s SanHeChuan*

I'm going back to Texas in less than 2 months bro!

It'll probably be Fort Worth, but I'm applying for jobs in SA and Austin as well.
I may try to see Yi Yuan up in Lubbock if I get the chance- he still up there?

Really didn't realize how much Texas stuff I'd miss till I got out here.
The only stuff I might miss from out here is my gym buds, my gym, and the food delivery options (but with Texas restaurants, who'd miss that?).

Screw seasons. If I gotta warm my car up for an extra 5 minutes before dealing with heavy traffic that triples commute time and roads that never offer a direct route, while my skin feels like it's being flayed off; then it's time to go.

[SanHeChuan]

I may try to see Yi Yuan up in Lubbock if I get the chance- he still up there?

I don't know, Last I talked to him was two years ago after I read that he had some fighters win at Taiji legacy. Then this last year he was the assistant coach for the USA san shou team, so who knows.

Dude, don't you live in Cherry Point, NC?

Not by choice but by contract. I'll be moving back in Feb 2007.

Texas is the only state I know that thinks it's another country.

I know it's weird they must put subliminal messages in the Texas State History text books or something. Maybe it’s some kind of mob mentality where everyone feeds of each others enthusiasm.

Our official Texas State tourism slogan was, “It’s like a whole other country.” A few years back. I don’t know about now.