Anybody know about Japan or South Korea?
Anybody know about Japan or South Korea?
RussellNation wrote:
Anybody know about Japan or South Korea?
Very difficult transition - even if you speak the language well. Both are strongly homogenous countries and not overjoyed about the idea of foreigners. The cities in both countries are terribly expensive.
New Zealand is the poor mans Australia.
Sizzler wrote:
New Zealand is the poor mans Australia.
So kind of like what Mexico is to the U.S.?
Not really an accurate comparison on either of your or his assements
O.o wrote:
Not really an accurate comparison on either of your or his assements
Show me the light.
Moonlight runner wrote:
second NZ, I have a friend that just went out there on a work VISA and is having himself a good time. Lots to do out there also.
yeah...if u can handle the earthquaes, and being so close to radical islamic southeast Asian nations. those will be less of an issue, but the earthquake and tsunami threat are very real.
Oaxaca is good for retirement if you love good food, culture, and art. there is an English language library that is a de facto community center for retired expats.
there is a gringo music scene. Hey--I'm one of the players! A roving crew of guys and gals playing rock & roll and country, a bit of blue grass.
It helps if you have Spanish but there are good Spanish schools here.
If you are really interested, come down and check it out this winter.
the climate is great, except for April-man, hot and dusty end of the dry season. the rains come in June.
Great for runners. tomorrow am there is a 10K on a flat course with good prize money. Even for above 50, you can make some bux if you're fit, but I think some Oaxacans lie about their age.
As I picked up my number today, a couple Kenyans living locally were coming in to get their numbers. Nice guys, have met one of them before.
VISAS, you can get a 6 month tourist visa in Mexico upon entry, but be sure to ask for 180 days before they scribble 14 on it!
I know expats who have been in Oaxaca for years, they make a border run every 6 months for a new 180 day tourist visa.
the border run is less attractive now, as those are the troubled areas, happy to say we are not troubled in Oaxaca. I lived in Oakland for years and I'm safer here!
I now have a resident visa, renewable each year at a cost of about 180 bux. Some of the immigration bureaucrats are a~~holes. Don't blame them too much, considering how the USA treats Mexicans!
More like Canada in regards to the nerdy/teachers pet type attitudes. New Zealand has its moments, adrenaline type activities on the South Island but overall much more boring.
The closeness to extreme asian terrorist groups is a non sense. Terrorist threats to Australia are virtually non-existent and New Zealand even more so. We are isolated, and our place on the world stage isn't high enough for some ideoligical attack to have any signficance. Guns are illegal and crime is very low. The only problem is the influx of immigrants to the country under the current government. They'll be booted out next election though so there will definately be a halt to that.
Faraulep
Put that in Google Maps.
And One wrote:
DesperateAction wrote:No criminal background may I add.
All this at own will. Also, gf is willing to follow.
At first glance I read this as "gf is willing to swallow". I thought, 'Lucky dude but I'm not sure how that's relevant to the situation.'
Dude your post made me lol so hard that tears started rolling down my face.
POD
grumpy geezer wrote:
Come on down to Oaxaca. Best food in Mexico, no drug war here, and 5000+ in altitude. Prize money in some local races. About a half dozen Kenyans live and train here -- guys at the 28:00 - 29:00 10K on the roads level. One or two Kenyan women around too.
I've lived here for 5 years and I love it. I'm a middle aged runner past my fastest years, but it's a great place for running. We are within an hour of some 6-7000 ft. runs also.
I lived in Portland before coming down. My wife says we spend about 65% of what we did living in Portland.
+1 for Oaxaca. Nice people, food, mountains. If you want to experience a cultural shift, this is the "real Mexico".
Consider Chile, its the most developed Latin American country, it could very well be considered a first world country by the end of the decade. It is very safe, lower homicide rate than the U.S., it has for the most part of its territory great wheather and terrain for distance running. Santiago metropolitan area looks just like any modern American city.
What about the cartels and kidnapping.If I was an enterprising cartel lowlife, I would head straight to you and take you home with me. For sure I could make 10 grand easy.This is the thinking that keeps me from going to Mexico. Used to go there every year with family to Jalisco state, and then last year an uncle of mine was kidnapped and executed, so now I say eff that!I'm just curious. I would love to go back to Mexico but I can't get it out of my head that the cartels see kidnapping and ransom as an increasingly lucrative business opportunity.What say you?
grumpy geezer wrote:
Oaxaca is good for retirement if you love good food, culture, and art. there is an English language library that is a de facto community center for retired expats.
there is a gringo music scene. Hey--I'm one of the players! A roving crew of guys and gals playing rock & roll and country, a bit of blue grass.
It helps if you have Spanish but there are good Spanish schools here.
If you are really interested, come down and check it out this winter.
the climate is great, except for April-man, hot and dusty end of the dry season. the rains come in June.
Great for runners. tomorrow am there is a 10K on a flat course with good prize money. Even for above 50, you can make some bux if you're fit, but I think some Oaxacans lie about their age.
As I picked up my number today, a couple Kenyans living locally were coming in to get their numbers. Nice guys, have met one of them before.
Easy livin wrote:
sad state of education wrote:Despite some decent posts, all of them are mute.
OP CANNOT just move to another country.
No friggin' way. You'll get a max of 3 months in most countries before you go through visa renewal processes (which may or may not be allowed), you make a border run, or they simply toss you out. And forget about working!
Have you never heard of VISAS? As in "work visa" or "resident visa"? You think they just give that crap out?
HA! Yeah right! That this has apparently been so grievously overlooked shows that the OP is obviously not serious in any way at all.
**moot**
Ecuador is the place to go
Large expat and English speaking population
Buy a 25k house and get a permanent residency visa
Low crime rate
Coastal and mild weather
Decent infrastructure
Currency is the US dollar
You can live very well on 1500/mo
yes, "moot". I said it was a sad state of education...
Ecuador: You can stay for 90 days. Then what? Good luck with a border run to Colombia! Ha.
Peru may work, but that can be a bit tedious doing that every 90 days. And I am making the assumption that you can just do a border run and come back. That may or may not be the case.
And he still can't work.
john is ...... wrote:
working holiday visa... a year to live in new zealand or oz... super easy to get, gets approved in less then a week... not really a pipedream my friend
a year whv is not really conducive to moving somewhere and never coming back, yeah?
plus that has age restrictions.
RussellNation wrote:
Anybody know about Japan or South Korea?
You can't live in either without a visa. Work visas are one year renewable in certain fields (teaching English in Korea).
Culture makes it extremely difficult to assimilate. Professional ceiling can be quite low unless you have useful degrees in engineering or something of the sort.
Like I said all along, you can't just move to another country because you think it sounds cool. It's a massive bureaucratic process and you must be bringing a lot of worth either monetarily or skills/education-wise.