Living in the UK

[starsgoblue]

I've lived in America my whole life but I've done alot of travelling over the years. I'm going to graduate from college soon and I've been entertaining the idea of living in the UK for a while now. I just love everything about it, the culture and the customs and the history. Is it very expensive to live there, especially in London? Anything else I need to know that I might not know, being an "outsider" and all. I'm not going anytime nessacarily soon but the thought of it really intrigues me... Any thoughts or comments welcome...

Think of it as a UK appreciation thread!

 

[Liesje]

I've heard it's expensive in London. I'm not sure exactly how visas work, but it might be a bit difficult to just move there for the heck of it. I've never been there and would LOVE to go though!

 

[tarquinsuperb]

I like you have done my fair share of travelling and I say this whilst still being fully objective, London is the greatest City on Earth.
To answer the second part of your question the exact beauty of the place is that just about everybody is an outsider in oneway or another.
As for the expense there's no point pretending that it is cheap (I think if I'd been from outside the UK and done the backpacking global tour I probably would have found the expense of London an absolute nightmare) but I don't think other than alcohol, football and housing it's that expensive especially when compared with New York for instance.
Plus our house prices are at the moment on the way down.
As for Visas it'll depend on your qualifications, our health service keeps running because of fantastic people born outside the UK coming over here.

 

[meegannie]

London is very expensive, especially compared to the US given the exchange rate at the moment, and the cost of living here is generally higher than the US.

As for visas, your best bet to come here to live and work for a while is probably BUNAC (I think you can apply up to 6 months after being a student, but not positive about that....) or doing a postgraduate degree here. http://www.americanexpats.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=Marriage;action=display;num=1098269993 has a list of the ways a US citizen can live and work in the UK (I have loads of immigration links I can send you if you want more info on visas).

 

[u2bonogirl]

Wanna move with me?

Ive been wanting to move to Europe for a while now
Then I can be the one with an accent

 

[starsgoblue]

U2BonoGirl...I'm not joking, let's go.

Especially if this election works out the way I fear it does I'm jumping in a canoe and paddling over to the UK tommorow...



Thanks for the link Meeg, I'm going to check it out!

 

[hippy]

*joins you all*

 

[Liesje]

I'd join, but I'm so broke I've gotta go home to the parents' for dinner tonight and I have nothing to contribute to English society

 

[starsgoblue]

I wish I had the money to move....