I would stay right where I am. Perth, Australia.
Yes I know thats boring, but I love it here, the temperatures are great! The beaches are the best in the world, the people are pretty awesome too! And its not busy and horrible like melbourne or sydney!

BANG!!

Greece or New Zealand. I liked visiting both when I went. I'm moving back to Canada this July, though.

I think all you Americans have an idealized view of the UK. It's not that great! (Especially the cities.) The problem I have with England is so much was bombed in the war and it was built up again in the 60s, making many towns complete concrete jungles. So many are grey looking, and it doesn't matter where in England you are (I can't speak for Wales or Scotland or NI); every high street has the same shops on it (unless it's a real touristy place.)

Although if you do come visit, I'd recommend for you to stay in the country in the summertime. You can't beat little windy country lanes on a beautiful British summer day :) Or somewhere with beautiful Tudor buildings, like Stratford-upon-Avon. Stratford always makes me smile.

The last time I was in the States the N bomb was dropped at me. Needless to say the trip was a bitter one for me. I like going to the States though...it's not bad for the most part.

I think it depends where in Scotland you go, in terms of the architecture. A lot of the buildings in Glasgow are built from sandstone so there's a lot of yellow and red tenament buildings, which I love. And a lot of the big old museums etc are more colourful. Plus Glasgow and Edinburgh both have a lot of parks, so the green adds some colour too.

The big cities here have the same shops too, but you just need to know where to go. The west end of Glasgow has some lovely charming gift shops and independent clothes shops etc, as does St Andrews.

Dundee is very grey though. :P

But the best thing about Scotland is that whichever city you're in, you're not far from some beautiful countryside.

That's what I like about living in Warwickshire; countryside everywhere! I am definitely not a city girl (but I am also not an outdoorsy girl haha).

The Cotswolds always have beautiful buildings because they are built with this golden coloured stone and it just looks charming!

I disagree with the windy country lanes. They make me want to cry lol. The rest is nice though.

Haha that's only because I learnt to drive on them. I failed my driving test because they took me into the centre of town and I was like WTF? ARGH! CARS! Lol.

I think I would love to live in Italy. But I have no problem with the country I live in. I love the U.S. even if the politics piss me off to no end sometimes. Though I would love to move to Hawaii or Georgia or South Carolina. As long as there is a coast line & it's warm I think I'll be quite happy.

I'd be happy in any place where the beaches are just EXCELLENT and theres lots of sun. I couldn't live without the beach being at least 10 - 15 mins away. I love mountains, architecture, history and art as much as the next person, but if theres no beach, I won't be happy. So I'd probably be happy to stay here in Perth Australia for a long while.

I actually really enjoy living in the US. Sometimes it's kind of shitty, but for the most part I like it. Minneapolis is great, there's always something going on (I'm a city girl). However lately I've been getting antsy to relocate. Preferably back to Florida. I visited for 5 days and it was amazing. I LOVE palm trees!

I can't really say that I'd want to live in another country, only because I haven't visited any, so I don't know if I'd like it. It'd be weird to say I'd live somewhere based on what I think it would be like. However I'd LOVE to visit Madrid.

I love the US because of the vast differences in land and culture across the country. I will never leave this place, but there are times when I say I wish I could, just because of some of the crap you put up with here :)

Yeah, I agree with you. I am sure it would be great living in some other places, but it's hard to say specifically when you haven't had that opportunity yet to see those other countries. I don't want to say some exotic place just based on assumptions.
I 've been to the Caribbean, but I am sure the hurricanes would get old. :-P

For all the talk about it generally speaking (mostly from people who don't live here :-P ) , I honestly love that my family is from the southern US. I am going to be sad when we have to move for my husband's job in a couple years...I don't want to move out of the south if we don't have to. It's not that there would be anything wrong with other places, I know it would be good for us to experience new things.... I just know the south is 'home'.

Yea, I know what you're talking about with feeling 'home.' I was actually born in Florida which is why I think when I recently visited there it just brought back a whole crapload of memories and made me miss 'home' even more. Although I've considered Minnesota my home for a while, I think I'm ready to let it go. :)

Well, Florida does rock. My husband claims it as his home state too, since he was born in Jacksonville-even though he hasn't lived there since he was little. I like that seeing my MIL means going to FL!

And looking at your diary-no wonder you miss home! You were near all that fun stuff and the theme parks! ;-D

I definitely need to go to Florida one day. Especially now the Harry Potter park is open!

I definitely need to go to Florida one day. Especially now the Harry Potter park is open!

Florida is mainly full of rude Brits! It was weird though, when we went the majority of 'crap' jobs in the parks, emptying bins, toilet attendant etc were all done by black people, but the nice clean jobs were done by white people.

It isn't quite yet-they are announcing the opening date this week though! I am really tempted to go this summer! We were just talking about it. I need to buy candy at Hogsmeade. ;-D

I agree. I'd love to spend a year in New Zealand or Canada, but I think I'd still have to come home to Scotland afterwards.

I've been to Madrid. It's nice but there's much nicer bits of Europe. Madrid is quite industrial actually. Barcelona is nicer, as is the southern coast of Spain (Malaga) and the south of France.

Your comment about the US made me realise that everyone has been talking about scenery, culture, weather etc as reasons why they'd choose a particular country to live in, but no-one has mentioned working conditions.

I was just talking to someone on one of the other threads about annual leave etc, and it occurred to me that Americans are probably unaware of the better working conditions in other countries. In the UK (and I think it's similar in most western European countries and in Australia and New Zealand) I get 25 days annual leave a year, plus public holidays (and this is pretty average over here but way higher than most Americans get). I also work less hours and get paid better than an American doing the same job (I work a max of 48 hours a week on average but for American doctors at the same stage it can be as much as 100 hours a week), having graduated with less debt (as university fees are much lower in the UK). I also get a pretty good pension deal through our national health service.

Not to mention the obvious, that we have public health care.

So in general we work less hours, get paid better, get more leave, and get whatever health care we need! Yet, still a lot of people think the US is the best place in the world to live. :P (And I'm sure there's other reasons... your weather is better than ours for one! But in terms of working conditions Americans get a pretty raw deal compared to other countries)

Man, I want to get 12 weeks leave as a teacher, that would be nice. The '3 months off' people think teachers get doesn't really add up to that-it's more like nine, maybe-and that's only if you aren't required to attend workshops or training-one I went to last summer was 2 weeks long during June, and a teacher there was going to another after that one-so her break was more like 6 weeks total. We end school in late May in Alabama (so there's only about 1 week break there), and start in early August. Other states have a better school calendar year than we do, though!

I meant teachers here get 6 weeks in the summer, 2 weeks at Christmas, 2 weeks at Easter, 1 half term week in May and 1 half term week in October.

Your summer holidays actually sound much longer than ours. In Scotland it's the end of June to second week of August, and in England and Wales it's late July to the start of September.

The summer off here is typically the end of May to the first of August (the last day is usually around the 25th of May, and the first day of school around the 10th or so of August at my school system), which does seem to be longer than summer vacation there!