dom har guld i australien också , rätt mycket faktiskt

Flytta inte till Usa, helvetet på jorden!

Har inte givit upp drömmen. Kommer inte att behöva göra det heller.

Jag drömde om College, amerikansk fotboll och att bo i övre medelklass område när jag var yngre. Drömde också om den amerikanska friheten och patriotismen som finns där. Skulle gärna bott i Minnesota eller norra USA kring The Great Salt Lakes.

"Tyvärr" så har jag ett stort arv att förvalta och min familjs historia är väldigt unik i Sverige (kan inte säga mer pga. risk för outning), så att flytta till USA och leva där är inte aktuellt. Jag är ändå lyckligt lottad men funderar ibland på hur livet skulle tett sig om jag bott där.

Är sjukt sugen på att bo i NY något år eller något sådant. Många som skriver att det inte är något och ha. Nån motevering på det tack?

Gav upp drömen för nga år sedan. När jag var yngre ville jag dit och jobba inom film, men den drömen har dött. Skulle verkligen vilja åka dit i ett år och plugga, i NYC eller Boston. Kanske Chicago.

Åka dit och ragga på allt är min tanke hur jag ska ta mig dit...

Om jag lyckas skrapa ihop <200 timmar dokumenterad erfarenhet med barn har jag två Au Pere jobb jag kan ta i USA, ett i Kodiak och ett i en by utanför Boston men då ska jag ha <200 timmar erfarenhet.
Att söka dagisjobb känns svårt då jag studerar och inte har mycket tid över på vardagarna förutom på kvällar och vilket dagis är öppet då?
Att söka jobb som ledare på läger känns ganska smidigt och det är nog rätt kul men om ni har några förslag på hur jag kan få ihop dessa 200 timmar(helst på helger) får ni gjärna skicka ett PM.

Jag har drömt om att bo i USA sedan jag var 7-8 år, jag var verkligen helsåld på NHL och jag kunde räkna upp ALLA lag, viktiga spelare i lagen samt historiska spelare. Drömmen om USA kvarstår men jag känner att den börjar bli mer och mer abstrakt...
Det jag har sett av USA är fantastiskt och sen älskar jag den amerikanska dialekten som jag förövrigt övar på friskt, jag och polarna brukar chatta på engelska, läsa BBC dagligen, prata engelska över skype, prata engelska när vi träffas (inte publikt dock), tittar alltid på film utan text osv.
En av mina bästa stunder i mitt liv var när jag gick omkring på Dallas gator om nätterna med en cigg i munnen och aah... helt fantastiskt.

När/om jag åker dit som Au Pere får jag verkligen känna på everyday life och se om jag verkligen gillar det.
Min plan för att lyckas med att flytta till USA lyder något i stil med:
-Åka dit som au pere för att se om jag verkligen gillar det.
-Förhoppningsvis knyta kontakter.
-Plugga på Nord Amerikansk historia.
-Ta min examen.
-Söka greencard./Söka jobb i Sverige hos företag som även finns i USA och förhoppningsvis bli stationerad i USA.

-Vara med i Greencard Lottery år ut och år in.

Jag har alltså kvar drömmen och jag ska jävlar mig lyckas uppnå den! Men som sagt, den börjar bli mer abstrakt.

EDIT: Min tjej jag hade när jag gick i 3an på lågstadiet () är au pere i New York och vilket flyt hon har haft. Hon hamnade hos en familj som var rika som troll, hon får bo ensam i en hyresrätt på manhattan och allt hon behöver göra så vitt jag vet är att läsa läxor någon/några timmar per dag med deras kids.

Jag gav upp drömmen när jag insåg att det spelar ingen större roll var man bor, livet är ungefär detsamma. Jag kommer ändå bara sitta framför datorn i mitt "nya land" och inte ha så mycket med omgivningen att göra, så det spelar ingen större roll var jag befinner mig. Men, framförallt, gav jag upp tanken när jag insåg hur jävla obehagligt svårt det faktiskt är att hitta sin plats i USA som amerikansk medborgare om man inte råkar hitta jackpotten, en trevlig tjej man vill spendera ett årtionde tillsammans med medan man försöker bli bofast. Antingen fifflar man sig in, eller så har man lite tur, eller så är man redan rik och då kan man lika bra stanna kvar där man är.

Du menar "Au Pair", och förmodligen menar du också >200 timmar ("mer än"), inte <200 timmar ("mindra än"). :-)
Jag skulle nog rekommendera Boston framför Kodiak i Alaska om du kan välja. Har själv bott i Boston och även en bit utanför, trevlig stad och mycket att göra.

Oj, vilken tråd, jag kommer till att ge ett ganska långt svar, och sedan jag inte är särligt bra på Svenska, skriver jag på Engelska (this is a forum about America after all...)

Ever since I was a kid, I've always been something of an American kid, collected all kinds of American goods, weird toys ordered from overseas postal-order services (yes, we didn't have the internet back then), so it was in fact a big deal.

I've always had a certain passion for the American way of life, no - I'm not talking about guts and glory, Dallas and all that soap-opera crap you saw on tv in the 80's, but more the way Americans think of family life. I got my ideals from movies like E.T (the kids playing together, dungeons and dragons, single mother trying to make family life work out somehow, and kids always out for an adventure), The Goonies (Bunch of kids going out exploring together, the family fighting the system just to keep their home by the docks) and many more movies...I'm sure you get the picture, it's kind of over-romanticized and yeah...maybe not entirely realistic, but it's a dream nevertheless.

Age hit me...big time, I'm no young kid anymore, and I sort of gave up on my version of the American dream LONG time ago. I realized that it wasn't easy to get into America, sure...you could travel there, but you'd just be a tourist anyway, to get in you'd need all kinds of qualifications just to work there (trust me, I know, I've been checking over 20+ visa types and their loopholes), this is by FAR not an easy task, some might get lucky, but if you look at the statistics, very few make it "over there".

However, many years later in my life, things changed. My life stabilized, my income increased, and my life was better, so good in fact that I was starting to dream of America again.

So what happens when a kid at heart start taking up some 30+ year old dream again? Remember - things doesn't stay like in the 80's forever, nevermind the fact that I'm an adult now, and my 12 year old childish dreams are far from anything realistic today.

But being an adult with many years bygone has its advantages - experience! So keeping this in mind, I was going to go the "realistic" way with this childhood dream of mine, so here is what I did:

Project - America has started:

What do I want? Why do I want to go to America? What entices me enough to warrant a life changing move to the states?

Well, first of all - I'm totally fluent in American, in fact so good, that I've been hired as a professional voice-over artist for an American audience (Swedish products), but I really SUCK at Swedish - and Swedes are always good at pointing out how much I suck at Swedish (hence my signature *sigh* )

Secondly, I moved here to Sweden about 2 years ago, the reason was simple, you guys had lower property taxes, and really cheap houses. In fact - so cheap I could purchase one outright. I even ended up having a decent job in Advertising, basically because of my American accent and lifestyle. (don't ask, but Swedes REALLY loves Americans and their accent, this has helped me out tremendously in Sweden), and this has earned me a considerable amount of money, not yet enough for the big move...but I'm getting there...hence why I'm writing this to you guys. I might even make a thread of this "adventure"...(that is...if I don't get a gazillion prepubescent comments about spelling, and other things off-topic), simply because I want to share this experience with you guys.

But are my dream realistic? Am I too old?

I decided to take the first step - so in record time, I renewed my passport (yep, you need a digital chip passport, Biometric) to get there as fast as I could, this was in the middle of my summer vacation, incredibly enough . the Norwegian Embassy managed to churn up a new passport and send it to me in less than 3 days, must be a record (or a sign...we want you out of the country...J/K)

The ESTA cleared quickly, and I ordered a trip with the local travel agency right away. I won't reveal the destination, but I can tell you it was a small city...pretty much like the small city in Sweden where I live right now, a quaint little town with nice friendly people, like over here. 15 Days later, I was on my way to the states. It took 24 hours total (10 hours on the second plane from the Netherlands)...and I was finally there.

The interesting thing about my destination, is that I didn't just purchase a standard tourist package like most others do, I KNEW where I was going, so I had to order a motel room online, hop on a Greyhound bus and get there "manually". Why didn't I rent a car? Because I wanted to see everything on foot, I wanted to talk to every American I came across and really LEARN the city feel, how the citizens live, earn their living - heck...even the homeless people. This was going to be ONE interesting journey, and you guys would envy this trip I tell ya.

Get to the good stuff already...

Alright alright, the short version of the long story would go something like this:

I spent 12-16 hours on foot every day for almost two weeks in 4 cities, mostly in my favorite city. I discovered both the dark side of America and the advantages that it has to offer, and from reading this thread...at least from what I have experienced...and I really don't want to offend you by telling you guys this...but a lot of you are FAR off about how America and their way of life REALLY is.

Forget everything you've seen on TV (except the old movies from the 80's...those where in fact pretty darn spot on, and tried to be realistic). Ok ok, so I didn't visit LA, Hollywood and New York, I'm sure life there is like Stockholm and Copenhagen on SPEED + steroids, this is normal in a big city, buzzing with life, high expectations, fast living, violence and such, tell me all about it, and I'll listen)

But this is about how I experienced America. Both the big city and the small suburbs.

The average American struggle harder than we do in Sweden, I talked to waitresses, taxi drivers, homeless people, maids, lawyers, real-estate agents, homeowners, business owners - even the chamber of commerce (yes, I wanted to know how I could start my own business in that particular town).

As you probably know already - Tipping service personnel like waitresses, servants, maids etc. is essential as they DO receive less than minimum wage. It's very apparent to me how important this is. They are often kind and shy, and don't get upset or protest if you don't tip them, but their hunger and sadness over how hard life is - is very apparent.

This scared me a bit, how would MY life be over there if I was in trouble? My adventure was just about to begin. But This is STILL the short version.

There is a high presence of Swedish roots over there, nearly every American family I talked to had some Swede, Norwegian or Finn in their family. And there is also quite a percentage of Chinese immigrants that has firmly established their own little streets and businesses over there (and oh boy do they like gambling!, it's almost their favorite past time over there). No one of them are particularly rich though, but their dreams sure are. They are more than happy to tell stories about people winning it big. And they're just as American as the Americans themselves.Pretty much because this IS what makes America, the mixture of different races and cultures from all over the world.

I found that housing wasn't as expensive as certain web-sites on the net WANTS you to think (or pay), you can pretty much get a house for a little more than what you pay in Sweden (not kidding!), this was a pleasant surprise to me, but the standard in overall housing was much worse than Swedish standards, albeit much more charming, much more detailed (if we're NOT talking trailer parks). The nature in North America is STUNNING. Albeit very similar to Sweden, taller trees...but pretty much the same.

I got a real estate agent to drive me around the city, showing me a few houses within my price range, I found a house around 98.000 USD to be quite charming, and with a fantastic ocean view as well. Think I got bitten by a brown recluse...Nasty NASTY wound and bite...

Still reading?

Read on...The joblessness is pretty apparent, albeit it suffers from the same syndrome that small cities in Sweden does, everyone knows everyone - and this is NOT an advantage from an employment point of view. People like fresh blood, so I was told that with my skills - I would pretty much get a job anywhere, the local schools needs substitute teachers, tutors etc. The local newspaper needs new designers for their ADS. etc. And they didn't even have proper computer techs, so this was in high demand as well. In fact, I managed to get quite a few contacts over there.

It's not hideously expensive to rent a house, it can cost between 600 to 1500 dollars, more if you are in the big city, but generally not too scary. What is MORE scary though - is that the salaries are VERY LOW. Even skilled jobs doesn't fetch much more than 30-42K. However - if you work for the government, then you could fetch anything between 60-80K, but then you MUST have the papers to prove your extensive education & background.

Tax wise, America is REALLY expensive when it comes to property taxes, and they're pretty much taxed by location, how fancy your house is, the facilities etc. And it doesn't include road service or anything else. The 98.000 USD house I was looking at, fetches around 2340,- USD per year, which is about 10 times as much as I pay in Sweden for my house, roughly worth the same.

And people who think that taxes are much lower in USA, must check their facts. I asked the real estate agent how much she pays in taxes, around 30+ % she said, and that is for a relatively low wage around 30K per year. (yep, they' re not that rich in the suburbs) Poorer than you may want to believe.

Eftersom det inte går att posta hela min post (max 10000 tecken) förtsätter texten her...

As for violence, I was astounded how LITTLE violence they have in North America. There was a shooting at a cinema in the big city, but that's pretty much all I heard off, and remember - I didn't hide in a car, I walked ON FOOT the entire trip, so you'd believe I'd see a thing or two, right? Well, I discovered that the media blows things out of proportions. And again, it also depends on the location I guess. A somewhat darker side I discovered, was the Latino workers, in storefronts, bars and other businesses, even in the streets - they where nowhere to be seen, but taking a bus trip to the other side of town - I discovered a lot of houses that all looked the same, with hundreds of Latinos. These are the maids that clean your motel room when you're not there, it's the dishwashers you don't see in that restaurant you're eating at...etc.

So what did I get out of this trip, well - hopefully you guys got some of what I got by reading the stuff above, so you know it's not all glitter and fame, but real hard work - and not SO different from Sweden.

Me? I still dream of America, and I'm busy saving up for my dreams, but I've gotten to appreciate Sweden (and Scandinavia) a little bit more after that VERY educational trip. But I'm more realistic now. Now I know what I need to get work there, what to expect and what NOT to expect. America is great, but you Swedes are not too shabby either. Remember that.