Vanity:Have you talked to any Americans thinking of going back to Europe?

Vanity | 2-9-2011 | Frantzie

[Frantzie]

Recently two people I know are checking to see if they can go back because grandma or grandpa was born in the old country.

[combat_boots]

On two separate occasions last year, I happened to sit next to some people at a rather exclusive location. These were/are very wealthy people. They had sold everything they had and were just floating around here and there, content to rent or stay at hotels here and there.

This family will stay in the US. This is where we’re from.

[Trajan88]

I've visited numerous places in Europe... I'm of Italian heritage... I enjoyed various locales in Italy: Venice, Rome, Sienna, Florence, Lake Como.

However, I could not wait to get home (to Texas) after a couple weeks.

In the brief time I was there it was the little things that got to me: no ice in drinks, weird system of ordering food in fast food places (go to the display counter... then go to a register to pay and get a ticket... give the ticket to the guy behind the counter), narrow roads, I like driving American made V-8s that use fuel... too expensive to do that anywhere in Europe, etc.

I know there's more to living abroad than this... but if these "little" things ticked me off... I couldn't imagine having to deal with the big things like emergency medical care, buying a home, on and on.

[Clemenza]

Poland is too Statist, the political scene very inbred, and too much of the populace overly parochial (though that is changing). My paternal ancestral homeland is a nice place to visit. To live, however, I'd hold my nose and go to my wife's country of Brazil.

Don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon, whether Poland or Pakistan.

[JohnThune2012]

Americans were planning to leave the USA if McCain or “The One” were to win in 2008. Obama had Millions of us in fear that we were gonna wind up in a Hitler like administration,and look at whats happened since Obama took office. Can you imagine the mass exodus if Obama wins in 2012?

[mo]

Europeans have no guns. The coming locust swarms across the Mongolian plains will eat them alive.

Yamamoto, the Japanese admiral, understood the perils of an American invasion...”a gun behind every blade of grass”

[yarddog]

Obama has turned out to have the exact ideas and political leanings that I thought he had. He is a monster.

The only thing saving us is he is also incompetent.

[Blueflag]

Having traveled in or worked projects in most EU nations, I would definitely pick Germany.

[P8riot]

My wife and I are prayerfully considering a request to go to Kiev, Ukraine as missionaries.

[riri]

My father was born in Germany. I lived in Germany for two years and really disliked it.

Having said that, I spent the year in Sweden last year and found it much more tolerable and dare I say Americanized. I left bank accounts and we have Swedish personal numbers and may have to use it as an escape hatch. Though it is much too cold for me. I am thinking of looking into Chile. But, yeah, for certain we are thinking of exit plans and just what would be the catalyst.

[Leaning Right]

It is relatively easy to get Irish citizenship if you can prove a parent or grandparent was born in Ireland.

I have a friend who did this just to get a European Union passport. This makes him a dual citizen, along with his children.

Contact an Irish consulate or the embassy for details.

[dfwgator]

I would love to have a little chalet in the High Tatry region in either Zakopane or on the Slovak side.

[Inyo-Mono]

My family came to America in the 1640s. I’m not going anywhere.

[posterchild]

I’d prefer somewhere more capitalist than any European country that I can think of. Perhaps Chile or Singapore though the latter is too crowded. (Though Malta seemed like it would be a cool place to live for a bit.)

I’d rather be an ‘outsider’ in a ascending country where the culture is proud of itself than an ‘insider’ in a waning country where the culture is afraid to wave it’s flag, proclaim its virtues, or be happy with it’s merits.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Too many people think they’e still in Europe!

[Frantzie]

Just to point out again that I am not advocating anything but I am noticing people making these observations and comments. There is a real sense of foreboding in some people.

[Viking2002]

My family lineage - on both sides - is German as far as the eye can see. Most of my blood relatives still live there; I was born to a community of immigrants and descendants of immigrants; the grandmother who peripherally helped Mom raise me was right off the boat from Ulm. (God, she loved to bend down and kiss me after eating a hunk of Limburger, because she knew I'd crinkle my nose!) But I'm an American first and last. Onward and upward, and let anyone who stands in my way taste the cold steel of my blade.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

Polish? I can see Polish going back. They are doing well.

I do a lot of work internationally.

Russians get about the same pay as we do, after taxes.

You can make out well in India but you will have to live in an apartment.

Australia seems to have no drawbacks other than very restrictive gun laws. Salaries are actually a bit higher and taxes seem to be near the same. If I’m going to be facing dingos and crocodiles, I want my shotgun.

[Frantzie]

Yes but the American public have become docile sheep confused and manipulated by TV. Europeans make some of the finest guns made and have fought some horrific war. I would not count them out yet. They also did not elect a muslim to rule them and to loot their Treasury while they essentially did nothing.

[Georgia Girl 2]

“This is the weirdest thing. Do any European countries allow return if a great grandparent came from there?”

I think Ireland does but its worse off than we are. My advice is stay in America and fight for your country.

[Erasmus]

Ulm. The birthplace of Albert Einstein. The highway that descends southward into town crosses over the Danube and the railroad yard. It passes right by a couple of mediaeval battlements which are maintained as reminders of the past. By the time you get to the bottom of the valley, you're adjacent to the old city center, with its cathedral (not a Dom but a Münster because of its single spire).

In the cathedral square starting in November they have the traditional Ulmer Weinachtsmart, which I presume has been going on for more than half a millennium. I was fascinated by the glass-blowing booth, almost a stage, with people crowded around on three sides. Especially all the little kids gawking.