where are good places to live in other parts of the world?

[all.of.me]

i am serious! i've been thinking about leaving the country in the next few years, and i'm wondering how to go about it. the place needs to be liberal or radical, alternative, spiritual and beautiful. oh yeah, the weather has to be mild..... and dry...... i wish i could just take taos (where i am now) and move it out of the usa!

[Benhurst]

1. Take a look at Malta. Might be too hot for you, but certainly

dry and very well located.

[all.of.me]

5. mmmm.... that sounds nice!

i'm attracted to greece and am learning italian. italy is too hot/humid. i don't know much about greece. i'm going to look into malta. thanks!

[MrScorpio]

2. Amsterdam, baby!

Amster-fucking-dam!

[all.of.me]

6. cold?

i'm a transplant from new england - vicious winters. i want warmer.

[MrScorpio]

21. Wimping out on us, huh

I thought you nor-easter types were made of sterner stuff.

Thanks leaves more for this Michigan boy

[all.of.me]

23. lol - no wimps here!!

i left new hampshire after the winter of 86-87, when it snowed a FOOT every other day! a grader had to come and plow the road. lol i was SO done after that.

then i travelled around the country in my truck following warm weather. did that for a couple of years, then ended up in taos when i had a baby. that curtailed the travel somewhat!

taos is a compromise - perfect summers (rarely above 90 and dry dry dry), and mild-ish winters, but it's still cold, and there is no gardening!

so i figure my next move is to a place with warmer winters but not hot summers. i am so fussy when it comes to physical comfort!

i'm not a wimp - i'm self-indulgent!

[Pooka Fey]

3. Doesn't it suck to have to become a political refugee? n/t

[all.of.me]

8. yeah....

i have a lot of online friends around the world, and we're not very popular. if they start ganging up on us, i don't want to be here. on a non-political note, i've moved around a lot within this country, so i thought why not move out of it?!

i also have two girls. one is almost 15. if they fire up that draft, she is NOT going. the little one is almost 11. i don't think girls will be excluded next time around.

[Pooka Fey]

10. What sucks is that the world is dealing with political refugees

from Africa, the former Soviet Union, and the Middle East - so compared to those places we don't really have much standing to complain. Still, who wants to wait until it gets like Rwanda here - with blood flowing in the streets, or Ethiopa - with people starving to death daily?

I want to get out myself. I absolutely support your decision to get out to protect your daughters. Good thinking. I hear that they don't hate us so much in Ireland because the old U.S.A. was a refuge for the Irish. I'm too poor to try to get out right now, and I'm worried by the time I can save the money to get out, Ireland will be saying "no more Americans please".

Also what sucks is - if all the good people leave, who will be here to stand up to the regime? Everything about this sucks.

[all.of.me]

11. if all the good people leave, who will be here to stand up to the regime?"

i had this kind of discussion in a smaller situation - my daughter's school! it started out as an alternative charter school, but after four years, it got very mainstream and could not be sorted out from any regular public school. i talked about moving my little girl to another school, because i did not like the politics of this school. a friend suggested i stay and fight with him, instead of leaving. we left, and they have to do without my voice (they are probably glad - i was a rabble rouser!).

it feels the same way, though. if everyone left that school, there would be no one left to affect any change! not my problem - we are in a great school now.

i have friends in italy outside of milan, but the weather there is not to my liking. but if worse comes to worse, i'll knock on the door! they actually have an apartment for rent! haha

[girl gone mad]

4. New Zealand..

I don't know that they are radical, but there are plenty of liberal areas. Also, the weather is mild, especially on the North Island, but also the Northern coast of the South Island. All parts of NZ are beautiful.

[lastknowngood]

7. New Zealand has put restrictions on U.S. immigration after the

election. No kidding check it out, were not wanted there as refugees.

[all.of.me]

9. i have always wanted to go to NZ, but...

i have heard this. visit, please, but go home! too bad.

i hear the same about switzerland. anyone else?

[madmom]

17. this is exactly my pick for retirement is possible

[Stop_the_War]

12. Spain

[all.of.me]

13. any place in particular? n/t

[Stop_the_War]

14. here are two good cities:

Madrid (the Spanish New York, very urban city, nice nightlife)
Barcelona (the Spanish Los Angeles or San Francisco, has beaches, nice culture, good nightlife)

[all.of.me]

15. i'm not much of a city girl...

... if i had 100 acres, i'd put a house in the middle of it! what about the outlying areas of these places? i am totally dense about europe!

[StClone]

16. Costa Rica has been the destination of at least

Two DUers. It seems they speak English, have great climates and stable political situations. Employment there could be had.

[all.of.me]

18. ahhh....

that's interesting. some acquaintances of mine just got back from there. now that i think about it, my daughter told me they might move there. i'll have to pick their brains. thanks!

[FloridaPat]

19. Mexico has American communities. Prices for homes are very

cheap compared to the US. Health care is free and if you want supplemental health insurance, it is $300 a YEAR!

Dominican Republic has cheap property too. They speak Spanish. Bahamas and Caymen Islands don't have income tax and speak English.

[SammyWinstonJack]

20. Belize

Is where we are planning on going, won't be for a few years though.

[Joe Chi Minh]

22. If I were young again,

I'd move to France. A fabulous country, from my memory of it in the late fifties.

West Australia, while completely different, used to be great, but I believe the climate has changed from Mediterranean to very erratic and prone to relative extremes. Certainly, very hot, and now, humid, too. Also, I believe, to some extent at least, suffering the Anglo-Norman curse of political, economic and hence social degeneracy, with inevitably spiralling lawlessness and disorder. But, great people.

[Squeech]

24. Brazil

With Lula as president, they're making great strides in educating and finding work for their people. They're right at the boundary between first and third world, and they're moving the way we aren't.

Since you mentioned the spiritual dimension, there are a number of interesting belief systems practiced in Brazil. There's a version of the Yoruba/Catholic syncretism called Candomble (basically the same idea as Santeria or Voudun-- worshipping the African orixas thinly disguised as Catholic saints). There's something called spiritism, as preached by Allen Kardec-- I don't know the details, but I think the idea is that there are non-corporeal intelligences that guide us through life, if we get sensitized to them. There's another faith that grew out of the preaching of an itinerant visionary monk of a hundred years ago, who preached a sort of new Jerusalem that would be built in the middle of the jungle, and there are a lot of people who think that Brasilia, the capital city they built 50 years ago in the interior, is that city and is therefore destined for greatness. And there's capoeira, a martial art disguised as a dance, whose practitioners strive for a Zen-like awareness.

Me, I'm just in it for the bossa nova.