flushbunking

the courage of the taxi driver is really contrasted by the wailing of the criminal. its amazing when we say all humans are created equal, but, then this...

An 04 Buick Regal with the 3800, i didn’t need to be branded by a brown Buick but it was smooth. — A 13 Honda Fit 5m, i ended up buying another after 6 months.

I dream about past memories so hard, every night.

Minimal. Generally our rates are good and our taste isn’t wild.

I constantly romanticize about how i had it in about 2013-2016. But, all weird since.

First car equals a corolla/camry. Want fun, get a manual. Don’t wreck it, learn some lessons while saving up for a Miata.

Physical buttons for hvac, audio volume & power.

Bc to live there, where its cheap, is a lifestyle that doesn’t quite align with the instagram vibe. Now bad, just not all anthropology catalogue aesthetic and selfies.

I sincerely love PGH, but it’s a hard sell from a highly functioning country. No place is perfect, PGH is charming, but alot has changed in 9 years. I don’t think it’s worth dying on a marriage hill over. My EU spouse also won’t return to the US, i actually have apart of my heart in Pittsburgh, but while I’m selling brick hills Norman Rockwell, and all my spouse sees is racial disparity, rust, and plastic bag/bottle shrapnel lining the roadside-guns, god, and glory bill boards on the highway, and a culture where fear and numbers override taste and morals. All with the upside of higher wages from at will employers & an accident or illness away from potential medical bankruptcy. Finally, we don’t have kids-but id consider where i want the growing up carefully as well.

ireland would work, skilled trades are backed up-but housing and visa are both going to be impossible.

Rats, i def agree evs are becoming more mainstream. Byd everywhere

Europeans

Moving is so freaking hard, i doubt many would follow through even if visas fell from the sky.

Yea, I forgot, an XJR please

Mini Cooper S

i mean for 1000, its a lotta vehicle for close to its value in scrap. Prob itll be a headache in time.

eu isnt a rose garden (well there are a few in a 20 minute walk lol) but i most appreciate a palpable "why bother" being replaced with a heavy "why would you?" once i walk away from reddit and chatting with old friends, a cloud lifts. i have a philosophical moment of why am i like this, but really the vibe here is shut it and carry on, ride a bike, have some wine/beer, pet a cat--live your life.

so my bitterness is my spouse came from brutal former soviet childhood to usa full of hopes and dreams, they earned an excellent salary, we had a great life (owned home, no mortgage, paid student debt, had ok healthcare, toys, tools, pets, hobbies) and my spouse all along was very upset, the usa is becoming what i fled. everyyear over the past twelve, it did. we moved to the eu, and then back to the usa, and then back to the eu. niether is perfect, but it is genuinely challenging to live well in a place where the majority are struggling to survive. people struggling to survive are often without agency to pursue great things (higher education, the arts, heck-a botanical garden) people locked into survival mode are often only having the agency to enjoy the luxury of upscale fast food dropped to their door on a friday night via uber eats, a person who hates them for what they have, and will their car on the way out, while someone hates the ubereats driver sidehustle bc they have a new car, and they plan to steal it if left running, to a person who hates that person able to get to a place with a car worth stealing, from a place where someone will hurt anyone for any reason bc society hated them before they ever did anything. everyone hating everyone is just a new-ish cherry on top of a fundamentally flawed pie. we earn 30% less in the eu, it isnt perfect, but the broad appeal of the usa comes with limitations that do not work well enough for me anymore. i am frustrated with the theatre of political correctness, but, it is so so much deeper than that. and my spouse is very firm about people only listening to them to feel better about themselves, and never actually feeling heard, and is so much happier working with talented people elsewhere-and they are very very disappointed in so many people who alluded to be "openness and no bullshit demeanor." something as the american, besided self-loathing and attempts to evolve, is how much less europeans steal and exploit. i dont steal, but, it is so normalized. sneak a lil extra here and there, kids collecting roadsigns is normal, its a slipperyslope to normalized behavior that no1 really talks about. civic trust is so much higher outside of usa. i havnt seen one ring camera in eu yet, in usa, expect to be video and audio recorded in unprotected cloud HD format all of the time, and for everyone to agree its normal and necessary, kinda like owning a gun. "im the goodguy, protecting myself the the badguy" "rules are for thee, not for me" so many "im justs-" in eu, its i am\_\_\_. you are \_\_\_. in usa its often an im just\_\_\_\_(say something other than we mean you should be clairvoyant). or i am \_\_\_\_\_(lie). i feel like the foundation in eu is more solid so i can say what i really want, most of the time. and there is much less reason to be angry/tense. thats another thing to consider. manufactured anger/tense/fear has become profitable and is easily demonstrated across the board.

Downvote bc the reflection in the mirror is ugly, the truth hurts. We all want the other guy to be the bad guy, to accept that we are all contributing to the system is difficult. Its easier to just feel special bc you worked with someone like OP from Germany and to go back to the heard feeling a little better about not actually doing anything

i have bad news, all our "openness and no bullshit demeanor" is performative/theatre. its really easy to pretend to care when talking to the European bc it makes us feel good about ourselves; cultured, openminded, worldly-then we forget everything you said, you were just a means to an end, and we go back to eating low quality food that will make us bankrupt with medical bills, and passive aggressively dehumanizing our neighbors while ignoring 30 year old men picking food of trashbins at the grocery store while believing its their fault for not trying harder, and collectivly upholding the status quo because we are addicted to the dopamine hits provided by purchasing goods and services. do i sound bitter, yes, but come to the usa, visit the parks in towns outside of the capital cities of some states, and you will see how performative we really live by comparing how we interact with these spaces or even by simply observing how we interact with our kids in these spaces. you will likely immediatly see a huge contrast as we even treat our own kids like the neighbors loose dog, there is little meaningful connection, so its no surprise we come up into becoming drug addicted dopamine chasing psychopaths.

Balkans generally don’t bow to fear

First week on job in county i dont speak the language old dental work failed on a Saturday at 3pm…there was a walk in dentist around the corner who made a temporary repair for less than the cost of lunch. New phone was snatched by a motorcyclist in my first month-police drove me around for 45 minutes chasing pings-no luck (its now at a flip shop in Morocco) but credit card used to purchase had insurance that covered the loss. First apartment had a roof leak which was irreparable-landlord refunded my five month deposit one day after leaving-in full. One year later I left my work phone on the bus-the bus driver met me at my stop on his next round. Massive EU capital city for reference.

im sold!

right. emigrating is really hard-its like saying look at the huge house i earned from hard work after an inheritance.

simple, an american was able to procure a polish passport (its a thing) and they then moved to the only english speaking country, ireland. this is an entitlement, but the post reeks of privilege. sounds like OP is well off enough to pick and choose, congrats on hacking the system-prob better to be more modest about your winnings. not that they care about being liked.

i wish i had more of your generous optimism, and less of my learned cynicism

\-This reads less like “liberation” and more like a self-congratulatory checklist of what OP *doesn’t* do. \-OP flattens three countries into clichés (NFL, pubs, Catholicism), then calls it “freedom” because they opt out. That’s not insight. it’s disengagement dressed up as enlightenment. \-“I am free to think and act within the modest legal expectations of the Republic” is… everyone. That’s not an expat superpower; that’s just living in a country. \-“None of these things matter” mostly signals OP hasn’t engaged enough to understand what actually *does* matter to the people around them. \-“Recent events” made OP rethink america as a rule-of-law democracy? that’s a pretty late realization, given how long the structural stuff has been obvious. \-If OP means “being abroad gives me space from hometown expectations,” cool. But the post reads like a virtue parade

most american post ever. ick. best of luck tho, hopefully some time and relationship building will mend that ghastly lack of self-awareness. afterall, op is just another victim of a delusional system.

yea, ill V6 camry all day, esp if in for the long hual

Clean single cab 8’ bed pickup trucks. FJ Cruiser. Unmodified TJ Wrangler. Anything clean body on frame. Me: i prefer a clean Honda Fit GE 5m, also silly expensive, but everyone loves trucks, and just like Hondas, once they hit a certain curve of ownership-destroyed.

I pulled off an international move through luggage. Some airlines were way cheaper than others. Specialty items (cello, Labrador retriever were way less than i expected)

Cities are more welcoming by far, but the situation seems to be changing-day by day. You are probably resilient enough to make it, but you have to accept that it’s possible you may be temporarily detained. Thats just ICE & you took my job types. Then, random violence and crime is more prevalent in the cities. And it really is random in many of them, so you have to be comfortable with being always aware/ready to defend yourself. I have never felt so relaxed in Europe, even in higher crime areas. It doesn’t not even compete. But, ive never seen the same money in Europe, it doesn’t even compete. But i don’t need as much money in Europe… it goes on and on. If you come, unless something pulls you in (usually its money, a partner, etc) i suspect you’ll be mentally done in two years, ready to go home, or anywhere/somewhere else.

My neives long term bf was from there. We came across ICE (not in an airport) and now nobody knows where he is two months later

oh gawd, i prescribe naps

We moved last March and have turned down several invitiations of "hey meet us at city X" and we are "sorry, so busy," while just sitting outside feeding pigeons & retiring to reruns on the couch. Its been a hell of a year, lots of growth and not even close to done yet. I hope maybe after another year it'll feel like put my feet up time. Until then, i'll be emotionally hibernating.

32, IT

Ive never paid any agency fees and I am in a hot market. Tenants typically pay a deposit in most markets, as well as utilities. The only time I had to provide extra was when I was new, didn't have 3 payslips, so insolvent. The deposit I made was repaid the day after the contract was terminated.


The people in Spain are a huge selling point.


I need 30 minutes. Mixed. With a stint at highway speeds to check for vibrations. They hate it. They weaponize time, and I weaponize it right back. Do you want the sale or not, it'll go faster with me than against me.

I’ll consider after a lengthy test drive under load. Im bringing 2 of my largest friends.

dont hate it, agree on many of your sentiments, but id argue it cracks at "happy to make some extra cash here and there" dont expect fair treatment, fair wages, or even any employments as referals are gold when in an in-network crowd. if you can somehow double your passive income, then, well... but 1k a month gross feels brittle

It has gotten worse over the past 5 years

It’s totally normal. Your vehicle becomes an extension of your personality, which somehow feels cool provided you can afford something that makes you feel cool. My friends in their 30s have disappearing necks and cant walk 2.5blocks tho. My mom is 67 and needs a jazzy to grocery shop. Thats not ok.

They pretend to look down on you, they actually resent what you do, as you are a mirror reflecting what they are not.

i just educated myself the difference between suv and cuv

The Rav4 is awesome in its relaibility, but, Im not getting in a line to put down a deposoit to order one. I bought a slightly used RX350 for about what the local Rav4 HCOL tax was. I'll agree it was underrated, and now i'd say its currently... overhyped? Maybe it would be more fair to say the SUV platform itself is what is overrated. Spouse wont drive a van lol

Bulgaria is a delicious 10, comparatively Spain… sorry. Pass. I’ll wait

RAV4, its awesome but only if the price were 2/3. Also: Every Jeep after TJ years.