Quote:Well ... there were a few negative bullets points. If you really like to see a couple more ... ;-)
- having kids is very expensive (but we have none anyway). e.g. Unis are free in Germany.
- foreign work experience counts almost nothing - even if you worked for big well-known multi-national companies ...
- ... because of the special Australian situation. My favorite. Nobody was able to explain what that is so far. Snakes maybe.
- Australian blokes are machismos (more of an issue for my spouse)
- people tend to have a bit of an anti-academic attitude. My spouse even tries to hide that she has a PhD in electrical engineering ...
Anyway, the list of the positive aspects do outweight the rest by far.
Very informative feedback about Australia, Klaus, thanks.
I spent 6 weeks there about a decade ago and I really loved the country (rented a camping car and did the classic east coast drive from Sydney to Cairns).
After having lived 7 years in the USA (5 years in California, 2 in NY), I moved back - with a new american wife - to Switzerland to start a family. I found that Americans have a very positive attitude toward life in general, especially compared to people in Europe. They are also much much more friendly and pleasant in general, not afraid to have casual conversations. I found it to be very similar in Australia and it's something I sorely miss. It just makes your daily life so much more enjoyable.
Being back in Switzerland was very difficult at first. I didn't see things the same way as before. The weather was horrible (compared to sunny California), people were very unfriendly and cold, etc. We then started planning to move to Australia (Sydney), but in the end it didn't happen. I did get a great job opportunity that made us stay in Geneva. Time flew by and then boom, 2 kids! Now 8 years down the road we're still here. We're used to the life here although we keep fantasizing about living around Sydney now and then... The ideal setup would be to live in Switzerland from April to September and the rest of the year in Australia ;-)
We just need to find the family to do the exchange with!