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I'd like to hear some of your experiences of moving. I personally have never done it outside of when I went to college. I landed a decent job in my field after graduating, but I'm stuck in Knoxville Tennessee. It's essentially a giant ghetto surrounding a state school with small patches of redneck yuppies, and it sucks. I'm considering New Orleans, where my sister goes to school, but I'm not particularly close to her and would likely have to figure things out on my own for the most part. I've been a couple times and always enjoyed it. I'd basically like to know how much money to expect to spend, how to find an apartment without physically being there more than a couple days (I'd be able to go down for a visit about a month prior), any of your experiences meeting people somewhere new, finding a job, etc. I'm a little worried that it would be lonely for a while, but I'm willing to deal with that to get out of here. I've considered asking people to join me as I have a couple of friends in the same boat, I'm not sure that's really totally feasible, though it would likely make it easier/cheaper.
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| # ? Sep 16, 2012 17:03 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 23:51 |
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I moved to new york on my own recently. I stayed in a lovely hostel booked sight unseen while I found somewhere to live, which consisted of running around for a week and getting a room in someone else's place month to month while I try and find a real place to live. I'd done research online to find out how much everything cost and figured out my budget beforehand, so I had a pretty good idea of what I was going to be spending. Went well over budget week to week, but thats just because I went out a few times a week and knew I could get away with it a couple times. Meeting people generally consisted of going up to people in a bar and saying 'Hi, i've just moved here, mind if i join you for a beer?' Everyone was super accommodating and I'm really good friends with some of them now. It was a little much to take in when I was having to deal with everything and figure poo poo out, but so long as you stay organised (lists!) and keep on top of all the tiny little things you've got to do when they come up, it'll be surprisingly stress free. Find some local forums covering events in the city and go to all of them.
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| # ? Sep 16, 2012 18:23 |
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Hello. Memphis to New Orleans transient here, did pretty much what you're contemplating 4 years ago. Socializing is not hard because there are tons and tons of people in there mid 20s moving down and everyone is southern style friendly (it's the booze). You can always get a little service industry gig and have a instant friend set. It's a easy laid back city as I'm sure you've seen. Expect to pay 6-800 for a decent 2 bedroom. Not many 1 bedrooms as it's a old city with not many apartments. DO NOT rent a place without checking out the neighborhood first as it's a checkerboard city like no other. Seriously. Moving to any new city is amazing and exciting, and I find NOLA to be vibrant with opportunity right now. I'd be happy to answer more specific questions if you have any!
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| # ? Sep 16, 2012 19:50 |
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Awesome! I'm actually from Cordova. I'll have a year at my job as a mental health social worker in February so I assume I'll be able to find something there eventually and try to go back for my masters when I've got the dough and I'm settled. Is there a decent area near University of New Orleans that you would recommend?
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| # ? Sep 16, 2012 20:02 |
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Small world, I lived out by Bellvue for some time. Lots of social worker type positions here, met a lot of folks doing that and Teach for America and Americorps. UNO is on the lake and the surrounding neighborhoods are not awesome. Not bad, just boring. You can go from the French Quarter to the lake 30 minutes by bike, 15-20 by car so commute time shouldn't really effect where you stay. I like Marigny/Bywater but only the river side. Elysian Fields goes all the way from the river to UNO. Mid City is awesome and central and where I live. Uptown has cool spots but is more family/student oriented. Speaking of UNO I hear it's the cheapest 4 year college in America. Make sure you get something in your name as soon as you move down so you can establish residency and get the low low!
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| # ? Sep 16, 2012 20:20 |
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I moved from New York to California with not much more than a car, a few thousand dollars, and a job I could do online. I looked up apartments in the area I wanted to live in, and arranged dates and times to check them all out over a weekend. Then I made my choice and started moving in. There wasn't much time spend staying in hotels/with friends. If you can find a job, the rest will eventually fall into place. I would recommend against moving somewhere if there isn't a job for you there. Send out resumes to potential employers. You could realistically drive down to New Orleans for a night for some interviews or searching, so take a road trip, look around, and learn first hand knowledge. As for meeting people, go outside and do things, say hi. Join clubs, find roommates, do what you like to do and meet people who also like that thing.
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| # ? Sep 16, 2012 21:26 |
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I moved from Austin, TX to Denver, CO in June. I picked 5 cities based on certain things I wanted, I didn't know anybody in any of the cities. I wanted a colder climate with good public transportation where I'd get paid more. So I ended up spending 2 years researching Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Denver and San Francisco. It took two years because I had to have a job before leaving and I only had a window of a few months based on my year long lease in Austin. For some reason the second time around everywhere I applied was all excited about my application as opposed to the first time when no one really gave a poo poo. So I had phone interviews for Minneapolis, Seattle and Denver and went to Portland for an interview, but by the time I got there two places in Denver made really good offers, so I ended up taking one. I flew out here on June 4th for 3 days and did as much research online for apartments beforehand and ended up snagging a relatively cheap near downtown studio thats also really close to my job. It did happen to be kind of in the ghetto though so I'm going to move when my lease ends. Then I flew back to Texas, packed up, and left on June 10th taking only what would fit in my car, the rest I sold, gave away or trashed. I spent approximately 5,000 doing this, but in that I include replacing my furniture (from Ikea so it wasn't that bad), my flight and hotel, deposit, paying rent twice for June and July. If you don't have a lot of poo poo to bring and can just pack it up in your car it doesn't cost much. If you can get it to where you don't have to pay rent twice its even better. Really you only need to save a lot of money if you don't have a job before you get there.
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| # ? Sep 17, 2012 04:31 |
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pblol posted:I'd like to hear some of your experiences of moving. I personally have never done it outside of when I went to college. I landed a decent job in my field after graduating, but I'm stuck in Knoxville Tennessee. It's essentially a giant ghetto surrounding a state school with small patches of redneck yuppies, and it sucks. I used to live in NOLA years ago ('96-'98, then again from 2001-2004, pre-Katrina) and it's my favorite city (I've lived in a lot of cities, picking up and moving seems to be a theme in my life). I don't think this is a city you can really get lonely in, I know I never was while there and whenever I go back to visit, I still see the same people which is really more than I can say for most other cities I've lived. Places to live: The Quarter is really expensive, Marigny is great but can be pricey, Bywater has some good places and general good funkiness, Uptown and the Garden District are gorgeous in places but it depends on where you want to live. NOLA tends to have random batshit crime out of nowhere, but I guess it's like anywhere, really. I used to live off Magazine St in the garden district and then later uptown and loved it, and also lived in the Irish Channel which was kind of sketchy but is now much improved (still, it was a beautiful area). Mid-Town can also be considerably cheaper and still has some nice places. Look on Craigslist - I know it's not really original to suggest but it'll give you a better idea of the rents. Personally, I think New Orleans can be on the high side but then it also depends if you're going to have a roommate or not. It might not be bad to start with one and go from there. You should consider what area you want to live because it tends to wildly vary rent-wise. You have a connection there - maybe you're not close to your sister but it makes a big difference to at least have someone living there who can be your eyes and ears if you do want to rent a place, she can check it out for you. Every single place in NOLA I've lived was a gorgeous old building with great architecture and I could afford to live in those places since I had roommates. If your sister's in school there, have her look at the boards for you, since they always put up flyers for roommates. What school is she in, Tulane? Some students end up in AMAZING houses off St. Charles, somehow renting and sharing. If you can swing that poo poo, you've got it made. But those rentals almost always show up on the Uni boards, so again, have your sister check that poo poo out for you. You don't need to move people out with you to get a deal on a place, lots of people are in the same boat since it tends to be a somewhat transient town there with so many people in schools and a huge service industry. Also, they're not all sticklers there for doing things a methodical way, so you can set up a place without necessarily being there, esp if you already have someone there to see it for you etc. Don't know about your job field except I will echo that there a LOT of social work and mental health jobs from what I remember. Economy in general there is not the best but if you're in that niche I feel you'll do fine. When I moved to NOLA I was there on vacation, fell in love with it, and just kind of packed my poo poo in a car and drove out from San Francisco to there without a job, stayed in a little hostel in the Garden District, got a job waiting tables initially and then worked retail later (and within antique stores etc.) - had roommates the whole time, which I probably can't do now since I am not used to it anymore. But I made it work because I wanted to live there badly. I didn't know anyone, but didn't care - I met so many, so quickly, it's a really vibrant, welcoming town (especially in comparison to other places I've lived like San Francisco and Portland). Good luck, OP - I think NOLA is one of the most amazing places in the US (it needs people who will stick it out and stay, the people who I know who live there care a lot about it and feel really passionately about improving their town). I always regret not living there anymore (moved right before Katrina hit and then all kinds of personal poo poo kind of carried me further away) but I am still happy to visit every year or so and reconnect with my soul city.
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| # ? Sep 17, 2012 07:48 |
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My wife and I just moved from Dallas to Denver this July. We knew literally two people in the city. We just built our first house in Dallas which was completed last March, and decided that we were ready to live somewhere else. We made the decision in May that we wanted to move, and arrived on July 8th. We talked a little bit about where we wanted to go, but basically just picked a place and pulled the trigger. We got a property manager and leased out our house in Texas, though we had actually moved before we had tenants lined up. Rental market just took a couple weeks longer than expected. The scariest part for me was abandoning a good job for a market I had never worked in. I thought finding a job from another city was going to be a nightmare. To my surprise, I got more leads in Denver during the first week that my resume was out there than I ever got in Dallas. We found our townhouse on Craigslist. Nerve-wracking part about this was the fact that we didnt actually get to see the place til we arrived. This worked out, but I probably wouldn't do it again.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2012 14:35 |
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I moved to Phoenix about 11 months ago and still have barely managed to make any friends, I don't go out and drink often really. Apparently booze is the key to making friends?
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| # ? Oct 9, 2012 18:07 |
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The Slaughter posted:Apparently booze is the key to making friends? It's not the key, it's just the easiest way. It also means when you're on your own in a gig it's much easier to walk over to a group of strangers and introduce yourself. I'd recommend going to a rave and taking a bunch of pills if it was more socially acceptable because you'd be making friends with everyone there. If you dont drink, do what other people do with drink.... but sober.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2012 18:27 |
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"Apparently booze is the key to making friends?" He is talking about moving to New Orleans. We are a very alcohol and music oriented culture. You don't have to drink yourself but you would be doing yourself a disservice by avoiding places with obnoxious drunk people. Here those places are the most fun. I was born in New Orleans and have lived here the vast majority of my life so if you need any advice on the current status of the city I can give my perspective.
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| # ? Oct 9, 2012 23:19 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 23:51 |
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Book clubs are a great way to make friends. It's too bad you're apparently illiterate 
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| # ? Oct 10, 2012 12:50 |
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