Expats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hope people also see that you can be rich and live well in less sqft

No matter how rich I might (hypothetically) be, I would never in a million years choose to live in an apartment building, jammed in with thousands of others. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope people also see that you can be rich and live well in less sqft

No matter how rich I might (hypothetically) be, I would never in a million years choose to live in an apartment building, jammed in with thousands of others. No thanks.

+1, I did it but would not do it again. Give me a house any day, and the more yard the better. I don't need a palace though, my house is 2500 sqft.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope people also see that you can be rich and live well in less sqft

No matter how rich I might (hypothetically) be, I would never in a million years choose to live in an apartment building, jammed in with thousands of others. No thanks.

+1, I did it but would not do it again. Give me a house any day, and the more yard the better. I don't need a palace though, my house is 2500 sqft.

Agree. For me, the most important thing is a big yard or plenty of acreage. I have no desire to live on top of anyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope people also see that you can be rich and live well in less sqft

No matter how rich I might (hypothetically) be, I would never in a million years choose to live in an apartment building, jammed in with thousands of others. No thanks.

+1, I did it but would not do it again. Give me a house any day, and the more yard the better. I don't need a palace though, my house is 2500 sqft.

Agree. For me, the most important thing is a big yard or plenty of acreage. I have no desire to live on top of anyone else.

I've spent my entire adult life living in apartments and I am beyond ready for a house with a yard, but at this point it doesn't even have to be that large. I look at 2000 sq ft suburban houses with enough outdoor space for some patio furniture and a small garden and am like "why would you sell this palatial estate?!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope people also see that you can be rich and live well in less sqft

No matter how rich I might (hypothetically) be, I would never in a million years choose to live in an apartment building, jammed in with thousands of others. No thanks.

Yes you would in Paris.

Brambleton is a better fit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope people also see that you can be rich and live well in less sqft

No matter how rich I might (hypothetically) be, I would never in a million years choose to live in an apartment building, jammed in with thousands of others. No thanks.

Yes you would in Paris.

Brambleton is a better fit

DP and I'd live in an apartment for Paris and maybe Rome or Barcelona. Not Hong Kong, though.

In fact after the kids leave you start trying to figure out how to downsize to a condo in a walkable area. There's lots that's appealing about that--no lawns, no car to get groceries, and so on.

[Anonymous]

I'd not live in an apartment in Paris or anywhere else. I don't want to always see neighbors, have to deal with the noise, pollution, cars. I want to step out and see flowers and feel grass, in my night clothes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope people also see that you can be rich and live well in less sqft

No matter how rich I might (hypothetically) be, I would never in a million years choose to live in an apartment building, jammed in with thousands of others. No thanks.

Yes you would in Paris.

Brambleton is a better fit

DP and I'd live in an apartment for Paris and maybe Rome or Barcelona. Not Hong Kong, though.

In fact after the kids leave you start trying to figure out how to downsize to a condo in a walkable area. There's lots that's appealing about that--no lawns, no car to get groceries, and so on.

Agree. Living in an apartment in a very green, walkable city that is very aesthetically pleasing, especially if you don't have kids or maybe just one kid, sounds very appealing to me. Living in Hong Kong or any city with extremely limited green space, obscenely expensive cost of living to the point that you have to be legitimately wealthy just to have a pleasant two bedroom apartment, and where food and other basics are sign to be very expensive? Absolutely not. That sounds stressful.

I think a lot of people are afraid of apartment living because of proximity to neighbors, and having lived in an apartment with a totally insane and hostile neighbor, this fear is understandable. But I have a sibling who lives in a suburban culdesac in a 4 bedroom house and she actually had a similar experience with a neighbor who abutted her backyard and I actually think it impacted her quality of life more than my apartment situation impacted mine because it made it very unpleasant for her or her family to spend time in their yard, and the hostile neighbor would literally harass them while they were sitting on their back deck. In an apartment, you aren't exposed to your neighbors in the same way so it's easier to avoid someone awful by just using a different building entrance or leaving the house 10 minutes earlier or later, or not going in the hallway if you hear them in it.

Unless you live on literal acreage, you will have to deal with neighbors, and that always runs the risk of getting a bad one, unfortunately. But I've actually found city apartment neighbors are, on average, pretty good, specifically because most are accustomed to living in close proximity to other people and make the mental adjustment you have to make to do that peaceably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd not live in an apartment in Paris or anywhere else. I don't want to always see neighbors, have to deal with the noise, pollution, cars. I want to step out and see flowers and feel grass, in my night clothes.

When I had an assignment in Switzerland, I never dealt with any of those issues. Renting is very common there.
I understand some people want a garden, but I guess I lived near many green spaces.

[Anonymous]

Wow, this thread has really gone off topic…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd not live in an apartment in Paris or anywhere else. I don't want to always see neighbors, have to deal with the noise, pollution, cars. I want to step out and see flowers and feel grass, in my night clothes.

Different strokes for country folks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd not live in an apartment in Paris or anywhere else. I don't want to always see neighbors, have to deal with the noise, pollution, cars. I want to step out and see flowers and feel grass, in my night clothes.

Different strokes for country folks

Looks like the discussions about Nicole's fillers, Hillary's family, and what the ending meant have run their course. Nothing wrong with discussing whether you'd want to be an expat in Hong Kong.

[Anonymous]

I didnt love the ending.

The only character I felt was happy at the end was Hilary. Got rid of her cheating husband? Check. Got rid of her abusive cheating dad and got her feelings off her chest? Check.

She started wearing colors and got a colorful new rug. I was wondering if her love of beige colors was in some way a rejection of her indian heritage/persona/identity. The first time we see her in colored clothing is at the indian prayer thing. Now that her dad is dead she feels free to re-embrace that part of her identity.

Mercy, ugh. Idk what I feel about her. She is a crappy person who constantly makes bad choices and blames it on the curse (I was so glad when her HK gf called this out). I dont see any growth.
David was a garbage person throughout and I hated him and hated seeing him on the screen. Dude must be a good actor to elicit this sort of rage lol.

Margaret abandoning her two living children was so wrong to me. I cannot - cannot- imagine the pain of losing a child. But you can't just give up on the ones that are still alive. Her husband wasnt even surprised or sad. Just "Ok fine, bye". He was tired of her sh!t. And where is she gonna live? Her crapshoot apartment?

I'm a bit conflicted at Esse going with the fam, because I really wanted her to be able to go be with her own family. But considering what Margaret did, it's good that Esse is there. And I wonder if that's why she wanted to convince her to go so bad? She doesn't feel as bad abandoning her children knowing that Esse is there to look after them?

[Anonymous]

Agree with all this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didnt love the ending.

The only character I felt was happy at the end was Hilary. Got rid of her cheating husband? Check. Got rid of her abusive cheating dad and got her feelings off her chest? Check.

She started wearing colors and got a colorful new rug. I was wondering if her love of beige colors was in some way a rejection of her indian heritage/persona/identity. The first time we see her in colored clothing is at the indian prayer thing. Now that her dad is dead she feels free to re-embrace that part of her identity.

Mercy, ugh. Idk what I feel about her. She is a crappy person who constantly makes bad choices and blames it on the curse (I was so glad when her HK gf called this out). I dont see any growth.
David was a garbage person throughout and I hated him and hated seeing him on the screen. Dude must be a good actor to elicit this sort of rage lol.

Margaret abandoning her two living children was so wrong to me. I cannot - cannot- imagine the pain of losing a child. But you can't just give up on the ones that are still alive. Her husband wasnt even surprised or sad. Just "Ok fine, bye". He was tired of her sh!t. And where is she gonna live? Her crapshoot apartment?

I'm a bit conflicted at Esse going with the fam, because I really wanted her to be able to go be with her own family. But considering what Margaret did, it's good that Esse is there. And I wonder if that's why she wanted to convince her to go so bad? She doesn't feel as bad abandoning her children knowing that Esse is there to look after them?

Oh, please. Margaret wasn't abandoning anyone. In fact, she felt she would be abandoning Gus if she left HK, which I can *completely* understand. Obviously, her husband knows she'll meet up with them in the States. She just needed a little more time before she felt ready to "leave" Gus. I honestly don't know if I could ever have left.