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JACQUELINE C CARROLL NEE JEHRING in USA
Published Date
03 March 2009
Home Town in SA
Durbs by the sea
Now Living in
Middletown, NJ
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Best Thing About the Country?
The lifestyle. 10 mins down the road we have beautiful beaches similar to those on the Natal coastline. An hour and a half in Inland we have the Pocono's mountain range where we can go snowboarding. We have New York across the bay and an incredible country of natural beauty to discover. All that along with the stunning four seasons that we enjoy make this an incredible country to bring up our kids in.
Biggest Cultural Difference?
. I'm not sure if this would, strictly speaking, fall under cultural difference but the biggest difference I've noticed to date (and forgive me for the very wide generalisation) is the lack of creative essence in this country. One sheep says baaa and the rest just follow suite! When I think of South Africa, it brings me great joy and pride to think of how resourceful we are as a nation. Now I appreciate that for most it is (and has been for some time) a necessity however it’s still a good indicator of what we South Africans are made of, how we are able to adapt and flourish where-ever destiny places us. And make the most of it.
Top Things to Do or See?
Bryce Canyon is absolutely stunning and in my humble opinion better than the Grand Canyon which is just so gigantic, it’s hard to appreciate its size from the ground and of course when we were touring, we weren't flash enough to do the scenic flyover.
Kilauea Volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii: to see the power of nature in action is an almost indescribable experience. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a country girl at heart.
Fall in the New England area can be spectacular if you time it right. That in itself can be quite a challenge and my advice to anyone going up that way: don't try to do it in a hurry. It is such a beautiful part of the States and has so much to offer especially if you're interested in the history of the area.
What can I say, we're (my husband, Matthew and I) are happy here. Now, a little piece of my heart (actually a huge chunk) will always belong to my country of birth, but for now I have a young son to consider and so here we find ourselves. After living in the UK for 11 years, we spent a year travelling around OZ, NZ and the USA in a bid to establish which of the 3 we were best suited to and it must be said, the States won hands down. We love the scenic beauty of this country which is so diverse, we love the fact that you can chose to live in any number of climatic zones, we love that here in the States we can give our son a similar environment to go up in that we had as youngster (many, many years ago that is!) and lastly, that the opportunities here are endless. Someone once said to me that the USA is all about convenience and having lived here now for almost 4 years, I couldn't agree more. The worrying part however is that it is almost too easy over here (if that could be classed as a bad thing). Although a part of me will always long to return home, this is not a bad place to be until (or perhaps, if) that opportunity arises.
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