Help! Advice needed, snap relocation to STT

Think of St Thomas as a combination of Englewood, Austin, with a sprinkling of Bucktown, LP & Gold Coast and you'll be fine

😮

I wonder how people made the move pre-internet?

That's pretty cool.

Which NYC neighborhoods would you compare it to, since that's where I grew up?

That's why we attract so many alcoholics, washouts, and failures.

So, Chicagoan, which one of these categories best describes you?

Man, that's a tough one

I don't exactly know how one could read your post in anything other than a patronizing light.

How on earth do you presume to know that I'm not pleased to move?

But in any event, I am not moving because I want to go to "paradise" – nor is my slight shock at having to move so quickly because I don't properly appreciate the attractions of the island.

I am moving solely because I'm a professional who very suddenly was presented with a high risk, high reward career opportunity. Your fatuous soliloquies may be useful for the territory's tourism board, but have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the nature of my original post, my subsequent comments, or any of the other responses, which are about concrete matters of actual life.

But thanks for doubling down on being a self-absorbed jerk in a thread that's genuinely concerned with the practical aspects of moving to a place that's thousands of miles away at the same time I'm going to be taking on a job with long hours and high stress

No one is forcing you to take a high risk high reward job with long hours and high stress right? I uprooted a family for a job offer after a two day visit. The people on this board were very helpful to me, but if this place didn't offer great weather, a more relaxed atmosphere, beautiful beaches I wouldn't have come. That said, I also wouldn't have come if I was going to work long hours and not be able to enjoy the many great things here.

Yea, that's not really what he meant.

And in any event, of course no one is holding a gun to my head. But that's got nothing to do with my motivations, which no one had any reason to question, and I don't think I gave any indication I wasn't happy to be moving to the Caribbean. Merely that it was not really relevant to why I decided to move

i hope you come down and enjoy your stay

I don't exactly know how one could read your post in anything other than a patronizing light.

How on earth do you presume to know that I'm not pleased to move?

But in any event, I am not moving because I want to go to "paradise" – nor is my slight shock at having to move so quickly because I don't properly appreciate the attractions of the island.

I am moving solely because I'm a professional who very suddenly was presented with a high risk, high reward career opportunity. Your fatuous soliloquies may be useful for the territory's tourism board, but have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the nature of my original post, my subsequent comments, or any of the other responses, which are about concrete matters of actual life.

But thanks for doubling down on being a self-absorbed jerk in a thread that's genuinely concerned with the practical aspects of moving to a place that's thousands of miles away at the same time I'm going to be taking on a job with long hours and high stress

Good luck with your move Chicagoan. This board has about 10 or 20 regular posters. Most newcomers genuinely looking for help are immediately met with some sort of demeaning insult, one of those 10 or 20 posters questioning their intelligence, or just having their post completely go off a cliff with an argument between any number of said posters. The threads will devolve about 80% of the time and so many of these threads end up having nothing to do with helping someone relocate.

I wish I could help you a bit more but I'm on STX and don't have a lot of first hand knowledge on STT. Moving to a place like the USVI for a job/career opportunity is something I can relate to as that is why my wife and I moved. There are a few helpful replies in here for you but it sucks you have to sift through so many useless posts.

For those thinking it, I completely see the irony of this very post not being super helpful to the OP but simply being kind and sticking to the OP's topic of interest or question is something that just doesn't happen on this board nearly enough.

I would seriously consider being shot in Fsted than go back to some.

LOL me too. I just think it's arrogant for us to think of our own land as "paradise" and assert, like Mike did, that everyone "dreams about" moving here. Not true. Some people enjoy seasonal changes. Others enjoy the big money, Wall Street-esque "hustle." Others enjoy the playboy/girl lifestyle in which they can meet hundreds of new people on any given Friday night at the bars and act crazy without fear of running into their bosses. There is no objective "paradise."

It isn't "paradise"to my friends who must endure gang shootouts in their neighborhoods because they are too poor to move out of Williams Delight. Or to my friends who have lost dozens of friends to violence. This "Paradise" is unfamiliar to many residents. Their everyday experiences are more "St. Cry" or "St. Trauma" than paradise. That perspective is underrepresented on this forum.

One of my friends from Santo Domingo would roll her eyes when college friends told her how "lucky" she is for being from the Caribbean.

Sooo out of touch lol

Da Bronx

That's pretty cool.

Which NYC neighborhoods would you compare it to, since that's where I grew up?

I would liken STX to Queens. A broad mix of cultures where some days everyone gets along and times are fun and then other days not everyone gets along. Crime is a concern but if you can not be ruled by fear then you can enjoy your life. There is both the rich and the poor and the best experiences are close by but not simple and conveniences are both convenient and inconvenient.

STT I can't speak to obviously since I live on STX.

Chicagoan - check your PM box.

It is paradise...I was born in Antigua(by accident) since my mother couldn't get back to St. Thomas soon enough to get me...ha ha

I have lived in St. Thomas from a few months old to now!! I was only away for 4 years of college in Hampton, Virginia. I have been working as a teacher for 26 years.

With all the things that are not so good...the good definitely outweighs the bad!
Love my Paradise...it feel like a vacation everyday!!

Arrogant or not, I have lived in Florida most of my life and St. Thomas some of my life and feel both are paradise with different things to offer. If you were to ask any of my wife's family who have lived on St. Thomas for generations how they feel about St. Thomas they would all agree that to them it is paradise. Now for all those folks who came to the Islands, What were you looking for?? What made you say Hummmmmmm while sipping a cup of jo I think I will move to the Islands because it's just like where I live now or was it more like you saw those articles in magazines "come and find your paradise in the tropical Islands" or watching those vacation rental shows on HGTV on how people just have to move to the Islands. If you go back a few years through the forums, you will notice quite an upswing of people wanting to move to the Islands since they have been making TV shows about it.

So you may not think it's paradise now since living there for awhile and if you don't then shame on you, but you sure as hell did at one time or else you would have went some where else.

THANK YOU Homeschoollady for being honest with your comments

mike OVER AND OUT ON THIS TOPIC!

Arrogant or not, I have lived in Florida most of my life and St. Thomas some of my life and feel both are paradise with different things to offer. If you were to ask any of my wife's family who have lived on St. Thomas for generations how they feel about St. Thomas they would all agree that to them it is paradise. Now for all those folks who came to the Islands, What were you looking for?? What made you say Hummmmmmm while sipping a cup of jo I think I will move to the Islands because it's just like where I live now or was it more like you saw those articles in magazines "come and find your paradise in the tropical Islands" or watching those vacation rental shows on HGTV on how people just have to move to the Islands. If you go back a few years through the forums, you will notice quite an upswing of people wanting to move to the Islands since they have been making TV shows about it.

So you may not think it's paradise now since living there for awhile and if you don't then shame on you, but you sure as hell did at one time or else you would have went some where else.

THANK YOU Homeschoollady for being honest with your comments

mike OVER AND OUT ON THIS TOPIC!

It's still highly assumptive to say everyone moves to the USVI for paradise. Some may move for that reason. Others move for job, marriage, family, other reasons, often against their preference. Some even move to escape conviction for crimes committed on the mainland. There are as many reasons for moving to the USVI as there are transplants. Good to know you consider things in terms of paradise or not paradise. Not everyone thinks the same way. This is what upset the OP about your original post, that you assumed he should be excited about moving to the USVI. His reasons are different from yours.

"If you were to ask any of my wife's family who have lived on St. Thomas for generations how they feel about St. Thomas they would all agree that to them it is paradise."

Couldn't disagree more. Nobody I know (and that includes scores of Frenchies) would come up with that. It's home and it works and there are most certainly moments of jaw-dropping awe at the beauty of it. But "paradise"? Nobody gets that carried away other than some newcomers for the first few months or so!

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Definately rent something 4-6 weeks temporarily while looking for something more permanent . This will give you time to get the feel of different areas and what will work best for your situation. This is what I did when I first arrived.
Give yourself about 3 months to acclimate to your surroundings and culture.
Make the best of it and enjoy!!!!

I agree that the person took your words wrong. Truthfully, I dont see what single negative was in your words. I am also from chicago. And youre right, when you go to another man's land, you have to understand YOU have to change your mentality As far as it being Paradise, it most certainly is, just like a man born in mexico dreams of the usa...It is what our personal needs are, if a land is paradise or not. If you lived in an area that was very rough, like chicago, then the slowed down south, is paradise. the man living in the slowed south feels that their lives are being shortened, and opportunities are low, and chicago is better. See what I mean. I feel like this...accept manna. if you dont know what I mean, then ask a jehovahs witness.

Pass!