General Chat / Floridians: Give me your unfiltered opinions!

  • Sephiroth%s's Photo

    Hey NE, it seems there's a decent number of people here who live in, have lived in, or may have other experiences related to living in Florida. My girlfriend of just over a year (who hopefully is my fiance in the next few years) has always wanted to move there, and honestly it sounds like a fun, new, and exciting adventure to me. I'm here asking for advice, as you may have guessed!

     

    First, some background. We're both from Minnesota (basically southern Canada for those unfamiliar), and have lived there all of our lives. I have a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering, a year of experience at a consulting firm, and a few technical certifications through the Minnesota Department of Transportation that relate to road construction and materials inspection. I also know a bit of C++, VBA, some Java, a tad of Python, and a bit of MATLAB (basically I'm also an amatur programmer haha, thinking of picking up SQL and a few others soon). Funnily enough I'm writing code at work for some internal budget and scheduling upgrades and loving it. She is a few years out of high school considering college or university level education in a number of fields, but is really overwhelmed by choice at the moment haha. But she loves heat, ocean, palm trees, and summer! She also has some relatives down there.

     

    So my thoughts are, I would like to think I'm fairly transportable career-wise, and might even have a shot at switching from civil engineering to computer programming to find work if need be. She has her whole life ahead of her and isn't tied down to MN by any means. I'm looking at the possibility of us moving down in the next 1 to 5 years and thinking we could make this work, which is exciting.

     

    Which brings me to the question: what are your thoughts and experiences? I am really clueless when it comes to Florida, I've only ever really been to Disney a few times (once in 1999 and once this year), so any advice is much appreciated! Being close to something like 4 major parks (If I'm counting correctly) is definitely appealing, and not having to deal with -50 F windchill (or air temp sometimes) during the winter would be a dream come true.

     

    Don't hold back, let me know! Feel free to discuss. Looking forward to what you guys have to say. ;)

  • ][ntamin22%s's Photo

    Not a native but have spent a bit down there; orlando, naples, miami.

    Obviously you know this better than I do, but the civil engineering challenges faced by a tropical/subtropical climate with a water table of "who needs cars when you have fanboats" are substantially different than "who needs cars when you have snowmobiles."

    - florida is The South
    - no really you're from minnesota I hope you know what you're getting into sociopolitically

    - the more north you go the more south it gets (meaning, essentially, redneck.)
    - on the plus side if you enjoy any number of lake- or mosquito-based activities you are moving from strength to strength
    - you pay for not having to deal with winters by having to deal with summers; expect daily 3oclock thundershowers and temps well into triple digits with 100% humidity.
    - you pay for having mild winters by dealing with tourists
    - not that the tourists are the worst anyway driving is pretty miserable since the state is so damn tall and heavily overpopulated by the aging and all forms of oversized lifted truck
    - suburbs tend to be a little more heavily segmented than other states/regions based on who's WASPy enough to afford the good houses/districts, seasonal condo types aren't as invested in community success or schools, and black/hispanic population gets priced out.  
    - angry cubans
    - florida invented the stand your ground law
    - north florida ranchers with an inferiority complex and something to prove
    - boats
    - oranges are so cheap bro
    - so cheap
    - 10lbs for a dollar
    - not that you need to buy them because you can just plant a tree yourself and lounge on a couch-sized pile of rotting citrus
    - 100% of everyone you ever know will think you can somehow get them into Disney
    - beachfront property is still expensive even when the entire state is beach
    - which it isn't really it mostly swamp
    - except the ranches
    - did I mention the rednecks
    - VOLUSIA SPEEDWAY WORLD OF OUTLAWS DIRT RACK SPRINT CAR RACING
    - NASCAR 
    - GATOR NUGGETS
    - SO MANY DRUNK PEOPLE AT COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES AND/OR THE ENTIRE CITY OF MIAMI
    - HELL HALF OF ORLANDO TOO
    - everything smells like sweat and damp undergrowth 100% of the time
    - year-round swimming pool fun
    - tl;dr 6/10 probably better than most of the south

  • Maxwell%s's Photo

    Hmm... not really sure where to start, but being born and raised a Floridian myself I can certainly attest to the heat, ocean, palm trees, and summer haha! Since living here in Orlando for about a year and a half now I can say that it is a lot different here than what it is like back home in north Florida, but it's not nearly as interesting, so I'll just talk about Orlando instead lol.

     

    As for being near the water, since Orlando is inland and being about an hour drive from the Atlantic side (and a bit more than that to reach the Gulf side), you'll have to do a fair bit of driving to get to the beaches, but there are plenty of lakes all around central Florida that are great to visit as well.

     

    For your entertainment needs it's obviously great having all the parks located within a ~20-30 minute drive from one another, not to mention all of the other great attractions that line International-Drive as well. You'll have no problem at all finding fun things to do, and I'm sure your girlfriend would feel the same, especially with the vast variety of shopping options...

     

    I guess that's all I have to say for now, if you have anymore questions feel free to ask as I'd be more than happy to answer them as I'm sure some of my fellow Floridians on the site would as well. I'll finish by giving you one more piece of advice. If you do decide to move here I would be prepared to sweat a lot, wait in long lines a lot, and to have to deal with questionable people a lot. More often than not, you'll have to endure all three at the same time, but hey it's all a part of the experience living here. :D

     

    EDIT: ][ summed it up pretty well lmao.

  • Coasterbill%s's Photo
    ][ that post was god damn amazing
  • Steve%s's Photo
    Basically, what Intamin said. However, going anywhere from Minnesota seems like an improvement to me. I would say go for it.
  • FredD%s's Photo

    However, going anywhere from Minnesota seems like an improvement to me.  
     

     

    Why that? I loved Minnesota :p  And Wisconsin too!

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    Wisconsin is pretty awesome. Shame cBass retired
  • Louis!%s's Photo
    Can anyone in Florida hook me me up with a place to stay when Britian leaves the EU? I'll settle for Texas or Cali too
  • Faas%s's Photo

    Come to Utrecht. 

  • Jappy%s's Photo

    If Britain leaves the EU, can you move to Cuba? You can send me cigarres and rhum that way :p

  • csw%s's Photo

    As someone whose experience in Florida has only been as a tourist, I find it a bit too touristy for my tastes. And hot. It gets hot enough in Indiana, why go farther south?!

  • nin%s's Photo

    It's very touristy in places but doesn't have to be if you know where to go. I lived ~7 minutes from Magic Kingdom for a year so I was stuck in the heat of it and got tired of the lack of "real" culture given that my surroundings were all facades (literally), but there's also something special about it that brings me back. The people are generally incredibly nice and social, and the mix of cultures from all over certainly does keep it interesting. I'm sure it's a little different living elsewhere (I hear Clearwater is nice), but again I go back whenever I have the chance.

     

    I hail from Atlanta but for sure am considering Florida as a possible future place of residency. I'm used to the South and how people act and think, so living in Orlando was a breathe of fresh air. More rural Florida is much like rural Georgia, just with oranges and airboats instead of pine trees and cows. I just missed hills, really. When Expedition Everest is one of the highest points in the entire state, you live in a pretty flat state.

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