Opinion of fellow Slav
Dear Snowman3:
Being from a Slavic country and having spent 5 years in NJ I could not resist to add my opinion to this very interesting discussion.
I am not an IT person, however, my job required me to travel extensively around US, so I have been to many places named above by other people. I can tell you that NJ (at least North and West Jersey) is one of the best locations to live for the immigrants like us due to its cultural diversity. During my 5 years I never ever heard any kind of negative comments from Americans. I am sorry that you had negative experience and I urge you not to make your judgment based on some stupid kid\'s comment. I agree with you that non-materialistic values are more important than money, but it takes a lot of time and effort to make friends in a new country and it does not matter where you are. NJ for that matter is much better that other states, since there are a lot of immigrants here and people of NJ in general are much more open to other cultures. I took me about 4 years to establish some very small circle of friends (all of them are Americans) and I\'d rather stay in this area and try to survive with high real estate prices, then to move to a new place and start all over again with nobody to call and to go out with. Besides NJ is closer to Europe, so the flight times are much shorter (in case you get homesick...) Although, I have to agree with some of the above respondents and say that North Virginia and DC area are also very cool. There are a lot of opportunities there and DC is very cool city with a lot to do. But if you are looking for cultural experiences, freedom and open-mindness, what could be better than New York??? You won\'t find the same diversity anywhere in the US (especially for European person). San Francisco is very beautiful, but terribly expensive, Midwest is nice but rather conservative and boring (Scandinavian background plays certain role...), and there is absolutely nothing to do in the middle of the country. So, stick to the East Cost,buddy, maybe you just happened to be in a wrong neighborhood of NJ right now. Good luck!
Maroussia