Airport tears followed frantic packing, selling and disposing of what felt like our lives 100 days ago. Alongside a meaningful number of our contemporaries, we were off. And we have, now, hit 100 days of being resident in the USA.
It was a long lead-up to this point. The journey took over five years, and was fascinating and frustrating for us, but also for our friends and families. So much South African attention swirls around “living somewhere else”, that if you’re doing it, have done it or are contemplating doing it, you will be overcome with opinions, input and questions.
We had undertaken a number of recce trips leading up to moving to the US more permanently, but started the adventure in early 2024 with a five-week, 5,000-mile (8,000km) road trip to see parts of the country we hadn’t yet visited. We have now settled in booming south Florida. The US sunbelt is attracting masses of the country’s northerners with its good weather, beaches, lower taxes, “affordable” cost of living and Eastern time zone.
So, what has it been like? Well, firstly some of the expected stuff stands out: the place is huge. Really huge. The long road trip we did hardly scratched the surface: the US is almost three times larger than Europe. And most aspects of life are large too: museums, conferences, farmers’ markets, “sidewalks” and highways are all oversized compared to most of the world.
And – as a direct benefit of being the leading industrialised nation in the world I guess – most of these are also very, very good. The museums are vast, well-resourced and sparkly. The markets have 260 stalls, not 60. Highways are four lanes each way, and in a great state of repair.
South Africa feels both far away and quite small. But South Africans do box above their weight class here. One comes across them for sure, and they have, generally, achieved a good degree of success. They also seem quite well liked.
The US also has a distinct feeling of industriousness. Building, activity, humming and buzzing go on everywhere, almost all the time. Sometimes it’s roadworks, sometimes it’s an 80-storey skyscraper going up, sometimes it’s just large-scale leaf blowing. But there is a definite sense that things are getting done. In my South African microcosm, I worked hard and created things, but we were aware that outside of that, a lot of the “doing” had slowed to a trickle.
In the 1970s and 1980s in South Africa, we grew up surrounded by American TV and pop culture. And it’s been such fun to see that lots of those things are (still) exactly like in cheesy ’80s movies: yellow school buses, pepperoni pizzas, garbage disposals, the ubiquitous one dollar bill, highway patrol cops (CHiPS!), Pop-Tarts, yard signs. All still here!
Socially, we have found the people friendly. And unfriendly. Many of our friends have asked about this as if there is a blanket answer, but like everywhere else in the world, if you greet everyone you walk past, half will greet you back and half won’t. I’ve tried it, this is literally how it works.
On balance though, I would say this is a more transactional society. Especially for strangers or acquaintances: there is business to get done, and unless you are a close friend, it often feels like “the win comes first, the human second”. And of course, it all happens in different voices. Yes, they do pronounce things funny (read as not-that-correctly), and think that we are the ones who are wrong. “Are you British?” is common.
Money definitely feels centric. It’s discussed a lot, and almost everything is expensive. Certainly much more expensive than in South Africa. In my estimation, between 50% more and five times more. That is, with the peculiar exceptions of Apple and some other tech products, cheese, bottled water, some seafood, greeting cards, certain brand-name clothing and cars (which are now only a bit cheaper). Oddly.
And air? Yes, that is charged for … if you’re filling your “tires” at a “gas station”, you’ll pay around R40 to do so.
The scale of wealth is hard to fathom: homes in the $2-million to $10-million range are not at all uncommon. If you see a R190-million home in South Africa, it’s a full-on event, while here it’s just: “that’s nice”. The fact that aid of over $40-billion (roughly R760-billion) has been extended to Ukraine is a case in point.
Of course, it all spirals out to an insane level of national debt: a fact that everyone here works pretty hard to ignore.
A huge premium is placed on convenience. Because most people here work such long hours: anything that provides ease-of-use is sought after. Automatic this, that and the next. Oversized washing machines ensure that laundry doesn’t have to be done unnecessarily frequently. Disposable plates used at dinner reduce washing up. Trash chutes in condo buildings mean you toss it in, and don’t have to haul it down.
Healthcare is a problem. It’s exceptionally expensive (insurance, medication, doctors, everything) up to 10 times more than even private healthcare in SA … and, on balance, it doesn’t seem better. Many citizens have an ailment or six, and the barrage of TV ads touting remedies bear this out. This is a national concern, and it’s discussed a lot.
Food is everywhere. Sweet fare is very sweet, savoury stuff is very salty. Good food is easy enough to find if you are orientated with an area, but there is lots of less-than-good fare around.
Portions aren’t as over-sized as they once were, but they’re often large. South Africans are spoilt with above-average quality food offerings (groceries and restaurants) at lower-than-average (by global comparison) prices. But R70 ($3.60) cocktails and R35 ($1.80) coffees are a distant memory here. Enjoy them, my countrypeople!
Arts and culture are taken at least as seriously as in Europe: galleries, theatre, concerts, historic homes and heritage sites are properly funded and damn good. I have been more surprised by this than maybe I should have been.
Of course, sport is taken even more seriously: football, basketball, ice hockey. Massive. We got to attend a Super Bowl viewing party in early February hosted by a Kansas City Chiefs fan (the victors). It was epic, and you can feel that it is deeply ingrained in the culture. (Of course, the fact that American football is almost impossible for the layman to understand is beside the point.)
Nature and parks are a real thing: the US boasts more than 3,700 state parks and at least 400 national ones. Even the most avid explorer will only ever get to a tiny percentage of those. And it may be part of the reason that so many Americans never leave their own country. Plus, there are really spectacular beaches: as good as I’ve seen anywhere, including island paradise resorts.
But of course, it’s not paradise. It has problems and psychoses and crazies; just like anywhere else. And as a foreigner from an African country – getting by on “ZARs” initially – you’re definitely not at the top of any heaps.
But there is liberty, opportunity and really big burgers. So, the first 100 days have been exciting and exhilarating and confounding. And we look forward to settling in and flying the South African flag high 13,000km from home. DM