Hello this is Jack from tofluency.com.
Welcome to this english lesson where I'm
going to tell the story about the time
we nearly moved to New York. And be sure
to click the link in the description
that will take you to the lesson notes
there are going to be new words and
phrases, grammar explanations, and a
couple of extra bonuses too, so, the link
to that is in the description. In
September 2010, my wife and I moved in
with my parents in France, so, we had just
been in Spain; we just spent a couple of
years teaching and living in Spain - I had
just got my visa for America and we had
about two or three months before our
flight to the US, so, we decided to move
in with my parents and just to take it easy
for a while. Our plan was to move to New
York City early in the new year so I was
going to get a job in a language school
or try to find a job in a language
school my wife was going to go back to
school and to get her teaching
certificate. We started researching the
different areas of New York and thinking
about where we were going to live and we
decided that Brooklyn was going to be
the place for us. But before that we had
two or three months in France and my
parents live in this really quiet
village and there's hardly anything
going on. I think there's one bar in the
village which isn't there anymore and it
didn't ever seem to be open when we were
there. So, in terms of excitement it
wasn't that great but it was beautiful
and we actually enjoyed how quiet it was;
we enjoyed the peace and quiet
especially after living in Spain for two
years where everything seemed to be
really noisy. And one of our favorite
things to do during those two months was
to walk through this farm to a local
bakery - or in French the petisserie - and it was
on one of these walks when we started
doubt moving to New York; we started to
think that maybe this wasn't going to be
the best thing for us and before we had
made that decision; before we were set on
New York. we actually had a short list of
different places including
Portland in Oregon. Austin, Texas. And
Asheville, North Carolina. In fact.
Asheville was our number one choice for
a couple of years before we made the
change to New York. And we started to
weigh up our options again - we started to
think about whether New York or
Asheville would be the place for us. On
one hand, we had New York - the big city - it
was exciting, it was full of people, there
was so much to do there and for me, it's
probably one of the best cities in the
world. On the other hand, we had Asheville
which is a small town but based around
outdoor adventures and community. And a
couple of weeks before we were about to
move to New York we went on another one
of these walks and I remember when we
decided that Asheville was going to be
the place for us - we just felt like we
wanted to move to a smaller city - a place
where we could put down roots - a place
where we could afford housing; a place
where we wanted to start a family. So, we
took the flight to America, spent a few
days with my wife's family, packed the
car full of everything we had, including
our dog, and we drove down to Asheville.
And that was over six years ago now and
we just feel like we made the best
decision - we love it here. We love
everything about Asheville and we've
really created a good community - we've
really made some great friends. But
from time to time, I think about how
life would be different if we had moved
to New York and it's just funny to think
about this; about how you make a decision
and how your life changes because of
that decision and to think about what
would be different if you had made a
different decision instead. And it made
me realize that there's no perfect place,
you know, if you move to the country it's
peaceful; it's quiet but you don't have
that excitement of a city, whereas, if you
move to a big city you have that
excitement but it's really noisy. And
with all this in mind, I've got a
question for you: if you could move
anywhere in the world, where would you
move to and why? Which city or which town
which area would you choose
and why? I'm really looking forward to
reading your comments so please leave
one below and then once you leave a
comment, click over here. That will give
you access to the lesson notes - the
grammar and the vocabulary that I used
in this lesson and you can also get my
book for free too. So, thank you for
watching this lesson, I hope it has given
you some good listening practice and if
it has, then please like and share this
video. Thanks for watching - see you in the
next lesson