Hello, I'm new here :)

Thanks, yeah, I should clarify, I left South Africa when I was 6, and I semi-returned when I was 13, staying for only 1 or 2 months per year since then (I am in my early 30s now). My stepfather/adopted father had Canadian citizenship and passed it on to me.

After 6, I grew up in Canada and the US, and also Australia and some other countries (we travelled often), and South Africa again from 13. Canadian citizenship allows me to stay for up to 6 months in the US without a visa. Though if I stay for more than 4 months, I would be considered a "tax resident" by the IRS and they would want me to declare and pay taxes on all of my worldwide income, which would be a new nightmare for me. No thanks!
I also avoid being a tax resident of Canada. So I am a perpetual expatriate.

Since age 6 I am living in the US for 4 months of the year: 3 months in CA and HI, the rest in various red states, which are so much more fun! I was locked out of the US from 2020-23 though as an unvaccinated foreigner.
I am in Idaho too for a few days of the year since 2016, in the Sun Valley area, usually in early fall before it snows.
One of my childhood friends had a vacation house there too, I was there a few times a s

I spend more time in the US despite being a nonresident than in Canada or South Africa.
I grew up more in the US than any other place and I have many American friends.
My dad trained me with firearms in the US and Canada from an early age.

I buy and sell property in the US as a nonresident alien, and I also inherited businesses from my parents & grandparents,
they had a presence in the US since the 1940s post-WW2.
They were also gun collectors for many generations, so I inherited many firearms.
I buy and sell new guns in the US too! Not in California though.
I have a hunting licence for a few states, though I have never hunted.
In places like California, where I am most of the time unfortunately,
I have a stash of legal unregistered firearms from the 1980s and earlier.
Mostly handguns, the "assault rifles" were moved out of state.

My American friends who are in the real estate business with me also buy many firearms, some have FFLs and we all buy from them, others have tax stamps for suppressors and SBRs, so we have access to a lot.
I'm the one with the older unregistered guns though

 

Ah! I see. So, you actually already knew about American gun laws. Sorry to put you through that. LOL! I was an expat myself for most of my adult life, had to stay out of the US to continue to get a huge tax exemption. I could spend only 35 days a year stateside which wasn't a problem as have no family or ties here. I didn't pay State taxes as grew up in Washington State which has no state tax so between this and the federal exemption, I got to keep most of my money; nevertheless, not all of it as the good old IRS always got taxes out of me, never was totally exempt. Anyway, about 40 years overseas, lots of different countries and cultures, so I do understand the juggling act about visas, taxes, etc. LOL! Oh, yes!

So, basically you and your family are out of South Africa and that is good. I'm curious, do you speak Afrikaans? I asked because I spent about 6 years in the Netherlands, learned some Dutch (basically to flirt with the girls) and found that it was close enough that I could understand a bit Afrikaans. My buddy, a refugee from Rhodesia (now Zambia/Zimbabwe) but was South African, spoke it, usually when he was frustrated playing darts against the Brits there. Anyway, just curious, do you speak it or remember a bit of it?

While I don't remember much Dutch, every once in a while, a word will pop into my head for some odd reason, something will stir a memory and bring it out. The same with my German; however, I really wasn't ever interested in learning German, not sure why. My Russian is still good but losing it too...

 

Wow, 40 years of travel is a LOT! I'm not there yet.
I have been to maybe 40 countries, many of the same ones every year;
I have heard of some kids who have already been to 100!

Yeah Afrikaans is my native language, but my parents have taught me only in English since age 6,
and I have not used it since then, so I mostly forgot it, and I have the proficiency of a child anyway.
Dutch people say that I sound funny when I speak in Afrikaans!
I was in the Netherlands too a few times for a few months, only in crazy Amsterdam for business and it did not work out.
I would love to make some Dutch friends, I encounter Dutch people often enough in Europe.

Anyway, I will always feel attached to home, but my parents raised me as a non-ethnic "citizen of the world",
product of the 90s I guess, but I also totally respect patriots who stay home and know their land well.

There is no perfect place on earth, and the US is definitely not the safest or cleanest/sharpest overall,

but the US is certainly the freest! And also very very convenient for the consumer.

And also a great place to make money and self-actualise and reach one's full potential, if one is mentally equipped to do so.

The US is also the most fascinating country for me and I love exploring!

 

Yes, I have very fond memories of my time in the Netherlands. I think it changed me greatly living there as a young man and I have carried those changes throughout my life. I used to go to Amsterdam now and then (The Melkweg, The Paradiso) but mostly stayed around Den Hague and Rotterdam. I admit still have a soft spot for the Dutch people. It always amazed me how many languages the simple Dutchman could speak. I remember I was dating a nurse who spoke four languages fluently and was learning Farsi! Then, there was me, who could barely speak English. LOL!

Nice to hear such kind words about the US and, more so, coming from a foreigner. Yes, the US has its good points and bad points, but I think it's about the best place overall, and I can say that having lived and worked a lot of different countries and visited a lot more. I also believe that it will get even better now with the Trump administration if Congress gets off their butts and supports him with necessary legislative changes if not...well, we won't be the first country to fail due to economics.

 

Bump! glade we joined

 

Oh, you went to the clubs, I visited all the sites as a tourist. I loved the urban landscape, walking a LOT. The museums are great too, especially Stedelijk, it has my favourite stuff: furniture, design, early 20th-century abstract/avant-garde/graphic art. I had a lot of problems with weirdos in public though.

The 1st time, I stayed in the suburbs, in a house on one of the new artificial islands and I went swimming in the IJmeer too! (in Afrikaans, we use y instead of ij, s instead of z, k instead of c. The language is simplified for communicating with Africans, and also more old-fashioned and pure, with no borrowed words from other languages). The 2nd time, I stayed in the city, next to one of the canals near the Anne Frank house (I lived without a car that time, walking everywhere and taking public transport like a European; I don't know how to ride a bicycle). The 3rd time, fall before Covid, I stayed in a high-rise condo on the Nordzeekanal. About 3 months total. I would love to go back and explore more of the country some day

I love this video, so true, including about Afrikaners, the Dutch are "so rude"

 

Oh, yes! I went to the clubs but also all the tourist spots (to include Anne Frank's house) and museums too. Being a history nut, I think the Rijksmuseum was my favorite and, of course, the Van Gogh Museum. I saw my first Vermeer there (or was it the Rijksmuseum, can't remember), the Milkmaid, and still am stunned by it, still seemed impossible someone could paint with so much detail. I remember one museum in Den Haag, can't remember name or which one that actually had a complete hull of an old ship, like an old Viking ship. The joke was that the Dutch didn't know how to build roofs at that time, so they built a ship and flip it over for a house.

I think what I remember most was how you could go anywhere in that country on a bicycle or moped as there were bicycle paths/trails everywhere - well - they weren't really trails, they were actual paved roads and where they stopped there was a lane for bikes among the normal traffic.

I would like to take the wife back there to see the tulip fields someday as she is a gardening fanatic. If my memory is correct, they bloom in late April but one only has a small window before they are harvested for the perfume industry.

I lived in a very small village called Hoek Van Holland. Loved it. Fresh baked bread in the morning from the bakery with some fresh Gouda made a perfect breakfast and I had a rack of beer (Heineken of course!) delivered to the flat every week, like the milkman in the old days here. I never really got use to those small beers they use to serve though...wonder if they still do?

Because there were so many Brits in my area, around Rotterdam, (welders, etc. working to build the North Sea oil platforms) many places catered to them and served pints. However, normally, you would order a beer and get these small glasses with 2 fingers of foam that insure it was fresh but was only about 2 swallows and it was gone! LOL! How all the houses had loads of house plants in the windows.

Yeah, really good times, really good memories.