New Jersey and The Roland Effect

Moving to New Jersey has obviously had devastating effects. Our arrival coincided with The Garden State losing it's place as richest U.S. State.

Back in 2005, the median household income of New Jersey was higher than any of the other fifty states, but Tina and my arrival apparently nudged that average down. Now we've been overtaken by Maryland, where the median household income is $65,144 a year (674 dollars more than in New Jersey.)

It highlights an interesting disparity in American lives. If you live in Mississippi, the median household income is a mere $34,473 - almost half what it is up here in the Tri-State.

It's another reminder that America is a big place - and the fifty individual states are very much like their own countries, with customs, traditions and economies all of their own. Life in Mississippi must be more affordable than in New Jersey, because it would be tough to support a household on just $35,000 here in New Brunswick.

That being said, I am constantly reminding myself about The American Experience as compared to life back in blighty. In the UK, Tina and I had reasonable incomes and jobs and we barely scraped by. Every single month, we'd see more money trickle out of our bank account than came in. Here in America, even with the poorly paid temp jobs we'd been working while we got settled in, our bank account remained fairly healthy.

It's cheaper to live in America, plain and simple. Despite all the cars and the roads and the apparent crime (luckily we haven't encountered any so far) the quality of life in America is clearly better because two working people can afford to live here. In England, despite never going out, never spending money unnecessarily, we couldn't. We were teetering on the edge of a big black hole and thank goodness we left when we did - before it swallowed us whole.

A lot of fuss is made about the plight of the working Joe in the USA. From my own experiences, I have come to realise that the situation's far worse in England. It's the people who can afford it least who get squeezed the most and the gap between rich and poor is getting more and more insurmountable every day.

Here in America, there's the American Dream. Whether that's riches and glory - or just a white picket fence and a Bengal leopard cat - you get far more opportunity to achieve your dreams in America than you do back home.

Richest and Poorest states of the Union

Updated States of America

Tina and I are doing well over here.

The rainy weather vanished and was replaced by blazing sun and temperatures comfortably in the eighties. New Jersey had never looked prettier, with the crop fields shimmering in the heat and the trees beautifully green.

Yesterday gave the illusion of progress, but in fact Tina and I didn't get that much accomplished. We saw our new apartment, which is in the middle of being gutted and won't be ready for another week or so. It's a lovely little redbrick townhouse opposite a school. The bricks themselves were carted over from New York City at the turn of the 20th century to make this house and the one next to it. With it's slate roof and brick walls, it looks very different from the traditional wooden and Cape Cod houses New Jersey is more famous for.

The apartment is in a quiet residential cul de sac opposite a school. It's a few miles away from the city of New Brunswick, which is delightful.

New Brunswick is actually quite a big place. With lots of modern buildings amongst the old ones, neat little bars and a pretty theatre district, it reminded me a bit of downtown Montreal. I think it's a really nice place to live near and seemed safe and clean (although the News 12 Team reported a cop getting shot there last night.)

Aside from getting to know our surroundings, however, Tina and I were foiled in our attempts to get Driver's Licences and mobile phones... That's today's plan - and involves a trip to slightly less glamorous Staten Island, New York.

One good bit of news is that I have a job interview tomorrow and my brother in law has used his contacts to get my resume in front of some advertising agencies in Manhattan.

Watch this space!

Being back in America is great, if a little disorientating. I can't get over just how many cars there are here. There are cars everywhere. You drive past houses with four, five... six cars parked in the driveway. Considering the speed limit on New Jersey's twisty little roads is a conservative 35 mph, you don't drive so much as shuffle along like a trail of gigantic metal ants.

With brand new babies in their homes, both sets of in laws are very protective and insist on us using anti-bacterial hand lotion and showering before we're near the babies. It's a bit different to how things are in England, when you'll often see women carrying their week old bairns through the supermarkets. Tina and I are being very observant of the rules, though. Perhaps we Brits might think the antiseptic routine is a little excessive, but look what all our clever little European bacteria did to the Native Americans when Columbus washed up on their shores.

They're very small little details, but they serve as a constant reminder than I'm not in Kansas any more. But to be honest? Right now, I couldn't be happier.

More news as and when it happens.