Visit the Netherlands

I have always had an interest in learning or living in another country, but it sort of drifted away as a distant dream – but lately I’ve been day dreaming about it more, perhaps also thinking of it more seriously.
My friend Damion moved to Holland this past Fall (2006) and he loves living in the Netherlands. When he visited the U.S in January, he said he could picture me living there and thinks I would love the lifestyle. He urged me to visit. Also, the Dutch have the need for environmental engineers. When I used to spend time with Damion, he said I reminded him of someone living in France. During that time, I was spending a lot of time around my grandfather, who was born and raised in France, so his influence was rubbing off on me.
January 2007, I visited with an old friend who was in town from Japan. I had grown up in the same town as him in the U.S. and we had gone to the same college but he was awarded a scholarship to Japan and moved away in Winter 2001. He stayed there, and now is attending business school in Japan, and has little intention of moving back to the U.S. Talking to him again and hearing about the culture differences, and his experiences caused me to wonder whether I would also benefit from such an experience.
After the Quality of Life survey came out this past year, I noticed that the majority of the top ten countries with a high quality of life were almost all European, and #1 Ireland. Surprisingly (to me) Iceland had a high quality of life. (They also operate on geothermal energy) I looked online at the newspaper in Iceland and only about 300,000 people live there. It read almost like a small island community newspaper off the coast of North Carolina, rather than a newspaper produced and distributed to a country.
Regarding Ireland: I have a cousin from Bham, Alabama who married a beautiful woman born and raised in Ireland – and they now have 3 young children they are raising together in Ireland. I think he is pretty happy, but because of the distance, he rarely visits. until he moved to Ireland in his early 30’s, he had never really lived anywhere other than Birmingham, Alabama. Stories like that can make me wonder…would that be something I would or could do?