"What would make you want to move nearly 4,000 miles across the globe?" It's a big question, but one North Carolina woman, Alex Essary and her husband, are currently seriously pondering. And why, of all places, make that move to the little Isle of Man. "Hi, it's Siobhan, one of the journalists up at Manx Radio, and welcome to the latest edition of our newscast. So, I guess first of all, could you introduce yourself for me, so just you saw your full name and whereabouts you're based over in the States?" "Absolutely, so my name is Alex Essary, and I live in Asheville, North Carolina, which for those of you who might not be familiar is kind of like the southeast part of the United States, and we're in the mountains, and it's a beautiful area." "Perfect, and we'll get into this in a second, but you're actually debating moving here to the Isle of Man, which, speaking to you from the Isle of Man, it's also a beautiful part of the world. But first of all, what's prompting that move for you?" "Absolutely, so that's such a good question, it's such a big one. So it really started a couple of years ago when our closest years friends moved to Germany, and they really just had this sense of peace and this loss of anxiety and stress that we sort of live with constantly as Americans, and they really have been encouraging us like, "Why don't you come over, you need to leave, it's going to be so much better for you, just like, get out, and I told them, happy to come visit you in Germany, we went and saw them last Christmas into the Christmas markets with them, which was lovely, but I don't want to move somewhere that speaks German, it's a different language, right? So I started Googling and looking into like, "Okay, well what are my options?" And then this, you know, wonderful country in the middle of the Irish Sea popped up and I'm like, "I don't even know where that is." And, you know, kind of from there, I just kept reading more and following things on social media and joining the different Isle of Man Facebook groups. And then, along with our friends that live in Germany, all four of us went and visited your beautiful country this past April, and it was just so lovely, so beautiful, and the people were so incredibly welcoming and kind, and it just really opened up our eyes to like, what the possibilities could be. I guess I find that really interesting that you knew nothing about the Isle of Man when you first left us up, like, because I was sort of expecting you to go, "Yeah, we're really big fans of the TT." No, I know, most people, like when we came over in April, you know, we had people coming up to us in the pubs and asking, "Well, this isn't the TT, why are you here?" Because, you know, they heard our accent and I'm like, "Nope, it's our first time. We love it so far. You know, what should we see? What should we do? We're so happy to be here." So, you were saying that you're sort of living with a lot of anxiety over in the U.S. Did you expect this year's election to go the way it went? Were you expecting maybe Harris to win instead? You know, what was your reaction this week, I suppose, with the election? Yeah, with the election, I'm not surprised that it went the way it did, but I am disappointed and honestly, to be perfectly frank, rather disgusted. It's scary, as an American, with, you know, friends in the LGBTQ population, people of color, people who look different, and with the election going, the way it did, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of anxiety, you know, having friends reach out and messaging each other yesterday being like, "Hey, are you physically safe? Are you okay?" And then our options as women with this news is basically like, "Well, you can either take some self-defense classes, you can arm yourself, or you can leave the country." And just having that as a reality of our day-to-day of like, "Okay, are we safe? Is this okay?" It's a lot, it's a lot. Yeah, obviously, you spent change your base style in North Carolina, which obviously went overall Republican as well. And I suppose in the context, I mean, of it being kind of a southern state as well. I mean, some of the stuff you said, those, you know, people may react to, you know, the idea that you feel so unsafe, that that's a dramatic response, is that, you know, that's the reality you're actually living with there in the sort of deep south. It is. I'm in Asheville. It's really an unusual situation, an unusual culture that we kind of, you know, with this blue, very liberal, very Democrat city, but we are surrounded by more rural, more Republican-leaning communities. So when we're in, you know, when we're in Asheville, generally speaking, it's a very welcoming environment, but then you drive 30, 45 minutes out in your scene, Confederate flags, which for Americans, that's kind of a symbol of white supremacy, and, you know, violence towards people of color. So it is, it is absolutely a part of my, part of my life. And also, you know, you mentioned you've been in the path of a couple of major weather events as well recently. So, you know, I mean, how, how did you, in those instances? Yeah, thank you so much for asking. Yeah, so I think we're on week seven, I want to say seven weeks ago, we were hit by Hurricane Helene, which is a lot, like it's been kind of a one-two punch over the last, the last month. And, you know, I'm still living without water. I'm really fortunate that I have power and that my home was on higher ground. So I had some flooding in my basement, but I didn't lose my house. My house didn't get washed away. But yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm still without water. I'm, you know, I'm, which is, it's like the little things, like, how much water does it take to make mashed potatoes, right? Like, it's like the little things every day. I mean, you say the little things, but I mean, I think everyone can agree. It's quite, quite major to be living without running water. You know, in what is kind of a, you know, a first world country quote unquote. I mean, has the sort of state response, federal response been, been okay for you where you are? Are you relatively doing okay in comparison to other parts of the state? I would say that Asheville is bouncing back quicker than the some of the surrounding smaller towns that are still kind of living in devastation. I don't know, I think even Americans, you know, I was talking to someone yesterday on a work call and, you know, she was chatting and asking how things were going. And I was kind of laughing and saying, well, I haven't taken a shower in four days. And she's like, well, why? And I'm like, well, we still don't have water. So I think even the rest of the country doesn't really understand that we're still living in this, this place of crisis on this kind of this daily, like, you know, how do we, how do we goodbye? How do we, you know, wash our dishes? How do we cook our food? Because because of this situation. So having the news, you know, the election going the way it did kind of felt like this, like, okay, one, two punch. Here we go. Let's think about the island man again. Yeah, I mean, I guess it's interesting as well. You talk of that. I mean, I work in news, obviously, and but the news cycle just moves on so quickly. And you kind of don't, you know, I think in the wider range of things, people maybe lose sight of the fact that this was devastating hurricane that went all the way across, you know, the South of America and the South America as well. And then it moved very quickly onto the election cycle. But that's the reality people are still living with, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. So, so okay, then jumping back to the Isle of Man then, which I honestly fascinates me that you'd never even heard of the TT, which I know you said that people here were telling you that why are you here, especially in April? Yeah, did you hit bad weather when you were over? I'm trying to remember what it was like in April. Yeah, we were here, we were actually on the island during, oh, what was it called storm Kathleen, I think. So, right, so probably a different experience of a storm to what you've then had later. Yeah, it's been an interesting year in terms of weather for me, that's for sure. But I mean, being there in April, like even with the weather and the wind being particularly ferocious, I mean, we just, we really loved our time there. We, I remember sitting on the beach at on peel and just feeling this like sense of calm and sense of peace and being like, wow, like I feel like I can really like breathe, you know, for the first time in a really, really long time. So, that's kind of, you know, when we started thinking about like, okay, what would this look like? Is this, is this a possibility for us to, to, you know, choose a life of peace and tranquility, even knowing that weather can be an interesting part of your life as well. Yeah. And I, I saw, I saw as well the comments wise on your post, a lot of people were telling, you know, some of the things that we tackle with here, you know, health spending a lot of things that have been kind of top of the radar on the Isle of Man. But maybe in comparison to some of the things you're dealing with, it wouldn't even be on the same scale. So I suppose, have you, have you sort of started looking into making that move then and making it a reality? We have, we know that it's going to be, I mean, there are lots of things up in the air, right? Like it's not something we can just snap our fingers and make happen. I think in a lot of ways, it's in the hands of, of God and the, the immigration board over, over there. So if you're listening, please consider letting us come on over. It's really interesting. I think seeing the outside perspective of someone who wants to, to move here, because like I say, people have various complaints about different elements on the island, but actually from an outside perspective, it being so appealing is, is, is really interesting. I think one thing that really hit me yesterday as well is kind of adding on to why Alanana so special is, you know, I posted that on Facebook. And I think this morning I checked and I had 130 responses. And then I had, I think maybe like five or six people reach out to me via track messages, just offering their, their help. You know, I had a gentleman reach out to me via a track message basically saying, I can't help you with the job and with the visa. But once you get over here, I'll take you out to dinner. Like that's not something that would happen in the United States. Like that's not the kind of community and just over, you know, open arms attitude. So I'm, I'm really grateful and I just want to say thank you to everyone who's been so, so kind and welcoming. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manx Radio Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manx Radio podcasts at your favorite podcast provider. So our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
