The World's "Best" Place To Call Home?

As the inevitable end-of-April snow flakes whirl around outside the window of my 29th floor office, I ask myself again. Why do I live here?
I must sound like a broken record by now. But then again, we all do.
"I can't believe it out there."
"Please tell me I'm just seeing things?"
"Merry Christmas!"
There can only be so many jovial unpleasantries uttered before the laughter pitters out and we're silently asking ourselves: Why does anyone live here?
At this point, I'd happily uproot my life and relocate to a deserted island to hunt, fish, and be tan.
Okay, so the city I live in isn't THAT bad. We (thankfully) will never face tsunamis, hurricanes, or (hopefully) earthquakes. (For the record, I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada).
But who wants to settle for "not that bad"?
Lunch breaks are always full of new and exciting things to see; white collared robots ride up and down the Husky escalators like ducks in a row. They'll cheerfully don their cowboy hats and spurs for a week  mid-summer, before clearing the snow to the front door of their suburban cookie cutter home days later.
Of course nowhere is perfect. But me, I'm always searching for perfect, trying to prove it's existence like an imaginary friend to a descerning mother.

World's Richest Countries:

1.Norway

GDP per capita - $53 000

2.United States

GDP pc - $45 000

3. Ireland

GDP pc - $43 100

World's Poorest Countries:

1.Zimbabwe

GDP pc - $200

2.Congo Dem. Republic

GDP pc - $300

3. Liberia

GDP pc - $400

World's Most Expensive Cities:

1. Oslo, Norway

2. Paris, France

3.Copenhagen, Denmark

World's Cleanest Countries:

1.Finland

2.Norway

3.Sweden

World's Highest Life Expectancy:

1.Andora - 83.5

2.Macau - 82.4

3.Japan - 82.1

And last but not least, the

  World's Most Livable Countries:

1.Iceland

2.Norway

3.Australia

[Principles of Micro Economics, 6th edition. Source: CIA - World Factbook 2008.]

NO! "Ice" and "most livable" can't go together, not after all the ice I'm trying to escape from here!

There is some refuge to my despair, however.

World's Most Livable Cities:

1. Vienna, Austria

Vienna is noted first for its arts and cultural institutions like its famed opera house, parks and continental architecture that line the Danube. Skies are so sunny that international human resource consulting company Mercer ranks Vienna No. 1 for having the world's highest quality of life, and particularly notes the city's harmonious political and social environment (Forbes.com)


 2.Zurich, Switzerland
 

3.Geneva, Switzerland

4.Vancouver, Canada

My sister was lucky enough to move to Vancouver this month.
She has become an Art Director at Dare Digital, and although I'll miss her dearly, I am so happy for her!
She is living my the dream, working and living downtown in the beautiful city of Vancouver. I'll take a lot of rain over snow any day!

Do you love where you live?
Would you move if you could, or do you feel that you're where you belong now?
I guess the only way to find out, is to travel and see for yourself!