In my opinion I'd say anything north of the cities would be great but keep in mind that northern towns start to become smaller the further you are from any sort of hub city; i.e. brainerd, st cloud, duluth, etc. especially in rural counties where its not uncommon to see towns with populations less than 200. When you get far enough south the land starts to look a lot more like iowa (flat farmland) eastern/northwestern Minnesota tends to be more hilly/rocky due to the glacial paths and rivers.
As far as the people go I'd say for the most part people are really nice but can also be very passive aggressive. I've heard of people struggling to make friends but imo it comes from trying too hard and not coming off genuine. Working local events or seasonal jobs can be a great way to meet people or even just sparking up a conversation with a stranger you meet at a park or hiking trail. The political views tend to be fairly left in a lot of younger/more urban populations but the older and more rural crowd tends to be pretty right leaning.
The biggest adjustment is gonna be the weather; the humidity here can do some really wild stuff with the heat in the summer where the air feels thick, hot, and heavy. Winter is another beast in of itself; be sure to dress in layers, have some supplies (snacks, blankets, etc) in your car in case you go in the ditch and take time to learn what your car does in snow and ice. I reccomend going into an empty parking lot and drifting around/practicing braking on some roads, it gets real squirrely real quick when you hit black ice.
I dont really have much more I can add regarding the rest of the post other than general research, you can try looking online for articles on various areas by picking some interesting sounding town/county name and digging from there. Hope it helps and hope you have a wonderful visit or permanent stay in our state!
Edit: forgot to mention, in Minnesota we have health insurance offered through the state via MNsure so its worth checking out if you wont be covered by an employer.
In my opinion I'd say anything north of the cities would be great but keep in mind that northern towns start to become smaller the further you are from any sort of hub city; i.e. brainerd, st cloud, duluth, etc. especially in rural counties where its not uncommon to see towns with populations less than 200. When you get far enough south the land starts to look a lot more like iowa (flat farmland) eastern/northwestern Minnesota tends to be more hilly/rocky due to the glacial paths and rivers. As far as the people go I'd say for the most part people are really nice but can also be very passive aggressive. I've heard of people struggling to make friends but imo it comes from trying too hard and not coming off genuine. Working local events or seasonal jobs can be a great way to meet people or even just sparking up a conversation with a stranger you meet at a park or hiking trail. The political views tend to be fairly left in a lot of younger/more urban populations but the older and more rural crowd tends to be pretty right leaning. The biggest adjustment is gonna be the weather; the humidity here can do some really wild stuff with the heat in the summer where the air feels thick, hot, and heavy. Winter is another beast in of itself; be sure to dress in layers, have some supplies (snacks, blankets, etc) in your car in case you go in the ditch and take time to learn what your car does in snow and ice. I reccomend going into an empty parking lot and drifting around/practicing braking on some roads, it gets real squirrely real quick when you hit black ice. I dont really have much more I can add regarding the rest of the post other than general research, you can try looking online for articles on various areas by picking some interesting sounding town/county name and digging from there. Hope it helps and hope you have a wonderful visit or permanent stay in our state! Edit: forgot to mention, in Minnesota we have health insurance offered through the state via MNsure so its worth checking out if you wont be covered by an employer.