23yr old female moving to London

jidsudap

Living in Cork at the mo and am only out of colege a yearbut have been offered a 6 month placement in London thru work, kinda anxious about what to do, don't know a soul in over there. Wondering where the young irish "professionals" who shtill think they're students hang-out?!!!

Tchocky

You're moving to London to meet Irish people?

red_ice

your 23... irish .. a girl... and in london...

you wont have any problems.

Victor

http://www.boards.org.uk/

_Kaiser_

Tchocky wrote:

You're moving to London to meet Irish people?

I think she's more concerned about meeting other people that she would have something in common with from the get go before she accepts the job.

Tchocky

Ah I get that, but surely there's just as good a chance as finding them in London. Or even better, finding interesting people with whom you don't share interests. More fun

irishpartyboy

My sister (24) moved to London late 2006. She loves it over there, though she did know some people over there before she went. There's plenty of Irish over there if thats what your looking for.

At the end of the day its only a 6 month placement, its not permanent..so absolutely nothing to lose in my opinion.

the_syco

jidsudap wrote:

offered a 6 month placement in London thru work

If it were offered through work, I'm sure they have had people over there bfore, and thus someone in your company may know what places are best.

LegacyUser

jidsudap wrote:

Living in Cork at the mo and am only out of colege a yearbut have been offered a 6 month placement in London thru work, kinda anxious about what to do, don't know a soul in over there. Wondering where the young irish "professionals" who shtill think they're students hang-out?!!!

Guys did anyone actually read the post? The girl is clearly nervous about making the move to London. Let's face it, it's a big move if you're doing it alone. She's just looking for some advice on where to possibly meet some young Irish people with whom she may have things in common in order to help her settle in. Not sure telling her that shes a 23 year old girl and will be fine or find people with whom she doesn't have things in common helps!!

Anyway, I don't live in London myself but for what it's worth, a number of my friends have moved over in the last few years and the majority of them live and hang out in the Clapham area in South London. It seems to be a big area for yound Irish people and anytime I've been over I've found that it's pretty much like a home from home. If I was making the move I'd certainly move to Clapham. You'll probably find also, that there's likely to be plenty of yound Irish professionals in most of the large companies in London that you can get to know and hang out with...

carnival_joe

Oh, can I come?

Victor

Get a room - or else.

Canis Lupus

Hullo,

I moved over to London going on two years in August from next door in Kerry (was 24). Shat myself initially cos seriously, you're leaving everything behind and it's a major move. You're leaving the country (no longer 2 mins away from your friends and family) and for once you're totally on your own.

However jump on the chance is what I say. I've never looked back after leaving with the exception of missing the friends I made in college but I still see them often enough so it doesn't matter. I couldn't face moving back to Ireland now or in the near to mid term future.

London is an amazing city. It's so full of conficting and different things from culture to food to museums to the night life, oh god the night life, makes Irelands night scene feel like a 5yr olds birthday party and other things to do. You're never bored over here.

For worrying about where young Irish "professionals" hang out.... Chuckle.... One of the first things that will hit you about London is that it's huge, huge huge huge. There is no one place for anything like you find in Ireland. It's hard to grasp the size until you're here and you have your first night out in a different part of the city and it takes like 2 bus trips, walking and a taxi to get you home I mean, London itself has more people living in it than there are people in the whole of Ireland.

Anyway, don't be worried. Take a look at www.gumtree.com for places to flatshare unless your work is arranging accomodation. Take a look at where your job is based and as a rough map use the London tube map as a guide for finding where to rent close by. Once you're in a flatshre your flatmates become your social life. You'll spend your first week or too out on the piss with them getting to know them. They'll show you the ropes and you'll be introduced to their friends and you've got an instant friend base. You don't need Irish professionals who still think they are students but with enough searching about you'll bump into loads of Irish and Indians and Pakistanis and Australians and New Zealanders and South Africans and people from the West Indies etc etc.... Every once in a while you even meet an English person :P

Make sure you do the maths as well. If you're paid monthly you'll need enough to get you by for that long. You will have house bills along with council tax. If you plan on tubing it to work then factor in that as well. I don't use the tube so can't remember the costs but you can check it on the site. Never mind the rent over here is ghey.

Anyway, this post is a bit all over the place..... PM me if you have specific questions cos it's hard to post about moving to London as a general thing.

All I can say is make the move. I can't see how anyone wouldn't love it.

bogzilla

i did an 8 month student placement in london about 5 years ago.

in summary, it was absolutely brilliant and a great experience.

pros:

- loads of new people
- loads of new places to go out
- 24h city with a great buzz
- you can come home regularly [cheap] if required

negs:

- you're not in Cork

places i would recommend living are Fulham, Camden but it all depends where you'll be working i presume.

enjoy!

catherine22

Hi jidsudap, i have recently moved to London too and I dont really know anyone over here either, except a few family, but i hardly ever see them. Dont worry about meeting people, you will meet people through work, the peopke you live with, etc. If you want any advice or anything PM me and I can recommend a few sites to help to look for someone to live. Dont worry everything will work out, london really is a great city

Catherine

Red Alert

Camden, Cricklewood, Brent are all areas for Irish well used to be anyway. London is full of people though who are on their own and just moved there so I'd imagine it's not too hard. Let us know how you get on

jidsudap

Thanks for all the advice everyone! Going to be working in gunnersbury in chiswick, thats all I know at the moment! The company are paying for apartment and bills, the last guy who did something like this got a really nice 1-bedroom apartment....I have heard that really your flatmates will be your starting point of making friends, so if I'm in a one-bed on my own-e-o i feel like I might be stuck. Will def be up for joining clubs etc. i'll go crazy without a social life! I want to the most of it, and don;t wnat to be twiddling my thumbs every evening during the week, waiting for fri to come. The company are paying for 2-flights a month to come. I am in no way a home bird, and have done a good bit of travelling but always with a companion!

Mezcita

Chiswick is nice. You'll be laughing.

Civilian_Target

I moved to London last September (I'm an 23 year old student BTW) and I'm living in South Ealing, about a mile and a half from Chiswick. It's a nice place, albeit a bit quiet -- and I always remember it for its massive ENJOY WORK sign you can see from the tube on your way into town.

Either way, nice place, safe, beside the river so lots of nice, quiet bars and good links to the city centre by day and night so you can go into town and party. I haven't encountered many Irish, but they sell the Irish Times in my local newsagent so there must be a lot of us about! There's also plenty of things you can get involved in, pick up a copy of Time Out magazine and take a look.

One catch to London, everything is expensive, even more so than Dublin!

Feel free to PM!

Canis Lupus

Everything is more expensive but usually your wages reflect that cos Londoners get paid a chunk more money than people in the rest of the UK.

Chiswick is a lovely spot and I can see the problem if you're being chucked into a 1 bed flat but feck it, if it's only for 6 months you'll love it anyway or failing that use the 1 bed as a base and start looking for a short term flatshare cos altho I'd have no prob living on my own I appreciate it can be a balls for others and flatmates really do fill your time.

Apart from that tho there will be about a million and one things you can join or do over here so even if you do get put living on your own then with a small bit of work you can have loads of contacts. By the by, chiswick is next door to Hammersmith and the aforementioned Irish Centre. They do loads of classes on different things and a good few Irish people young and old go there. Maybe not a bad place to start if you're looking for someone Irish. I went there to brush up on my Irish and met a few decent people.

Civilian_Target

Canis Lupus wrote:

Everything is more expensive but usually your wages reflect that cos Londoners get paid a chunk more money than people in the rest of the UK.

Sadly I'm a student

Canis Lupus

Bloody students

Thaiking

Hey,

Moved to London myself 5 months ago..family recomended Chiswick and although I work in the city it's worth the 30-40 mins on the tube to be able to get away from the city. Luckily you won't have to do the whole commute thing but I would suggest not looking to live in Gunnersbury as parts of it although perfectly safe, are a bit run down..Not at all like the nearby Chiswick High Street and surrounding areas. You are really close to lovely places like Kew Gardens and Richmond if you do manage to get bored of the numerous Chiswick shops, restaurants and nice pubs.

check out www.chiswickw4.com for loads of info on the area.

r3nu4l

To all the people here living in England, please come post on boards.org.uk I'm thinking of organising a beers event in London pretty soon. It'd be great to see you all there