21 year old Dublin girl moving to Cali!

happypartygirl

Hey everyone!

Just joined boards.ie (this is my 1st post!) :-)

So anyway... I am a 21 year old girl from Dublin and I am moving out to California at the end of June (30th).

My dad is from NY and I have an american passport and Ive always wanted to live over there and I finally have decided to do it.

Im working over here in Dublin with a very good full time job, v.well paid but the pressure and stress is too much and Ive decided to throw it all in to go live by the beach!

I have plenty of money saved and am handing in my notice next week (1 months) but apart from that I am pretty unprepared.

I was wondering if people could give me some advice on how to approach this.

Where would be a nice place to go? I have never been to Cali however I am extemely independent and that doesnt phase me in the slightest. I was thinking Santa Monica maybe? I wanted to go to LA initially but have decided against it (too spread out, I wont have my full licence etc)

I would like to be near the beach. Not too fussed about finding a "serious" job straight away.. would love to doss about for the summer etc.

So I was wondering I dont know anyone going out there this summer and I know alot of people on this are heading out there.. is anyone looking for a travel buddie or someone to share a place with etc.

Things about me: Very outgoing, always up for a laugh, love partying, very sociable, however I am also very loyal, genuine and reliable!

If you wanna know anything else just ask!

Look forward to hearing back :-)

BuffyBot

As you actually moving out there, rather than just doing a trip - I'll move this to Abroad

happypartygirl

yep moving there - but wouldnt mind making a travel buddy with a j1'er ? etc thanks!

PeakOutput

my mates are heading to huntington beach it looks amazing and if you get the right place you can be on the beach within walking distance of the city and of newport apparently if i didnt have a job lined up in boston id be there in a second

Faith

Other than the fact I'm unbelievably jealous, I'm not sure what else to say. I'll think about it and come back to you, when I'm over the jealousy.

Neamhshuntasach

San Diego.

I lived there for a few years and it's the most relaxed US city i've ever been in. The weather is perfect for most of the year and has great beaches. Mexico is also only a stones throw away. 2am is the closing time in Cali so the nightlife isn't as good as some other cities or states. But if your living there that doesn't really bother you too much. SD is kind of spread out too and ideally you'd need a car if living there. In fact you'd need one in most of California. Especially the cities.

The easiest way to meet people in the US is through hobbies/interests. So if you have any that allow you to join a club thats a good place to start to get to know people. I wouldn't worry too much about that as those things come in time.

Faith

Right. I spent last summer in Santa Cruz and it was great. It's an extremely laid back town (mostly because people are stoned all the time). It's not huge but it's big enough. It's only an hour from San Jose and 90 mins from San Francisco. I loved it. The weather is variable though. If you don't think you're ready for constant heat, go further north, towards Santa Cruz/ SF.

San Francisco is amazing, but expensive and hilly. Only live there if you have a good bit of money.

Santa Barbara is the most beautiful place I've ever been. I fell completely and utterly in love with it. It's just amazing. The weather is perfect, I can't recommend the place more.

LA is a hellhole, in my opinion. It's too hot, it's incredibly humid, it's busy, it's dirty... I wouldn't ever want to live there.

San Diego I haven't been too, but have heard good things about. I do hear it's a bit polluted though, like LA. Lots of smog and can get VERY warm.

Orange County is pretty nice, I imagine, but I hear it's a bit boring (if you're not doing a crazy J1).

They're the main beachy places really. You could go up to Sacramento, inland a bit to San José or a multitude of other places, but it depends what you want from it.

happypartygirl

wow thanks everyone for the feedback. really helpful and i am getting so excited!

Is SB by the beach? is there many young people there? is it hard to get a job?

what about accomodation? is craigslist the best place to go?

meditraitor

Faith wrote: »

Right. I spent last summer in Santa Cruz and it was great. It's an extremely laid back town (mostly because people are stoned all the time). It's not huge but it's big enough. It's only an hour from San Jose and 90 mins from San Francisco. I loved it. The weather is variable though. If you don't think you're ready for constant heat, go further north, towards Santa Cruz/ SF.

San Francisco is amazing, but expensive and hilly. Only live there if you have a good bit of money.

Santa Barbara is the most beautiful place I've ever been. I fell completely and utterly in love with it. It's just amazing. The weather is perfect, I can't recommend the place more.

.

Santa Barbara or Santa Cruz are amazing (only back from SB;-( ), if you want to just chill out and enjoy California these are by far the coolest spots
LA is just nasty
San fran is great but the amount of BUMS on the street is beyond description (and expensive to)....

Faith

happypartygirl wrote: »

wow thanks everyone for the feedback. really helpful and i am getting so excited!

Is SB by the beach? is there many young people there? is it hard to get a job?

what about accomodation? is craigslist the best place to go?

Yeah, SB is right on the beach. It's the typical Southern California town that you have in your head - wide, palm tree lined boulevards, white sandy beaches, clear blue water, sunny, warm pacific breeze, surfers... If you ever watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sunnydale was based on SB. All aerial shots of Sunnydale are SB.

Craigslist will be your best bet for accommodation alright. Seeing as you're looking long term, you should be fine. SB also has a university, so there's plenty of young people there all year round.

The waves of jealousy are rising again...

Malice

I spent a summer working across most of nothern California as a furniture mover a few years ago. Amusingly enough, the business was based out of Dublin

Anyway, I lived in Berkeley and used to go to San Fransciso and Oakland on my days off quite a bit as they are only a short hop away on the train. I found the music scene in San Francisco to be excellent. Whatever your taste there are probably gigs on most nights of the week. If you've never been there, it's worth checking out if only for the streets that go on and on and on! Berkeley is also a lot of fun when the students come back around August-September.

Speaking of taste, it's actually feasible to eat out a lot even on a budget, and you get good food too! The bars were quite strict about serving you so make sure you have your ID with you when you go out.

A friend of mine lived in San Diego and had a great time. I haven't heard anything good about Los Angeles.

mack1

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

San Diego.

I lived there for a few years and it's the most relaxed US city i've ever been in. The weather is perfect for most of the year and has great beaches. Mexico is also only a stones throw away. 2am is the closing time in Cali so the nightlife isn't as good as some other cities or states. But if your living there that doesn't really bother you too much. SD is kind of spread out too and ideally you'd need a car if living there. In fact you'd need one in most of California. Especially the cities.

The easiest way to meet people in the US is through hobbies/interests. So if you have any that allow you to join a club thats a good place to start to get to know people. I wouldn't worry too much about that as those things come in time.

I'll second pretty much all of that! Mission Beach or Pacific Beach areas are the business - PB will be crawling with Irish for the summer, so depending on how that suits you...

Just stay outta LA!

emmalina20

Hey if you're still looking for someone to share accommodation Im working in Newport beach from 4th June til 1st September if you wanna look for accommodation with me my email is emma_nolan@hotmail.co.uk. Finding it hard to get somewhere cheap!