J1 Advice?

ff9999

Just looking for past experiences or some useful tips on where to go from someone who was been there, done that, and bought the t-shirt

Any information will be helpful:pac:

lukiej

I did my J1 in Huntington 2 summers ago, went back to San Diego this summer on just a holiday visa.. much much preferred Huntington. Iv written lots on Huntington on this and j1forum.com so check them out.. if you have trouble finding them let me know and il mail you some info.. basically i fell in love with the place and would recommend it to anyone. Some say your first time doing J1 is always the best, maybe in some cases. I went to San Diego this summer, it was good, in fact, great, but compared to its not a patch on Huntington. Huntington has the most amazing beach, really nice and friendly people, great weather is a given i suppose. Accommodation is hard to come by, we were lucky two years ao we got sorted in a complex quick enough. I went back several times this summer to visit friends, both american and irish, and the irish were having a tough time both getting jobs and finding or holding on to accommodation. what happens is, the irish load in a huge amount of people into a 2 or 3 bedroomed house, we did it ourselves, this as you can imagine creates a huge amount of noise, and residents of complexes will complain and you will find yourself being evicted before you know it after a few warnings. If its just you and your girlfriend going and you dont intend on bunking in with a large crowd you will have no problem finding accommodation, but i predict that after this summer from what i saw they are going to be very strict on letting houses to the Irish for 3 months. Huntington is very spread out, so bikes are a must although there are loads of buses, their times are not very reliable. We cycled the length and breath of the place all summer, its a lot handier and although we were the guts of 5 miles to the beach it would take us about 20-25 minutes to cycle down, you would not feel the time going. On the job front, everyone i lived with 2 years ago got jobs, this year, knotts berry farm as with 2 years ago is a huge employer of Irish, its a 50min bus ride away, but nearly everyone that applied got jobs there. If your over 21, many bars and restaurants will hire you. What i really like about Huntington was that it was ideally located. The night life is not wonderful there so we used to get taxis to Newport Beach (10min) and Long Beach (15-20min) for the clubs and bars. you are only 35-40 minutes from L.A., 1hr 30min from San Diego. 4hours from Vegas. we rented cars a lot this summer and 2 summers ago, it is also a must, they are very cheap to rent over there. I could really talk about Huntington all day and I still talk about it regularly 2 years later. It is by a long shot the best place iv ever been. I plan on doing something different this summer, and heading back to Huntington or surrounding area on a 1 year graduate visa when I finish college 2 summers time. Feel free to ask me anything you want on it, I have a pretty good idea of the place and California in general and would be happy to help you out.
Luke

ff9999

:eek:

Thanks a million...very helpful! I would really like to get to the West Coast but I've heard that it is tougher to get jobs & more expensive than the East Coast? any truth in that?

Seem to be looking at Boston at the minute and would like to decide on a destination before/around Christmas time!

lukiej

amm.. ya it probably is tougher to get jobs, but in my opinion theres no comparison to east coast, now dont get me wrong you will have a great time in boston, new york, ocean city etc.. but I fell in love with the west coast 2 years ago. went back last year. and want to return again very soon! the lifestyle, the weather, the people, the miles of beaches. I would advise anyone to go to California, if you want a job bad enough you will get one. yes it may be harder than the east coast but there are jobs there. Did Huntington Beach two summers ago, cant speak highly enough about the place, did san diego this summer, was also great, really nice place, but couldnt say i preferred it to huntington. san diego has quite a lot of homeless and bums, quite dirty, just wasnt gone on it. also visited santa barbara and san fran. two really cool places aswell. I'd recommend huntington, newport, laguna, or some of the places in near LA, like manhatten beach, hermosa beach, redondo beach. there will be little or no irish in these small beach towns, so you will be appreciated more.

any questions just ask!