San Diego for Summer 09

tdc

Hows it goin everyone, me and 3 mates are planning on going to San Diego for 3 months this summer on J1 Visa's. None of us have ever done anything like this before. We have an idea of what were doing but we want to do it right so can anyone help us by telling us the whole process and what we need to do ie. what do we need to get from college, interviews, best fights, etc.

Also to anyone that has been to San Diego and done all this before, your advice and experience would be really appreciated. We're planning on visiting LA, SF, Vegas and Mexico(Tijuana) - any other places we should go or any advice for these places?

Any help appreciated

Thanks

Neamhshuntasach

I went on a different type of J visa as i went to college there for 4 years. I personally love SD as most of my friends were American or from other countries and never really got to experience the big surge of Irish people. A lot of people are put off by SD as there are huge amounts of Irish that go over every year. People report anti Irish sentiments, especially among landlords as we're apparently know for cramming 10 people into 4 bedroom houses and wreckin the shop. I never felt that though. Then again i had my own place. A car would be ideal to get around as the city and county is pretty spread out. But they do have a decent enough city bus service and a handy trolley that runs down as far as the TJ border. LA is about 4 hours away on a bus and is around the 20 dollar mark. It's around 30 on the train and i think 30 mins less. Vegas is around 6 hours driving in a car. Think it's much longer on a bus as they stop at places. TJ is only about 40 mins. SF is about 12 hours +.

Not sure where all the Irish J1ers are gonna get jobs this year. Their economy is worse than ours at the moment. My mates in SD are struggling big time at the moment.

Chardee MacDennis

a lot of reviews on san diego are in this thread:

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055374251&highlight=san+diego

alternatively there is some info here:

www.ratemyj1.com/San%20Diego

its full of irish and we are gaining quite a bad rep over there for wrecking apartments etc so be accomodation could be hard to find, but with the state of the economy you may find cheaper places with higher deposits so its worth looking around - try craigslist first off and the Irish Outreach Centre in SD.

cooperguy

Call into USIT OR SAYIT and they will tell you all about interviews etc. its very straight forward. The only thing you need from the college is a stamp on a form. I would recommend getting out there as early as possible and beat the crowd to accomadation/jobs. Organising that before you go would be even better still.

I was in all the places you mentioned there last summer. If you can drive have a full licence and are over 21 rent a car. Its by far the easiest way of getting those distances.

Be very careful if you go to Tijuana. Its a hole of a place and dangerous. I know of 2 people who were down there at different times last summer who got attacked. Having said that I was down there myself in the Irish Night in club safari. $15 in and drink free all night till 5am (except tip).

If you go up as far as LA you should definatly go to Six Flags theme park for a day. One of the best Rollercoaster parks in the world.

You were asking for other places to visit. Newport/Huntington Beach is worth a quick trip just to look at all the really expensive cars yaughts etc. around the place. Those people are rich!! (And if your a fan of Arrested Development TV show you'll have to get a frozen banana on Balboa Island:)). Knotts Berry Farm theme park is an hour on the bus from Huntington Beach Pier and well worth a trip too.

You can drop me a PM if you need any more help

tdc

Thanks for the help everyone. Going to book flights this week and looking for the best value ones at the moment. Anyone have any suggestions as to what the best sites are? Also, is Dublin>New York>Cali the only way?

Neamhshuntasach

No you can go to Dublin to LA and get a bus down. It's only 4 hours. Or you can go Dublin - Chicago or Dublin - London - San Diego.

My mates all booked flights with delta about a week ago for 290 odd euros return. That's Dublin to LA.

tdc

Neamhshuntasach wrote: »

No you can go to Dublin to LA and get a bus down. It's only 4 hours. Or you can go Dublin - Chicago or Dublin - London - San Diego.

My mates all booked flights with delta about a week ago for 290 odd euros return. That's Dublin to LA.

Thanks What dates did they book to get that price? Im planning on going late May - early September

Valmont

San Diego must be a blow out for the J1 at this stage. I wouldn't fancy bumping into half of UCD after flying for 12+ hours to a new place and country. I'm always surprised that despite the size of the U.S. people still tend to go to the same places. Although I'm sure San Diego has to have been great in the first place for people to go over and over.

Esse85

Anybody else going here?

bad2theboneB

I went there in 2007 and had the best summer of my life. Worked in Sea World in the car park, it was good craic! They actually sent me a letter the other day saying they were looking for people to work spring break and the summer. Also try elite security, they hired alot of irish. We stayed in a really nice place - http://www.archstoneapartments.com/Apartments/California/San_Diego/Archstone_Mission_Valley/
Had 2 pools, a jacuzzi, gym, tv room with a pool table and bbq areas! We had on average 7 people stayin in a 2 bed apartment and the rent was $2000 a month! I`d seriously recommend stayin there!

pgra85

I also went to San Diego in 07, there was 6 of us and we got a small cottage in pacific beach bout 10 blocks from the beach, was a great location bout $2000 a month aswell n a security deposit which we also managed to get back, at some point there was 12 living in the house! Me and 2 of my friends worked in Vons which was like the local supermarket and had a laugh there! id also definately recommend it too!