New York or Boston?

ToniTuddle

I'm booking my USIT J1 for the first time ever.
Simply can't decide which city to spend my summer in!

I have a friend in Boston and in New York so either way I'm sorted for a place to stay for the first while until I sort my own accomodation.
(Which I will try and sort long before I leave)

Is there as many cool and funky things to do in Boston as there is in New York?
I haven't even a notion where to begin.

If anyone has been to both cities for any length of time could they tell me some of the good and fun things to do?

Don't bother mentioning pubs! I'll figure that one out for myself
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

lilyrose

to be honest i found Boston very boring - yes it was nice and great to see and all that but after a week or so it was all a bit ..... all i can describe it as is irish. so many irish people, they place is crawling with J1ers as well and work opportunities arent that great either, but then again its all about why you are heading over as well.
New york is great but very expensive, we ended up goin to florida last year and had the most amazing summer.

ToniTuddle

Yeah I know. Most are all illegal too so they are unbelievable close!

I was going to go off and spend my summer in a random place like Alabama....but I'd want to have plenty money with me for that. Don't have that much money this year.
Next summer I might go there.

I'm thinking New York as it would no doubt have alot more things in it.
There is always the option of spending half my summer in one city then moving to the other but by that stage alot of jobs would be gone.
I'll keep my ears open anyway in case.

I spent two weeks in Boston before and yes it was lovely but due to them being all illegal, they tend to stick to the same places and don't venture very far.

Maybe I should pick a random city and just go there! Either way I need to get booking my J1 this week.
Alot of people on Boards seem to not like USIT which has me worried. Then I've USIT emailing me telling me how alot of their competition are claiming to do alot things that USIT does...but in fact they don't!

Black Swan

ToniTuddle wrote: »

Maybe I should pick a random city and just go there! Either way I need to get booking my J1 this week.

San Francisco?

ToniTuddle

Blue_Lagoon wrote: »

San Francisco?

Still loads of Irish there though. Not that I mind that but I'd love to go to some place like Wyoming(spelling?).
But not sure of possible work opportunites there?

Least if I went to Boston or New York I'd be guaranteed work in an Irish bar(but been there done that).

Prefer the idea of getting right into the whole country American thingy.
Arrggh. Would love to work for the first two months then spend the last month going to few other areas. Would be handy to have at least one other person with me (cost wise on accomodation and the like). But I can do it alone.

Going to study all these threads on US and see if anyone has ever been to a really random place in America-and it worked out for them!

lilyrose

I used usit and i have to say had no problem with them at all...
I have to say Orlando was amazing, you have all the theme parks to do and in our three months there met no other J1ers.
We got work in a carnival type place, on games it was great, money was quite good as the owner is irish and they provided accomadation its usually based on four sharing so if u didnt mind bunking in with others you would be sorted.
If you are anyway interested PM me and il give you more info and can put in word with manager for ya ...

Black Swan

ToniTuddle wrote: »

Prefer the idea of getting right into the whole country American thingy.

Have you seen the film "Fargo?" Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116282/

I cannot imagine myself living for long in Fargo, North Dakota (the party animal I tend to be ), although the people there might be really nice. Here's their hometown page: http://www.ci.fargo.nd.us/

You mentioned that you wanted a US city that had fewer Irish immigrants? Here is Fargo, ND, ancestry percentages:
German - 31%
· Norwegian - 27%
· Irish - 7% <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
· Swedish - 5%
· English - 4%
· French (except Basque) - 4%
· Polish - 2%
· Russian - 2%
· Czech - 1%
· American Indian tribes, specified - 1%
· Danish - 1%
· Black or African American - 1%
· Scandinavian - 1%
· Dutch - 1%
· Scottish - 1%
· Italian - 1%
· French Canadian - 1%
· Scotch-Irish - 1%
· Mexican - 1%
· Chippewa - 1%
· Finnish - 1%
· Subsaharan African - 1%
· Yugoslavian - 1%

Source: http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genealogyInfo.php?locIndex=52793

Could only find one Irish pub in a city of over 90,000 people: Dempsey's Irish Pub. 226 Broadway N, Fargo, ND.

Sonas ort! BL

ToniTuddle

I think I've seen bits of that film!

Long as I don't get kidnapped by some hillbillies and held hostage :eek:

I'm going to be getting a part time job now for the next semester of college so I can have extra money and really get to relax and enjoy myself over there this summer.
Nothing worse than being stuck in another country and no money :mad:

davyjose

OP: new York vs Boston is kinda like london vs Birmingham, or Dublin vs Wexford. my 2nd choice of city behind NY would be Chicago. A wonderful town, esp. in summer.
Blue, gotta say i spent a lot of time in small town Indiana (hence the Colts love , Illinois and Iowa(perhaps similar to ND in terms of small town America-ness). It was great, but it was part of the experience. You gotta hit the cities to get a real experience.

ToniTuddle

davyjose wrote: »

OP: new York vs Boston is kinda like london vs Birmingham, or Dublin vs Wexford. my 2nd choice of city behind NY would be Chicago. A wonderful town, esp. in summer.
Blue, gotta say i spent a lot of time in small town Indiana (hence the Colts love , Illinois and Iowa(perhaps similar to ND in terms of small town America-ness). It was great, but it was part of the experience. You gotta hit the cities to get a real experience.

Yeah I understand what you are saying. For my first J1 though I'm going to pick something easy enough. For my second one I'll go to the quieter places and really get into it all.

Now I just have to find my passport and make sure it's not "tatty"....
All the gold is worn off from the front...and I did get odd looks in some customs as a result....

Maybe I should invest in a new passport (even though there are 4 years left on it) just to be sure they don't stop me getting into the country :eek::eek:

rossie1977

ToniTuddle wrote: »

Still loads of Irish there though. Not that I mind that but I'd love to go to some place like Wyoming(spelling?).
But not sure of possible work opportunites there?

been to wyoming for a holiday, there is no big towns there, Cheyenne is the biggest and about the size of dundalk (and at least dundalk has life to it), there would be plenty of work in the jackson hole area of wyoming during the winter months though (being one of the biggest ski areas in north america)

opinion guy

ToniTuddle wrote: »

Is there as many cool and funky things to do in Boston as there is in New York?

No.

In fact substitute ANYWHERE for Boston and you could probably still say no regardless.

New York is amazing simply - thou I've not spent more than a few days there. Boston is nice but as others have said kinda boring relatively and very Irish. San Francisco is a very cool city hands down. Another place to think about that might be a bit off the beaten track for J1ers is Seattle. Very, very cool city and quite different to other US cities (amazing food there - so much Asian culture there is no shortage of choice for restaurants) and obviously a music haven if you are in to that. Also is just hours from Vancouver which is also cool. Only down side is it can have rather Irish weather. San Diego is also supposed to be cool but I've never been there.

opinion guy

ToniTuddle wrote: »

I think I've seen bits of that film!

Long as I don't get kidnapped by some hillbillies and held hostage :eek:

Sure you are not thinking of Deliverance ??

Liamo08

On the New York vs Boston thing, I'd be agreeing with the majority of the answers here and leaning towards New York especially if you have accomodation sorted. Even if its not working out in New York, Boston is only a few hours away on a bus so nothing to stop you moving up there.

If you want a more "American" experience I'd go for somewhere like Austin, Texas - a really great town, massive amount of nightlife, live music capital of the world, huge student/university town and you certainly won't be bumping into other J1er's on every corner. Its also big enough were I'd imagine you'd have a good enough chance of getting work.

ToniTuddle

rossie1977 wrote: »

been to wyoming for a holiday, there is no big towns there, Cheyenne is the biggest and about the size of dundalk (and at least dundalk has life to it), there would be plenty of work in the jackson hole area of wyoming during the winter months though (being one of the biggest ski areas in north america)

I just like the idea of working on a huge ranch. Definitely gonna try that for a month at some stage!

opinion guy wrote: »

Sure you are not thinking of Deliverance ??

Yeah thinking of that one but there are loads of crazy hillbillies running about I'd say!

Liamo08 wrote: »

Even if its not working out in New York, Boston is only a few hours away on a bus so nothing to stop you moving up there.

If you want a more "American" experience I'd go for somewhere like Austin, Texas - a really great town, massive amount of nightlife, live music capital of the world, huge student/university town and you certainly won't be bumping into other J1er's on every corner. Its also big enough were I'd imagine you'd have a good enough chance of getting work.

Yeah that's what I'm thinking...or even the other way about. If I went to Boston first and got sick of it I could always go to New York then.
Never thought about Texas until a friend had to go over for a month or two to work with some company. Actually...there's someone I should ring!

Live music capital of the world you say? That would be pretty damn nice.
Lordy! I could be wearing a cowboy hat yet!

Liamo08

ToniTuddle wrote: »

Yeah that's what I'm thinking...or even the other way about. If I went to Boston first and got sick of it I could always go to New York then.
Never thought about Texas until a friend had to go over for a month or two to work with some company. Actually...there's someone I should ring!

Live music capital of the world you say? That would be pretty damn nice.
Lordy! I could be wearing a cowboy hat yet!

Yeah live music in lots of the bars, festivals etc.

I'm amazed Austin isn't somewhere more J1 students go, it certainly would be ticking all the right boxes for me.

ToniTuddle

Liamo08 wrote: »

Yeah live music in lots of the bars, festivals etc.

I'm amazed Austin isn't somewhere more J1 students go, it certainly would be ticking all the right boxes for me.

The USIT girls did mention Texas and they focused on the three cities, Dallas, Austin and Houston. Even though the lecture room was packed nobody showed any interest in Texas apart from myself.

I get the feeling alot just want to hang in the Irish communities and spend the summer drinking!
I did that for 2 weeks in Boston one summer before I went to NZ and by the end of the second week I was ready to kill the majority of Irish ones!!

Don't mind it but hate being trapped in a place/group. They only stick to the one area too. Drives me mental.
I should be doing college work but I'm going to try and look up some Austin papers online see what is happening over there!

Cheers for the info/advice/opinon!

Amberjack

Went to The Outer Banks in North Carolina for my J1 many moons ago and had the best summer ever. It is quite remote and a very seasonal town, but it's on the beach, really cheap and we were the only Irish there. Loads of US college students come down to surf and party - we had the best craic ever!!

ToniTuddle

There are just soo many options you just wouldn't know where to start and not enough money to do it all.

I should put all suggestions into a hat and just get someone to pick one out for me!

I went to New York on my J1 and had the best time ever. I think it was one of the best times of my life. I absolutely love the place and had been twice before on holidays, but never got sick of it. There's just so much to do, all the museums, galleries, neighbourhoods to visit. Even just walking down a random street is interesting. There's a lot to do for free as well, Staten Island ferry trip, Central Park, actually I went to a few free classical concerts there and it was brilliant. Really laid back atmosphere, everyone on blankets with a bottle of wine enjoying themselves. You don't need a car like you would in most of the US, as the subway network is good and extends quite far out. God, I want to go back now. I suppose it might not be for everyone, as it is so busy and so hot in the summer, but I never regretted it for a second. I didn't do the whole 'Oirish' thing either BTW, I lived in a predominantly Hispanic neighbourhood in Queens which I loved.

ToniTuddle

Just to point out I've dicovered the "Things To Do In..." forum so I'm checking that one out too for info.