{"id":13087,"date":"2017-05-17T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-05-17T09:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eazycityblog.com\/fr\/california-my-j1-summer\/"},"modified":"2017-10-10T15:43:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-10T15:43:22","slug":"california-my-j1-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/california-my-j1-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"From Kerry to California. Preparing for my J1 Summer!"},"content":{"rendered":"

So it’s official, I\u2019m going to America<\/strong> this summer on a J1 and flying off to California<\/strong> for 3 months!<\/p>\n

For once, I\u2019m not stranded in Ireland for another summer but it still hasn\u2019t quite hit me yet, maybe it will finally sink in when I step off the plane and the hot Californian sun hits my face.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n


\nPLANNING TRIP
\n<\/strong>When my best friend asked me would I like to go to California on a J1<\/strong> with him and a few of his mates from college a couple of months ago, I couldn\u2019t say no. From the onset, it all seemed a bit daunting. We had no clue of the visa process and very little money, if any, to fund this trip but after a while of researching, I got pretty excited about the whole thing and everything seemed to fall into place from then onwards. I thought I had to take out a loan from the bank but surprisingly my parents offered to lend me the money instead, which was a big relief. I was invited to join a WhatsApp group online with everyone who was supposedly going on the J1, which made communicating about the whole trip much easier, as everyone knew what everyone else was doing from the start.<\/p>\n

CHOOSING THE LOCATION<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/em>For choosing the location in California, we decided to go for Berkeley<\/strong> as someone said one of their friends went there before and it was absolutely amazing! Apparently, Berkeley is a student location with a University situated there and in the summertime, lots of students from around the world love to visit here. Luckily, the job that I was offered is based in Brisbane (South San Francisco) which is not far from Berkley, it\u2019s only about an hour\u2019s train journey. I probably would have chosen California as the destination anyway I think, as it has always been a dream of mine to go there! I\u2019m looking forward to exploring this part of America very much and I hope to do & see all I can in my spare time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

FLIGHTS & ACCOMMODATION
\n<\/strong>Flights to the West Coast can be very expensive; they\u2019re around 800\/900 euro. I haven\u2019t booked them yet but I hope to do so as soon as possible. I also haven\u2019t secured accommodation either and as of now, I reckon finding accommodation will be fairly difficult as I\u2019ve heard many people are having trouble with it. I plan to stay in a hostel for the first week or two until I can ask the locals about the best places to stay and hopefully get sorted with a house or flat.<\/p>\n

WHAT I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO
\n<\/strong>What I\u2019m definitely looking forward to is the cultural aspect of the experience and just meeting different types of people from around the world. I can\u2019t wait for the non-stop sunshine all summer long but it\u2019s going to be a test on my Irish skin for sure! I\u2019ve never had the opportunity before, to just explore a new place for myself, new surroundings & constantly having places to go will be a treat for me and of course above all else, not spending my summer subjected to the relentless Irish weather again!<\/p>\n

CHALLENGES OVER THERE
\n<\/strong>The main challenges for me over there will be adapting to city lifestyle as I\u2019ve lived in a quiet town for most of my life. I even think Dublin is too busy but it\u2019s going to be nothing compared to a place like San Francisco! Another challenge for me will be getting around on my own but I\u2019ll be fine once I have internet and Google Maps to help me out! Hopefully, meeting new people won\u2019t be a problem, as I\u2019d like to meet as many people as possible. I\u2019d like to make friends and meet the locals, maybe the fact that I\u2019m Irish will be a bonus in that regard!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n


\nWHY THE USA?<\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/em>I picked the USA because of the difference in culture and infrastructure compared to Ireland and I picked California because of the forward thinking people and constant sunshine. I\u2019d like to live away from home for a good length of time to see how I can handle being on my own and away from my family. I also want to have an amazing experience with my friend. Now that we\u2019re both 21 years old, we can get up to all kinds of shenanigans over there!<\/p>\n

At the moment, I\u2019m really excited about heading away and spending my summer in the States and I\u2019m also going with my best friend which is an added bonus. I cannot wait for the crazy new experiences we\u2019re going to have and the stories we\u2019ll be coming back with. It\u2019s going to be a summer to remember!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So it’s official, I\u2019m going to America this summer on a J1 and flying off to California for 3 months! For once, I\u2019m not stranded in Ireland for another summer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":19485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3747,3740,3542],"tags":[3748,3749,2693,3750,3751,3752,3024],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discover-fr","category-live-abroad-fr","category-travailler-a-letranger","tag-berkeley-fr","tag-california-fr","tag-etats-unis","tag-j1-fr","tag-san-francisco-fr","tag-summer-abroad-fr","tag-work-abroad-fr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13087"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22996,"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13087\/revisions\/22996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13087"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eazycityblog.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}