San Francisco to Cardiff

Hey,
I'm a California native and recently moved here from San Francisco to be with my fiance, a solicitor in Cardiff. I'm 32 and a counseling psychotherapist. I worked for Lucasfilm for the 5.5 years in the gaming department.
Although I went to school in London and Cambridge in 1992 and 1993, I'm having a hard time adjusting. I know London, but Cardiff is so new to me and I have no friends here yet. I would love to hear from any other Californians...

Emily

Hi Emily and welcome! not from california but i wish you the best of luck anyways

Hi Emily!

I was born in SF but have lived in NY most of my life. I really love SF and my fiancee and I will be moving there after our wedding in July.

I read on another post that you are from North Beach? That is one of my fave areas in SF! I really dig Stinking Rose, Vesuvio's.... on and on!

Have fun in Cardiff! Welcome! 

Hi Emily,
 Welcome we live in Greenwich. I used to commute between Chicago and San Rafael for a couple of years.  I loved my weekends in San Fran.  Have been living in London for 2+ years now.  I travel to Cardiff on business. I have a client there. It is a fun place and the people are really nice.

Check out the Rocco Forte St. David's Hotel near Mermaid Quay.  It is where I stay in town. Beautiful spa if you need a weekend get away!  Wishing you a wonderful time there. Also, Wood's Brassiere has ok food!  Nice sushi in the Japanese rest. at the Quay.

Tammy

Welcome SanFranEM.  Sounds like a pretty cool job working with LucasFilms...

I honestly don't know much about Cardiff other than they have a good ploitics department in their University.

I hope you do make friends with time and I hope you do stop by and post!

Welcome EM!  I'm not a Californian either, but taking part in UKY will definitely help with some of the loneliness.  Loads of Americans here that understand what you are going through.

Hi Emily

Welcome to UKY and I hope you find friends in Cardiff soon. Cascode is right, it helps not to be English there. One of the greatest compliments some Welsh friends recently paid me was that I didn't seem English at all.

I don't know Cardiff at all but I have been to Swansea, Mumbles and Neath - the south west coast of Wales is well worth exploring, it's a beautiful part of the UK.

Liz

Actually I was going to say on a par with Scotland - South Wales is warmer!

hey there!
               im actually from cardiff! im moving back in may with my wife. we live in springfield Mo at the moment.
are there any questions i can answer about cardiff for you? it can be a strange place at times, but has allot to offer....i know all the best bits
joni will be happy theres a fellow american newbee in cardiff when we get over, any help we can offer just ask!

Hey there,

I'm from San Jose, although I worked in SF up until my moving here. Loved it - fab city - nothing like it in the world!  Every Halloween I long to be back on Castro Street with the people who know how to do Halloween properly I can understand the difficulty in making the leap from SF to Cardiff...it's hard to compete with SF "uniqueness! 

I hope others can provide some insight into Cardiff. I've only been once but loved it and thought Wales a wonderful place.

Welcome, Emily!

I have not moved to the UK yet but are planning on it within the next 2 years or so!
Hope you find this board useful!
Ellie

I agree with the poster who mentioned SF's uniqueness.  Cardiff is not an international city as is London, and even though they both have really cool bridges SF and Cardiff would seem worlds apart.

Have you considered spending time in Bristol?  There are more Americans there; especially ex-pats at the Uni of Bristol.  Staying close to an academic community would be the best way to stay close to the open-mindedness that I think characterises the Bay Area.

id say cardiff is extreamy open minded(unlike maybe allot of wales).  Cardiff I think is a better place to start(in my opinian), being a capital city its got every govenment aspect you'd need, plus id say allot more links to america, esspecially buisness wise. its only a short train ride from bristol though, so where ever u choose your not far from the other

Hi Emily and All!

I'm from Alaska but in the Bay Area (again) now. Assuming my employer agrees, I'll be moving to Hampshire in the next few months, and it's been so great to find sites like this (though I find this one the best of the ones I've seen) to answer all the millions of questions..

Good luck with your move - if you miss anything shippable from the city let me know and I'll do what I can..
Cheers!

-Julie