Southern California

[anonymosity]

Moving to Californ-i-a from the East Coast in the New Yr.
I think I read somewhere on the "Living in America 2010" thread that there were "too many brits" there already. Is that really so?
Are there any on here?
I'm one!

LOL, I didn't know any when I lived in San Diego, and DH grew up in Orange County and didn't know any Brits either.

At least you will have access to really good Mexican food

Ah yes, bring on the guacamole and the chimichangas, yummy!

No brits at all around here... but I am more Central CA! Good Luck with your move

My name is a giveaway

Been here two years and love it. I have two British friends here. One was a friend-of-a-friend. The other was more of a coincidence. Oh, I had another too but she moved back. Definitely not too many Brits around these parts but there is a fab British pub (and a Brit mums + toddlers group)

Good luck with the move! Whereabouts are you heading?

Los Angeles - or thereabouts. Seems huge and sprawling. But we're looking forward to it.

I shall google that Brit mum + toddler group, thank you - does it have a special name I should be looking for?

Thanks for your replies!

Ah, it's probably a bit far south for you to go to regularly- it's on meetup.com as a San Diego British playgroup.

LA /is/ really sprawling but I find it more like lots of little cities than one big one and some parts of it are gorgeous. I love Santa Monica especially.

I bet there's loads of Brit meetup groups up that way!

I work for a company based in San Diego (I'm in the UK, long-distance telecommuter!)

If my colleagues are representative the population is largely Chinese, British and Indians

I'm pretty sure the statistic I read was that 50% of California's population is Hispanic.

I wouldn't mention that statistic when you get there - it's not even close to correct and is probably put out by a racist group.

California is estimated about 30% Hispanic. They have the largest Asian (in the US Asian = East Asian btw) population in the US though.

California has the largest racial 'minority' population in the US, but it is still 57% white. Of those white people almost all of them are of German descent because of the mass immigration to the Western US of Northern Europeans.

I live in the LA suburbs - not many Brits here so the accent etc gets lots of (nice) comments.
LA is hard to get your head around at first but I enjoy living here!

lol, inlandempire - I'm Californian born-n-bred and still can't get my head around LA

Hi Anon.

We just spent the last year in San Diego, Solana Beach. There are LOADS of Brits! There was even a British shop 5 mins from my home where I picked up my custard powder, teabags etc (albeit at an enormous cost) and another Brit shop 30 mins north in Carlsbad.

Been up to LA enough times to decide it isn't for me....sprawling and don't like it but that's just me. Orange county is less populated.

Anyway, I loved San Diego. We are now in Texas (husband in IT, we move a lot) for a year and then who knows where. I would love to go back to San Diego, great living, relaxed and lovely beaches. Oh and British Airways is starting a new service from San Diego to Heathrow next summer!

Thanks all. Goodness, the statistic I read was on wikipedia! Don't worry, I'm not going to start quoting it, wouldn't dream of it .

It certainly sounds like its going to be a bit of an adventure!

"...in the US... Of those white people almost all of them are of German descent because of the mass immigration to the Western US of Northern Europeans."

Heavens, I don't know how you figure that one out. Speaking as a "white" "native" of SoCal and someone who has done a huge amount of family history research yes there's German in my ancestry but there's way more English, Scots and even Irish in there. My dad's half-siblings are mostly Swedish, my step-mother is half Norwegian and half-Italian. All So-Cal residents. We white Americans are everything from all over Europe. Not especially Germanic at least no more so than any other predominantly Anglo-Saxon culture.

I/m a Brit in LA- we love it here. Great lifestyle and easy to meet people- try meetup.com

You will love the weather too.

We are here and we do love the weather - when it isn't raining for 5 days in a row....

Sniffle. I am a CA born and bred too. I miss it so much! I am now in Virginia. And my ancestry is... Italian and Dutch mostly with some Irish, Swiss, and Polish Jew thrown in. I love meeting Brits over here! I am an accent and culture affectionato so I could really talk to foreigners all day. I haven't met too many Brits out this way though.