Moving to USA, Moving to DC. And, boy, do I need some advice...

[PenguinSix]

Originally Posted by DublinOrwell

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Juniper - you say you can walk to work. How common is it to be able to walk into work? I'm a great fan of walking in cities and it'd be lovely to be within walking distance of the office. My office will be on Pennsylvania Ave NW, close to the White House (how exciting!).

The only rub with that location is that most (not all but most) of the housing in that area is dominated by students at nearby George Washington University, which as you can imagine leads to a few late nights and whatnot. You can, of course, find some housing around there that is not student-oriented, but that main stretch from 17th and Penn to say 25th and Penn is dominated by the university.

The West End, which I would call about 23nd and Penn (Washington Circle) and to the North has some apartments that are not student focused. From Washington Circle upto Dupont you can find a few places to stay. There are also a few places speckled throughout the downtown area, more so in the 11-12-13 and north a bit say K Street - M Street / Mass Avenue where you can live. Still a bit of a walk.

While it's changing, the DC 'downtown', especially near the White House, is a tad 'dead' after working hours. It's mainly big office buildings and small businesses that serve office workers. You might not be that happy in the non-work hours. Nearby areas like Dupont, Georgetown, Chinatown however do offer some after-hours activities, though a bit more of a walk (if you are a heavy walker, than those three areas are ok, but we're talking of walks of about a mile / 20 minutes. When it was raining or snowing you'd probably opt for a bus).

p.s. what visa are you going to get? One other problem with expats moving to the US is that you will have -0- credit history. With few exceptions your credit history from Ireland will mean absolutely nothing here, and in some big apartment buildings they will conduct credit checks (that you will fail). As you are looking for places to live, I would recommend focusing more on the 'mom and pop' landlord places (like in craigslist) rather than the big apartment building management places which have lots of credit checks.

[juniperbleu]

Originally Posted by DublinOrwell

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Juniper - you say you can walk to work. How common is it to be able to walk into work? I'm a great fan of walking in cities and it'd be lovely to be within walking distance of the office. My office will be on Pennsylvania Ave NW, close to the White House (how exciting!).

I walk just under 1.5 miles to work (~20-25 minutes), and it's really not bad. It's a nice relaxing mind break and (remarkably) everyone I see tends to be cheery (at least, more so than on the Metro). On days when the weather is bad I take the metro (it's just that for me to get to work I need to transfer once or twice and make a big "C", so it's not any faster than walking).

As far as how common it is, it really depends on where you work vs. where you live. If you work by the White House, you can probably get away with trying to live somewhere near Foggy Bottom, Farragut Square, Penn Quarter, and Chinatown. Unfortunately, these areas are pricey, but you might be able to find something. Then again, I can get to Constitution & 17th from my house in SW in about 25 minutes (walking), so you could even look in the Waterfront area if you wanted to. One good thing for walking is that DC is really fairly small, so most places are, at most, 2 miles away.

[DCart]

DublinOrwell, you should look around Dupont/Logan Circle area. Whole Foods at 15th and P St. Theaters, restaurants, nightlife, bars on 14th, 17th and Connecticut Ave. Easy walking distance to White House, mall, Georgetown, etc. Good Luck.

[Bluefly]

If you found your dream job in DC, there's nothing about DC that should make you turn it down. Everyone else talked about the specifics of benefits and rent. I'll just say that it's a very cosmopolitan, international city full of people from all over the world there for the very same reason you're there. You won't feel like an expat if you don't want to. There's a lot of nightlife and culture, especially for a relatively small city.

A lot of single, professional people your age (as opposed to Boston, where Irish culture reigns supreme, yet you'd feel old at 30 in almost any pub). I'd definitely recommend living in the city. I worked with a couple expats from London who hated DC. They lived in the sterile suburbs, though, and never really spent time in the city beyond work.

The Woodley Park / Cleveland Park area has a number of decent Irish pubs. Now, probably not up to the par of a the genuine deal, but they might satiate your hunger for home.

I'd say go for it and welcome! We're not as bad over here as you might have heard. Plus - you'd be living and working in the epicenter of a major transition in American (and, to some degree) global culture. Should be a very exciting and interesting period in DC.