Irvine

I’ve been here…and I don’t care if it’s new, nice, etc etc. It’s TOO CLEAN and everything is the same…too new. There’s no history.
I prefer my Anaheim or SantAna.
Yup yup.
If you must go, go to the college and hit up some parties or something, maybe that way the place won’t be as boring.

To me, the United States is a country where I have always wanted to go someday. Next year, from february until june, I am going to do an internship as a part of my study International Business and Management Studies. I am hoping I can do it in Irvine, California with a company who’s headquarters you can see in the picture.
This would be the perfect company to do the workplacement for me!

So it was Saturday night, and we were visiting Orange County, and looking for some nightlife – so we drove logically towards the university.

We drove around and around the campus… then we gave up. There was nothing, nada, zilch. The only lights we could see were some fast food joints that were open.

Someone below said it’s about whether you like a place depends on the people you meet. That may be true, but we couldn’t even find a place to meet people on a Saturday night.

Why people would like to live in such an utterly bland place is beyond me. Sure it’s comfortable, but it’s not real. And it’s not life.

I was here last summer to compete in the Speedo Junior National Championship Swim meet. So much fun!

Irvine might not be the most happening or diverse city, but having a good time is also about the people you meet. I met some good folks and I really enjoyed myself for the few days I was there.

I submitted an abstract to a conference at UC Irvine and it was accepted. I have no idea what to expect except for sunshine. What can you expect from a place that has an airport named for John Wayne and is the county which shares name with now-canceled TV show the OC. I just hope I get to enjoy myself at the hotel.

Flew into JohnWayne (SNA).. Definitely better than flying into LAX (Less traffic). access to great beaches → Had an awesome time at Laguna Beach. Great restaurants and the “Shark Bar” was off the chain. Also, went to this Ranch out in Foothills to see some white tigers

This place isnt a good one to visit, its a good one to live in, because its 20 minutes from the beach and 1 hour from the mountains. 45 minutes from LA and 1.5 hours from San Fransisco and 2 hours from Mexico. Your know what they say about realistate… its all about location location location.

Hmmm. Worth visiting in the sense that…well, yeah, I guess it has to be seen to be believed. When a town is planned out of nowhere and therefore is a weird sort of soulless monstrosity. And yet! It gives you surprises if you know where to look (for instance, immigration over the last couple of decades has turned much of north Irvine into a hotbed of Chinese and Japanese businesses in particular, with attendant brilliant food—while similar Iranian immigration has had a comparative impact). And it has UC Irvine, and hell, I work there. So I’ll represent for that. ;-)

..for example, there are a large number of great restaurants in north part of Culver Dr. in Irvine, conveniently right off I-5.. such as Wheel Of Life, a Chinese/Thai vegetarian place that may be a bit pricey but extremely tasty and worth it on occasion at least, many great Indian places, and huge Japanese place, and many other places tucked away in an otherwise non-descript colorless, humongous strip mall surrounded by lush planted trees that all look the same. In the outskirts, near Walnut, there’s a great Mexican place called El Conejo, if it’s still around, and a farmer’s market not too far away in the rare rural part of this city.

University Of California, Irvine is a neat university, and next to an even neater area of hills and wildlife (unfortunately decreasing as times passes, as more and more development is being done.)

Last but not certainly least, Irvine boasts the greatest animal shelter in California to date… even more humane and reknown than San Francisco’s. Animal lovers all over Orange County, and even L.A. and San Diego, come here to volunteer hours and work with the kennelled dogs and cats; and the staff are very well educated, very caring, and—most importantly—very honest. I really hope this is still the case.

Otherwise, from a visitor’s standpoint, it’s just tunnel vision Green Residential Penitentiary. It’s easy for kids to get lost just by exiting the stairs of their condos, since every condo on a given block looks exactly the same.

If you don’t share my admittedly cynical vision of Irvine, then you’ll probably find this a great city, and I wouldn’t cast aspersions at all. We all have different tastes. I can totally understand why people think Irvine is a great place to live, and many believe it is—even if I would never live here. In fact, I’d choose Irvine over most Orange County cities myself.

Still, ultimately, Irvine is not really worth an out-of-the-way visit outside friends and/or family obligations, or if you needed some great veggie food on a trip up/down I-5.