AMERICAN Caroline Pan has swapped the sunny climes of San Francisco for Swindon and after a few minor adjustments to British life, is loving every minute of it.

Caroline, 30, marketing manager at Intel, spent the first few weeks of her stay in Swindon at the Marriott Hotel, before moving to High Street, in Old Town.

Her first impressions weren't much to write home about. In an email to the US, she wrote: "Hi from Swindon, England, where the temperatures are chilly and the skies are grey.

"Swindon is a smallish town in Wiltshire. It is central to more famous towns like Bath, Bristol, and Oxford, which is kind of like Detroit where one of the selling points is that it's driving distance to Chicago and Toronto cities that other people would actually choose to visit."

So our climate and town centre didn't cut the mustard for this California girl. But maybe our illustrious attractions would prove to be a hit.

Caroline wrote: "There's also Swindon's most famous landmark, the Magic Roundabout. Roundabouts are everywhere - they funnel traffic at intersections to go around a central rotary in order to turn and are made much more complicated by having to drive on the left.

"The magic one in Swindon is a big roundabout with five smaller roundabouts around the circumference. Let's just say I haven't tried that one out just yet.

"The hunt for a flat is still on. Funny, fully furnished"here doesn't seem to require landlords to provide a TV or stereo, not to mention linen."

But surely our restaurants, bars and nightclubs will persuade Californians to visit Swindon in their droves.

"Oh, can't forget the food - although I must say it's pretty forgettable. I haven't had anything too spectacular yet. The cafeteria (oh, I mean "canteen") food is pretty marginal, but it's cheap.

"One funny tradition though occurs every Thursday - "curry Thursday" - and everyone appears to look forward to it. Indian food is definitely popular here. Apparently it's also the place to go for late-night eating after a night out at the pub."

Two months later the town appears to have grown on Caroline, although she admits she thought the opportunity to work in Europe meant Munich, not Swindon.

She said: "The big difference now is that I don't have to scrape ice off the car at home. San Francisco is temperate all year round.

"The best things about my life here are the one-minute commute to the office and the 9am start.

"In California, I drive 40 miles from San Francisco to our Santa Clara office and need to leave home around 6.45am to get to the office on time.

"I am also a big fan of Indian food, so I like all the curry restaurants here. Old Town has some charming areas, like Wood Street, and the high-speed train is very convenient to get to London.

"I've also loved getting out to see many of the other sights and towns in England that I may not have visited had I been living in London like Bath, Salisbury, Marlborough, and Stonehenge. It's been great fun."

aemery@newswilts.co.uk