So with that lengthy introduction out of the way we wanted to make this post to share with you our first impressions of our new home. We have now been here 3 full days and have seen A LOT!
It took 11 hours for us to get here (including stops). We went through Ashland and the West Virginia Turnpike this time (Mainly because that's what our GPS told us). It was beautiful scenery with mountains and lush green forests. Clayton hated the turnpike saying it made him nervous especially since it rained on and off. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the break from the boring straight interstate.
On the way in we stopped by my school since it was on the way. It is very large (2400 kids!) and serves a very nice suburb. As in $500,000-$900,000 homes are the main surroundings of this school. It is about 30 min from where we live and turns out to be an easy commute as it is parkway and interstate most of the way. It is also to the west so I go in the opposite direction of D.C. traffic during rush hours (yes, plural). I had orientation and meetings for the past three days and I love the district, my school and coworkers already. It is very large (the district has 85,000 students in 93 schools) but they are very supportive especially of new teachers. They have high standards, but do everything to help you succeed. The other 4 chemistry teachers each offered me all their materials and were very encouraging and supportive (so was the whole science department). I am really excited about working there (A little intimidated, but really excited).
My classroom
We are renting a furnished basement in a home about 1.5 miles from campus. The single woman who lives there works a lot and has plenty of extra space. Her name is Melody and she grew up in Oklahoma. She is a little quirky, but incredibly nice and accommodating. She lets us keep Sam in the backyard, lets us use half the garage and any commodities we need. The space is very nice and larger than we expected. We (especially Clayton) are most excited about having a decent yard. He plans to get a bike to ride to campus as he is a graduate research/teaching assistant there starting next week.
I think we were expecting more of a city lifestyle when we moved here, but it is suburban instead. There are lots of mature trees everywhere which we didn't expect. In fact due to zoning they typically are beside the road in front of shopping centers which makes initially finding things difficult. Everything is also very condensed. Sunday night after unloading things we went to go find food for supper. We found a shopping center the size of the Factory Outlet center in Carrollton about a mile from our house. It had a Kohls, radio shack, Verizon store, grocery store, Starbucks, 2 gas stations, bank and about 10 restaurants. All of that in ONE compact shopping center. We have a mini Florence a mile from the house!
Video of the upstairs shared living space
Video of the upstairs shared living space (before we put up the bunny cage)
Video of our downstairs private space
A speed version of putting Sam's foldable cage back together. (30 seconds=1 hour)
There are many more people here so traffic is much more than we are used to. Although the people are from Virginia, they don't seem to consider themselves southerners. People don't usually comment on my accent until I say I'm from KY, but their usual reply is "I figured you were from the south". Although KY is to their west, their mentality is more northern I think. We expected this. Although I expected more of a northern inconsiderate nature among people, but everyone has been incredibly nice and helpful. Getting around can be very hard and it will take some getting used to. Knowing if something is a street, drive, court etc is important here. They even have King Dr. intersect with King Rd. Who does that to people!?
The area near our house where the roads are a tangled web. The tan area to the north is GMU's campus.
Overall it has been great so far! We have been blessed with a great place to live, Clayton has a funded position in a great program and I have a wonderful school to begin my teaching career! We are excited to see what this adventure will hold for us in the coming two years. As we learn our way around we will continue to be thankful for Virginia's gift to tourists and out-of-state people: Legal U-turns!
