Okay, so far there are definitely some goods, bads and uglies to life in Northern Virginia. While similar to Texas, it is definitely NOT Texas.
Truth 1: All of my kids are having just fantastic, incredible experiences at the local schools here. Everyone, from the teachers to the administrators, are helpful and supportive. The kindergarten is a warm, loving environment. The middle school is safe and challenging, yet still very supportive and understanding of how young 5th graders are. And the high-schooler is surrounded by people who care. He is in a homeroom class with only 7 kids staffed by a teacher who brings them food and monitors their grades to ensure everything is as it ought to be.
Truth 2: The traffic around here is truly awful. In Texas, you can generally be fairly certain that a location 5 miles away should take 5-7 minutes to get to. Here, distances 5 miles away can take 15 minutes or they can take double that. That occurs regardless of the time of day. Of course, it is worse at rush hour but going certain places can be brutal on Saturday morning as well.
Truth 3: Probably due to the traffic, the populace here is incredibly fit and healthy. There are bikers, runners and walkers everywhere. A really nifty system of trails connects almost everything and people definitely don't gawk at pedestrians like they might in many Texas locales. You really can manage without a car here if you need to, which is great for we FS types who may or may not have a car at any given moment.
Truth 4: Places are crowded! Everywhere and what seems like all of the time. There are several Chipotles here (yay) and they are always packed. Ditto the supermarkets, the Target and the Costcos.
Truth 5: The weather is awesome so far. Like perfect springtime temps in the 70's and plenty of sunshine. I know this isn't the case always, but I am loving it! Such a welcome escape from Texas at this time of year.
catching up on your blogs - they're great - keep them coming! xoxo
ReplyDeleteThere are SO MANY delightful things about Virginia. I am glad that you are getting to experience some of them. (How about all those great ethnic restaurants??)
ReplyDeleteYes, there is tons of good eating for sure. The great thing is that if we get Ukraine, China, Israel or Afghanistan (kidding, not a choice this time) on flag day, there will be a restaurant that serves that type of food in falls church. We've said that going out for that cuisine on flag day seems like a fun way to celebrate. We ate sushi at Meneko Neko last night (or something like that). It had a bunch of cute cats and I had to puzzle out how to effectively use chopsticks.
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