Moving to Virginia

I have arrived in Harrisonburg. It's a little weird that I live in Virginia now. There aren't very many pictures in this post (sorry), but I figured maybe someone out there might be wondering how things went with the move.

So let me catch everyone up a bit. I got everything packed and arranged to move my stuff down on Tuesday of last week. There were six of us there to move my stuff up into the rented moving truck and it took about 2 hours. (My apartment being on the 5th floor slowed things down; I mean, I don't even own that much big stuff -- not even a couch.) Once the truck was loaded (and thanks SO much to everyone that helped me load it!), my friend Emily drove down to Harrisonburg with me. Even though I had rented the smallest van Ryder had available, I was still really not jazzed about driving such a big vehicle. The hardest part was getting out of the city, but once we were out and on the freeway, it wasn't so bad.

We arrived at my new place around 4:30. My landlady met me there to give me my keys, and Emily and I started moving in. We were also lucky because the ward's missionaries showed up to help us unload everything. My goal was to just get everything out of the truck and into the apartment because we were going back to Baltimore as soon as we were done. The setup was much faster, and it took the four of us less than 45 minutes! Yay!

We then drove back to Baltimore. We were making so much better time on the day than I expected! We got to the place to return the truck and got it returned with no problems. Emily and I planned to take the bus home, no big deal. We used my smart phone to look up bus routes and times. It was about 9:30 at that point, and we asked the attendant how to get to a particular intersection to catch this bus. He looked a little concerned (not sure why, we weren't in the super sketch part of Baltimore or anything; maybe because it was far?), but told us. (Kind of....he didn't know where the intersection we were looking for was, but knew where to catch that bus at another stop. Sure, fine.)

So Emily and I started walking (I should also mention that we were both dragging utility dollies behind us, since I rented them from a place in town, since the truck place didn't have them; and they were LOUD). It took about 20 or 30 minutes to walk there. Long story short, we missed the bus. So we waited another 30 minutes for the next bus. The next bus showed up, along with another of the same number (but ending route in a few more stops). The bus driver opened the doors, looked at us (and the other two guys waiting), closed the doors, and drove away. WHAT?! So we all got on the other bus and the driver said, "I'll try and catch him!" But he didn't try very hard (it was clear), and when we got to his last stop, he shrugged and said, "Sorry."

So we all got off the bus. The other 2 guys seemed much less irritated and were like, "*Shrug*, I guess we'll wait here for the next bus." Pfft. Emily and I were supposed to take that bus to transfer, and discovered that the bus we wanted to transfer to picked up there. Okay, not all was lost. The driver directed us (sort of...rather poor directions) to where to pick up the next bus. So we walked over, dragging the dollies behind us. We arrived at the stop, though it was still a little unclear as to whether or not we were at the right place. (The direction of the bus was unclear, and we were in unfamiliar territory.)

The schedule online (checked my phone, whose battery was getting dangerously low) said the next bus we needed was a 40 minute wait. We were so tired by this point (it was after 10:30) and we were contemplating what to do. About a block away we saw a bus that I was pretty sure had the number we needed, but I couldn't tell if it was inbound or outbound. We figured we had time, so we decided to walk over and see. If nothing else, the driver could tell us if we were at the right place.

So we dragged the dollies all the way over, and asked the driver. (The bus was parked there; I guess the stop was the end of his route?) Without looking at me, he said, "The stop you were at is the right one." We thanked him and dragged the dollies back over. Within about a minute (no exaggeration) of arriving back at the stop, we saw the driver change his sign (indicating he was now inbound -- the route we needed), drove over to us and picked us up. Gah!! Why is the Baltimore bus system so crazy?!

Anyway, we didn't have anymore major mishaps, although we had plenty of funny MTA moments on the eventually VERY crowded bus. (Who takes the #22 into Baltimore City at 11:30 on a Tuesday night?! Apparently LOTS of people!) But we made it home. Yay! It only took us 2.5 hours to get across town! (By the way....it took 3 hours to drive back from Harrisonburg.)

So that was the adventure of moving my stuff. I finished cleaning and other odds and ends things (including getting my car fixed, yay!) and then drove to Harrisonburg on Thursday. And then I stayed there. I got on the road kind of late (due to my car being fixed, but it was worth it!) and so I stopped for dinner on the way. I pulled off at some little family restaurant in West Virginia. It was the kind of local experience I was hoping for. And the food was surprisingly good. Especially the free bread. WOW. I ordered a bowl of chili and couldn't resist trying these corn nuggets that I'd never heard of. They were surprisingly good.

This is the picture I had in my head as I ate the corn nuggets. Emily C, this is for you.

I'm gradually getting settled into my new apartment. I really like my new place. And Harrisonburg is nice, even though it's a much slower pace than living in the city. I spent a few days working on unpacking and getting oriented with the things I need to do. This week I've been going to a ton of orientation meetings, and it's exhausting. Monday after day-long new faculty orientation, I went to the opening bbq for faculty. Here's a view from campus that I liked.

I'm still working on getting my apartment together. I'll take pictures once my new couch is delivered (can't wait!!) in a couple weeks. (It was on back order.) (Can't wait!!)