I hesitate to be honest about Raleigh because I know I’ve seen and experienced very little. I don’t want to make harsh claims or rash decisions based on just shy of three weeks time here. One thing I’ve noticed is how important public transit is to me. It is by far what makes me believe a city
has it, or
doesn’t. And based on that I’ll say simply that Raleigh definitely doesn’t have it.
Skip the light rail or any subway system, as it doesn’t exist. The buses are confusing, scheduling is unclear and timing is inconvenient. The BG and I attempted to take the bus from the NCSU campus (a healthy ten minute walk from our apartment) into the city, which is less than 2 miles from campus, to the bar. This was around 8pm on a weeknight and the bus never arrived. We waited for an hour.
I took the bus one other time from campus to a job interview. Three transfers and an hour later, I suddenly became trapped as a bus headed back to Raleigh just didn’t exist! Only during rush hours do certain buses run to/from certain places in Research Triangle Park, I learned. (I was headed to the EPA. You’d think this wouldn’t be a problem.) Also, you cannot get to or from the RDU airport on Sundays, as buses don’t run(???).
I felt liberated when I sold off my vehicles in Portland. I started taking the bus everywhere and then I figured I could live even more cheaply by riding my bike. This worked well. A brief look at the bus lines in Raleigh before my move had me thinking that since I’ve spent my whole life basically overlooking public buses that surely all I needed to do was be patient and learn the ways of a new system. Maybe Portland made me a snob by offering cheap, abundant public transit, but I don’t know if I can get by here without owning a vehicle. I guess it will depend on where I end up working.
Anyway.
The apartment is pretty much done for now. We went ahead and bought a mattress last week and it is SWEET. Less than $400 and more comfortable than my Tempurpedic.
I’m also shopping for a bike. I’d like to get a hybrid but it seems like each company does them differently. My preference would be to have something lightweight, comfortable for commuting and also for long road/trail trips. Not sure yet if this is possible, at least for an off the shelf product.
This past weekend we hosted our first Couchsurfer. She was really sweet and hung out with us for most of the weekend. I also met a new friend last weekend, Morgan, and hung out with her this past Friday night with both her boyfriend and the BG. We made fun of the fartsy people in downtown Raleigh for First Friday.
Saturday we drove out to the Chapel Hill area to visit the Weaver Street Market, a co-op and cafe with really delicious food. While we were there we met up with a new friend I met on OkCupid named Mike. We chatted for a bit then broke it off for the afternoon, as the three of us headed back to Raleigh to run some errands and get ready to make a huge homemade taco dinner, to which Mike was invited. The four of us had an awesome meal together and then went out to a pub afterward.
The weekend was great, meeting new friends kicks ass.
Now, I’m back to job searching and freelance work. This Saturday I’m scheduled to start volunteering at the Raleigh Habitat for Humanity ReStore. I’ve also located several yoga studios who teach yoga in the Iyengar tradition, which is similar to what I was enjoying in Portland. (I’m lining up the yoga and Spanish classes for when I get a job.)
I’ve been doing pretty well with my home yoga. I practice about every other day (except this past weekend) and have been able to do a few poses I wasn’t comfortable doing in my fast paced classes in Portland. That is the tradeoff with home practice; you get time to focus on practicing poses that are difficult and really customize a routine that you feel works for you (and it’s free), but you don’t get the attention from an instructor that really helps you ensure proper posture and position in the poses. I’m looking forward to attending classes once or twice a week to supplement my home routine.
