Home Sweet....Williamsburg?

Life is weird.  If you had told me a year ago that I'd be living in Williamsburg, Virginia right now, I never would have believed you.  And if you told Tom that he would be spending a good chunk of the year in Pisa, he probably would have thought you were joking.  But yet here we are.  And despite being a bit sad about having to live apart for several months, we feel pretty darn lucky to have such great opportunities.

So... Many....Options

In case you were worried that post-Rome life would be too boring for us, rest assured that our move back to the States was full of drama and adventure (well, drama and adventure broadly defined).  The moving truck that was carrying our storage units crashed on the way to our new place (fortunately, there was only minor damage), we ended up having to drive to Maryland and back twice to buy our "new" car (a trusty gold-colored used Corolla, which I've named Harold), and after living for a year in a place where most stores were about the size of our living room, it took me about three hours just to get through our first Target trip. (I'm not joking.  I had a near breakdown in the shower gel aisle. After wading through the ten million options, I finally settled on something red and fruity with moisturizing "beads"- ?  I'm not even sure what that means.)

DOG Street (the closest thing to main street in town)

Of course, we've had a good time getting to know our new hometown, too.  (Tom only left for Italy at the end of September so we did have a couple of months to spend here together.)  Although it has a population of only 15,000 (half of those being college students), Williamsburg  really doesn't feel like a "small town" (perhaps because the surrounding county adds to the population).  There's not really a "main street," and there are about a million shops and restaurants here.  (I mean, there are five mattress stores in this town- five!)  I was also surprised to find a lack of historic homes here.  Instead, most neighborhoods are newer gated communities with slightly ridiculous names like "Beaver Creek" or "Harvest Moon Commons."  Given all of this, it really feels much more like living in the suburbs than in a small town.  Given how much I loved my former urban lifestyle, you can probably imagine that I wasn't completely trilled about this.  But, after a couple of months here, I have to admit that I don't hate the "suburbs" nearly as much as I thought I would.

Okay, maybe that's not a ringing endorsement, but after living in San Francisco and Rome, which have some of the greatest restaurants, museums, parks and views in the world, it's hard for anything else to compare. (For the record, I maintain that Minneapolis is equally great, but I do recognize that it wouldn't fare nearly as well on a world-wide survey.)  Still, there really are some truly some great things about life in Williamsburg, and the more time I spend here, the more I recognize and appreciate its own charm.  So, with that said, here's my top five favorite things about life in Williamsburg;

1.  I can take a stroll through the 1770s any time I want.

The CW

The "colonial" part of Williamsburg is a huge tourist attraction, and since I'm a W&M employee, Tom and I both get free annual passes.  The heart of  Colonial Williamsburg (or CW, as us locals call it) runs along the east end of Duke of Gloucester ("DOG") Street, and my office is only a couple blocks away.  CW is full of beautiful historic buildings, gardens, and even pastures full of horses and (super adorable) sheep.  If you have a visitor's pass, men and women dressed in pantaloons and bonnets (respectively) will give you a tour of everything from the Governor's Mansion to the blacksmith's shop, all while lamenting about the "current" problems the colonialists are having with the King.  It can get rather corny at times, but laughing at the corniness (while, for example, watching a "Frenchman" gallop up on a horse and declare his allegiance to America) is all part of the fun. And, good news- if we can't get enough of colonial history, Williamsburg is only 1/3 of the "Historic Triangle," and Jamestown and Yorktown aren't far away.

I Can't Wait to See Views Like This in the Spring!  (Photo from the internet b/c I haven't taken many photos here...)

Just a Normal Day in CW (again, the photo is sadly not mine)

2.  Life in Williamsburg is Easy (and Cheap!)

New Town (one of Williamsburg's many shopping centers)

Of course, most of Williamsburg has come a long way since the 1770s, and we are only a short drive away from Target, Trader Joe's, a huge outlet mall, and countless other shops, restaurants, and entertainment facilities.  I do miss some of the quirky local shops of SF and Rome, but I can't deny the convenience of all of this. And, as much as I loved my 45 minute walk to work though the streets of San Francisco (and as great as it was to not have to worry about maintaining a car), I'm surprised at how much I love being able to jump in our little Corolla in the morning and be at work in only 15 minutes.  (For the record, 15 minutes is a "long" commute as far as Williamsburg commutes go.)  By the way, while we're on the subject of cars, one of the best things about driving in Virginia is trying to figure out the meanings behind all of the personalized license plates.  Since you only have to pay an extra $10, it seems like almost everyone (except us) has one.  So far the biggest challenge was 4NOS4US.  Is this "Four no's for us" (but no on what)?  Four no's for [the] United States?  Or are they Italian and just really like fornos ("ovens")? Of course, the cost of living here is also quite low, and so for the first time in my adult life we have a guest bedroom (come visit us!), and our very own washer and dryer!  Maybe the best thing, though, is that when I go to sleep at night, instead of hearing workers power wash the Whole Foods Parking lot at 2 AM or rowdy kids walking home from the bar, I only hear crickets (or are they cicadas?).  Either way, it's amazing.

Crazy Looking "Williamsburg Pottery" Shopping Area 

3.  Virginia is really, really pretty.

The Bike Trail (my favorite running spot)

The landscape around Williamsburg is beautiful.  We're super lucky to live really close to an extensive bike trail, and so I can run past farm fields, wetlands, and woods (where there are deer everywhere you look) any time I want.  I can even run all the way to the river, although, sadly there is no trail along it, which would be amazing.  (Speaking of the river, you just have to be careful not to drive right onto the car ferry when you're cruising around town, but that's a story for another time). Williamsburg has quite a few other parks, and even though the park system isn't as well developed as in the Twin Cities or SF, there's still a lot to see and do.  Tom and I spent one beautiful Saturday afternoon paddling a (rented) canoe out on the lake, and had so much fun that we're now scheming to buy our own.  Even better, driving just a couple of hours west will take you out to the mountains, and I can't wait to head out there sometime once Tom is back from Pisa!  The icing on the cake, though, is that the weather out here is pretty much ideal (there are four distinct seasons, but relatively mild winters (the average January high is 47 degrees)).  So, I can enjoy the great outdoors year-round!

Our Canoeing Spot!

Jamestown Beach Park (after I accidentally took a trip on the car ferry)

4.  Richmond is Totally Underrated.

Can you believe that's not real sausage?!

Even though Williamsburg is a bit in the middle of no where, we're not far from a lot of great places like Virginia Beach (an hour drive), Washington DC (2.5 hours with no traffic), and Richmond.  Richmond is only 50 minutes away, which is good because it's also our closest major airport. You don't ever hear much about Virginia's capital city (it's always overlooked in those "Best 20 Cities for X" sort of articles), but it seems like a super cool place.  We've visited twice now (once with good friends from the Academy who showed us all around town), and we really loved it. Richmond is a smaller city as far as cities go, and arguably some neighborhoods need a little TLC, but it has a lot of heart and a ton of character.  You get a sense of that "southern charm" in a way that you don't in Williamsburg, and we really loved just strolling though its eclectic neighborhoods and admiring all of the old houses with their cute and homey front porches.  Richmond also has some great parks and restaurants, and we already have our favorite local hipster coffee house (which serves the best veggie sausage breakfast sandwich in the whole world).  I hear the city is also home to a bunch of great museums, so I'm definitely going to have to make a few more weekend trips out there in the near future.

Beautiful Richmond Homes

(Only slight dirty) Richmond Lake!

Tom Enjoying Richmond's Japanese Gardens

Gorgeous Capital Building (photo from the internet, obviously)

5.  Teaching is Pretty Darn Awesome.

Okay, technically this isn't really about Williamsburg, but since I moved here for the job, I can't really overlook this new part of my life.  Yes, it's true that starting a new job and preparing for classes and student meetings is a ton of work.  And there have definitely been times that I've felt overwhelmed, missed my former co-workers, and/or wondered if I really made the right decision.  But, I really do love being in the classroom and (as cliched as this sounds) it's incredibly rewarding when you see that lightbulb go off in a student's mind and feel like you had a part in helping them get there.  Plus, my co-workers are all fantastic, and it's pretty darn cool to get to go by "Professor" now (even if some of these southern kids also insist on calling me Ma'am)!

So after a whirlwind year, here's where our journey ends.  (Perhaps we can convince Tom to write a blog about his life in Pisa now.)  I know that an entry about Williamsburg doesn't exactly fit with the theme of this blog, but, at the same time, it just didn't seem right not to include it.  In some ways I feel incredibly nostalgic for Academy life (and MN and SF life for that matter), and sad that my adventure abroad is over.  But somehow, right now (as strange is it sounds) Williamsburg does feel like exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Arrivaderci,
Erin