Something I forgot to mention in my last blog post was how incredibly hot it is here. Since we've arrived, the maximum temperature has always been above 30 degrees, and on most days it's been above 35. Combined with the unbelievable humidity, on the milder days it feels like someone's hot breath on you all the time, on the hotter days it's just like being in an oven. Air-conditioning is a life-saver, but as you sometimes have to step out of the air-conditioned comfort, there are a number of survival strategies. Mine consist of always carrying a bottle of water with me (I cool them in the fridge), and accepting that I am going to be drenched with sweat within about five minutes of leaving the house.
On Friday evening, we went to look at a flat in Takoma Park, a suburb in Maryland, just outside the border of the District of Columbia. André and I picked up a very useful book on one of our first days here called, 'Newcomer's Handbook for moving to and living in Washington D.C.'. In it, it gives brief descriptions of all the neighbourhoods in Washington, as well as some of the more popular areas to live in the surrounding states of Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. Some extracts about what it says about Takoma Park:
"In the Birkenstocks-and-incense community of Takoma Park, the two-party system is Democrats and Greens. City government here boycotts the nuclear industry (so you won't find GE lightbulbs in schools or libraries) and companies that do business in Burma (so no Pepsi machines in municipal buildings). Legal aliens who own or rent homes here are allowed to vote in municipal elections and serve on the city council or school board. In addition, the city has won awards for its recycling efferts and tree conservation, and has been given the nickname 'Azalea City' for the colorful bushes that bloom in many front yards in late spring. A thriving food co-op and farmers' market meet the huge demand for natural and organic food, and the neighborhood eateries along Carroll Avenue - an authentic neighborhood street - are careful to provide vegetarian and vegan selections. Many residential streets have 'speed humps' (much bigger than speed bumps, residents explain) to keep traffic from endangering cyclists, pedestrians, and children at play.
[...]
"Except for a few boxy apartment high-rises along Maple Avenue, Takoma Park's hilly, winding streets are lined with nice houses in varied styles: cozy bungalows, clapboard Victorians, and duplexes or big cottages that have been broken up into apartments. [...] Shaded with mature trees, the typical block is charming; in the spring and summer many yards burst with colorful blooms, particularly forsythia and azaleas. Some homes have tidy watch-pocket yards, wile others have Sligo Creek Park for a backyard."
Sounded good to me! On Friday evening, I met up with André at a central metro station and we took the metro out to Takoma Park together. It was sweltering, so we stopped at a Seven-Eleven to get something to drink and to get our blood sugar up. That little bottle of water/iced tea didn't go very far, though. The walk to the place was about half an hour in the heat. When we got there, we were greeted by a guy wearing a baseball cap with long, bushy red hair and a long, unkempt beard. It turned out he was the agent ("but I don't like to call it that, because 'agent' has all sorts of other connotations..."). After producing a number of large bunches of keys from his pockets and realising he didn't have the key with him (he quickly ran and fetched it), he led us up the stairs of the smallish, red-brick apartment block. (You can take a look at the advert at http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/mld/apa/1841221791.html) The stairwell smelled of new paint, and the walls were lined with a kind of linoleum-type fake marble that must have dated from the 60s. The flat itself was roomy, with two good-sized bedrooms. But the windows were small (maybe only a metre high), there was no dishwasher in the kitchen, and the laundry was in the basement. And the flat itself was on the 3rd floor. And the carpet was AWFUL - a kind of cream with orange and beige speckles. (I know it's shallow, but I just couldn't see myself looking at it for a whole year. Especially as the entire house (except the kitchen and bathroom) was fitted with it. Wall-to-wall. Ugh!)
On the way home, André and I chatted and we agreed that this wasn't going to be it. Besides the inherent characteristics of the flat that we didn't like (I think I'd feel couped up in there), it's to the north of DC, and it turns out André's offices, which are currently in Camp Springs to the South East, won't be moving up that way for at least another year due to delays incurred by a law suit. So we're back looking for something central in DC, preferably Adams Morgan. I loved Takoma Park, though, so maybe we can look there once it's time to buy a house. (As a result of this conversation, we decided to cancel the appointment we had to look at another place there on Saturday).
On Saturday morning, we went to look at a place in the U-Street area. This area was traditionally very important to the civil liberties movement in the 60s, and many of the race riots started there. Today, the neighbourhood looks a lot like downtown Bellville/Parow. The place we looked at was very nice: an old house that had been subdivided into two apartments. But it was in the worst kind of neighbourhood, with shady characters sitting on the street corners and a kind of flea market on the next block. So we decided to give it a miss.
Yesterday, we went for a bit of a walk around Adams Morgan (in the heat). The area really is lovely, especially if you can get a place in one of the tree-lined neighbourhoods. But a big apartment block is okay too, we decided. So I'll be phoning a few agents this morning.
Yesterday was also the first of our church shopping expeditions. I left it rather late, and so ended up just picking a church in the neighbourhood, and this time it was the Goodwill Baptist Church. As soon as we arrived, we realised that this was going to be an old-school African-American service. We were the only white people there! The congregation was very small - maybe 20 or 30 people scattered around the church, most of them elderly ladies, and the 'Goodwill Baptist Gospel Choir' consisted of 3 ladies in white gowns plus the choir leader. They were accompanied by 3 older gentlemen on piano/keyboard/hammond organ, electrical guitar and drums. The singing wasn't always quite in tune, but the three instrumentalists were great! And the people were really friendly and welcoming, and the message was really encouraging. So maybe we'll go back to visit now and then, even if we don't make it our home church.
On Saturday evening, we went to watch 'Inception' at the IMAX theatre in Alexandria, Virginia. We didn't quite get the full immersion effect from the IMAX we had hoped for, as we were sitting in the second row from the front, to one side, but the movie was amazing! I can highly recommend it. And if you can't follow it, go again. It really stayed with me, and I found myself thinking about it much of the next day. Very powerful.
x Annemarie
No comments:
Post a Comment