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Location: Chapel Hill, NC, formerly NoVA and Phila
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JEB77 asked in another thread if our move was complete, so I thought I'd give an update. My husband has been working in NC since November. The kids and I moved down to Chapel Hill last weekend (waited until the end of the marking period). We're still homeowners in Vienna, for a short while longer, though. We have to make a few more trips up there to bring down our a pop-up camper and utility trailer and clean some stuff out of the house. We are putting the house on the market on the last weekend in February or the first weekend in March.
Chapel Hill is nice, but I miss Vienna. I feel like I can give a better perspective on moving to NoVA now that I live somewhere else, because I don't think I truly realized how immune I was to the NoVA traffic and congestion and how the rest of the country lives. Here I can drive to the supermarket 3 miles away and pass only a handful of cars. Then I can park up close to the door. There is no wait at the deli counter or the checkout lines. It's amazing!
My daughter's 1st grade class has 19 children in it! And there is a teacher and an assistant. (Take that, FCPS!). My 4th grader's class has 25 students with a teacher and an assistant, too. (Limit is 24 students in grades K to 2 and 26 students in grades 3-5, I believe). Carpool lane is smooth and very quick, not the crazy, crowded mess that was at our old school.
Diversity is much less down here, even though Chapel Hill is one of the more diverse and international places in the state. When I walk to my daughter's school for pickup I am amazed at all of the white faces I see with a handful of Asian students and a few blacks. I have not seen any overtly Muslim people or any Latino students, but I know they are there since our school is a Spanish Immersion school. Again, it gives me some perspective. When people say they live in a "diverse" area down here or in other places in the US, I don't think they realize how much more diverse it will be in NoVA.
We went to a Girl Scout meeting yesterday and the homeowners had a dozen chickens in their yard - not something I saw much in Vienna. It becomes rural very quick here. In NoVA, if I wanted to go strawberry picking, I had to go out to Loudoun or Fauquier Counties. Here, there are a few places in Chapel Hill itself. Amazing.
The weather is a bit warmer here, which I am enjoying. But other than that and the less congestion, I miss the compactness of Vienna, the family-friendly atmosphere, and our friends. Chapel Hill is still a college town at its core, which makes the downtown not as family-friendly.
So if you don't mind, I'll be sticking around this board for a bit longer doling out advice and maybe offering a different perspective now that I moved away from the DC area after living there for over 22 years.
Thanks for "reporting" in. I've only been to Chapel Hill once; for my cousin's wedding (his wife went to Duke, I think). It was a lovely place from what I can remember but definitely less populated!
Congratulations on your move! And I hear you on having to be removed from the NoVA situation for a while to appreciate how differently things work here. I was back up in Massachusetts for an extended stay due to a death in the family, and I came to appreciate how kinder and gentler the drivers in NoVA are compared to Massachusetts.
Location: Huntersville/Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC
26,700 posts, read 41,718,665 times
Reputation: 41376
Quote:
Originally Posted by michgc
JEB77 asked in another thread if our move was complete, so I thought I'd give an update. My husband has been working in NC since November. The kids and I moved down to Chapel Hill last weekend (waited until the end of the marking period). We're still homeowners in Vienna, for a short while longer, though. We have to make a few more trips up there to bring down our a pop-up camper and utility trailer and clean some stuff out of the house. We are putting the house on the market on the last weekend in February or the first weekend in March.
Chapel Hill is nice, but I miss Vienna. I feel like I can give a better perspective on moving to NoVA now that I live somewhere else, because I don't think I truly realized how immune I was to the NoVA traffic and congestion and how the rest of the country lives. Here I can drive to the supermarket 3 miles away and pass only a handful of cars. Then I can park up close to the door. There is no wait at the deli counter or the checkout lines. It's amazing!
My daughter's 1st grade class has 19 children in it! And there is a teacher and an assistant. (Take that, FCPS!). My 4th grader's class has 25 students with a teacher and an assistant, too. (Limit is 24 students in grades K to 2 and 26 students in grades 3-5, I believe). Carpool lane is smooth and very quick, not the crazy, crowded mess that was at our old school.
Diversity is much less down here, even though Chapel Hill is one of the more diverse and international places in the state. When I walk to my daughter's school for pickup I am amazed at all of the white faces I see with a handful of Asian students and a few blacks. I have not seen any overtly Muslim people or any Latino students, but I know they are there since our school is a Spanish Immersion school. Again, it gives me some perspective. When people say they live in a "diverse" area down here or in other places in the US, I don't think they realize how much more diverse it will be in NoVA.
We went to a Girl Scout meeting yesterday and the homeowners had a dozen chickens in their yard - not something I saw much in Vienna. It becomes rural very quick here. In NoVA, if I wanted to go strawberry picking, I had to go out to Loudoun or Fauquier Counties. Here, there are a few places in Chapel Hill itself. Amazing.
The weather is a bit warmer here, which I am enjoying. But other than that and the less congestion, I miss the compactness of Vienna, the family-friendly atmosphere, and our friends. Chapel Hill is still a college town at its core, which makes the downtown not as family-friendly.
So if you don't mind, I'll be sticking around this board for a bit longer doling out advice and maybe offering a different perspective now that I moved away from the DC area after living there for over 22 years.
As a former NoVA resident myself, I think time to take your new residence all in is good. You're not going to take Chapel Hill in in one week, it is a long process.
The diversity was the first thing that hit me in KY too. Mostly white and a few blacks and Asians. It is weird but eventually you will adapt.
Traffic will be an adjustment also. I can get to any area of Louisville from my residence within 20 min and my mom's house 50 miles away in 50 min. Also driving speed limit and above will be a shock as well.
Like I said you have a adjustment period ahead of you.
JEB77 asked in another thread if our move was complete, so I thought I'd give an update. My husband has been working in NC since November. The kids and I moved down to Chapel Hill last weekend (waited until the end of the marking period). We're still homeowners in Vienna, for a short while longer, though. We have to make a few more trips up there to bring down our a pop-up camper and utility trailer and clean some stuff out of the house. We are putting the house on the market on the last weekend in February or the first weekend in March.
Chapel Hill is nice, but I miss Vienna. I feel like I can give a better perspective on moving to NoVA now that I live somewhere else, because I don't think I truly realized how immune I was to the NoVA traffic and congestion and how the rest of the country lives. Here I can drive to the supermarket 3 miles away and pass only a handful of cars. Then I can park up close to the door. There is no wait at the deli counter or the checkout lines. It's amazing!
My daughter's 1st grade class has 19 children in it! And there is a teacher and an assistant. (Take that, FCPS!). My 4th grader's class has 25 students with a teacher and an assistant, too. (Limit is 24 students in grades K to 2 and 26 students in grades 3-5, I believe). Carpool lane is smooth and very quick, not the crazy, crowded mess that was at our old school.
Diversity is much less down here, even though Chapel Hill is one of the more diverse and international places in the state. When I walk to my daughter's school for pickup I am amazed at all of the white faces I see with a handful of Asian students and a few blacks. I have not seen any overtly Muslim people or any Latino students, but I know they are there since our school is a Spanish Immersion school. Again, it gives me some perspective. When people say they live in a "diverse" area down here or in other places in the US, I don't think they realize how much more diverse it will be in NoVA.
We went to a Girl Scout meeting yesterday and the homeowners had a dozen chickens in their yard - not something I saw much in Vienna. It becomes rural very quick here. In NoVA, if I wanted to go strawberry picking, I had to go out to Loudoun or Fauquier Counties. Here, there are a few places in Chapel Hill itself. Amazing.
The weather is a bit warmer here, which I am enjoying. But other than that and the less congestion, I miss the compactness of Vienna, the family-friendly atmosphere, and our friends. Chapel Hill is still a college town at its core, which makes the downtown not as family-friendly.
So if you don't mind, I'll be sticking around this board for a bit longer doling out advice and maybe offering a different perspective now that I moved away from the DC area after living there for over 22 years.
Hopefully you'll start to notice the differences you miss less frequently and the things you're appreciating, like the smaller class sizes and less congestion generally, will continue to please you.
Good luck to your family in the Tar Heel State - and please keep posting. Heck, I keep posting about Vienna, and I don't live there anymore (though I can't keep away from Rose Kabob).
JEB77 asked in another thread if our move was complete, so I thought I'd give an update. My husband has been working in NC since November. The kids and I moved down to Chapel Hill last weekend (waited until the end of the marking period). We're still homeowners in Vienna, for a short while longer, though. We have to make a few more trips up there to bring down our a pop-up camper and utility trailer and clean some stuff out of the house. We are putting the house on the market on the last weekend in February or the first weekend in March.
Chapel Hill is nice, but I miss Vienna. I feel like I can give a better perspective on moving to NoVA now that I live somewhere else, because I don't think I truly realized how immune I was to the NoVA traffic and congestion and how the rest of the country lives. Here I can drive to the supermarket 3 miles away and pass only a handful of cars. Then I can park up close to the door. There is no wait at the deli counter or the checkout lines. It's amazing!
My daughter's 1st grade class has 19 children in it! And there is a teacher and an assistant. (Take that, FCPS!). My 4th grader's class has 25 students with a teacher and an assistant, too. (Limit is 24 students in grades K to 2 and 26 students in grades 3-5, I believe). Carpool lane is smooth and very quick, not the crazy, crowded mess that was at our old school.
Diversity is much less down here, even though Chapel Hill is one of the more diverse and international places in the state. When I walk to my daughter's school for pickup I am amazed at all of the white faces I see with a handful of Asian students and a few blacks. I have not seen any overtly Muslim people or any Latino students, but I know they are there since our school is a Spanish Immersion school. Again, it gives me some perspective. When people say they live in a "diverse" area down here or in other places in the US, I don't think they realize how much more diverse it will be in NoVA.
We went to a Girl Scout meeting yesterday and the homeowners had a dozen chickens in their yard - not something I saw much in Vienna. It becomes rural very quick here. In NoVA, if I wanted to go strawberry picking, I had to go out to Loudoun or Fauquier Counties. Here, there are a few places in Chapel Hill itself. Amazing.
The weather is a bit warmer here, which I am enjoying. But other than that and the less congestion, I miss the compactness of Vienna, the family-friendly atmosphere, and our friends. Chapel Hill is still a college town at its core, which makes the downtown not as family-friendly.
So if you don't mind, I'll be sticking around this board for a bit longer doling out advice and maybe offering a different perspective now that I moved away from the DC area after living there for over 22 years.
That's odd that you don't see many Latin kids, there are a good number, pretty much everywhere is getting more immigrants and the Triangle is no exception. I used to live in CH and it's my favorite place in the world and I hope to move back, but I'm a younger single guy so my perspective is different. There's a lot to do with kids in CH, take them to the Children's Museum, the pool, to get ice cream or food on Franklin St. I find NOVA way worse a place to raise a kid, so expensive and congested with a bunch of stuck up prep students, people in the Triangle are laid back and nicer, not as many of the rich degenerate cokeheads like a good portion of the richer NOVA high school kids.
I envy you for being able to leave NOVA. Although if I leave I know I won't go further south. I do like the area you've moved to though. Not too far from the mountains or the ocean.
I will be interested to hear your comparisons of the school districts after your children have been there, other than just class size. FCPS tends to think they are the best, but contrary to popular belief, there are a lot of highly regarded and very good school districts "out there" beyond the beltway.
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I feel like I can give a better perspective on moving to NoVA now that I live somewhere else, because I don't think I truly realized how immune I was to the NoVA traffic and congestion and how the rest of the country lives. Here I can drive to the supermarket 3 miles away and pass only a handful of cars. 
Then I can park up close to the door. There is no wait at the deli counter or the checkout lines. It's amazing! 
