Moving to Woodbridge (Arlington, Alexandria, Washington: apartments, to rent, townhouse)

[alice]

Hi,

I am an Austrian girl planning to stay in Woodbridge for 6 months. As I haven't found so much information about Woodbridge on the internet I hope that YOU can help me :-)

So, what's life in Woodbridge/neighborhoods? Spare time activities (sports, cultural activities)? Social life? Are people open to foreigners? What's the landscape like?

I would be grateful for any information.

Thanx

alice

[finalmove]

Why Woodbridge? Are you going to work? If you plan on working in Washington, you would slit your wrists in a week! The traffic is beyond hideous!

[alice]

Yes I am going to work there as an intern.

[dullnboring]

If you look in the FBI Academy thread within the Virginia Forum, I detailed the Woodbridge area quite a bit.

The gist of it however is that Woodbridge is pretty much your generic sprawly suburb. The landscape is fairly bland. What you have to realize coming from Austria is that our suburbs in the U.S. are generally laid-out very differently from those in Europe. Woodbridge, like most suburbs of significant distance from the core city (DC is some 25 miles...or 40 km, north), has no central downtown. It is geared towards the car. You must drive everywhere, even to the grocery store. Many suburbs are just not built for pedestrians in any sense; some even lack sidewalks. There is little local identity in the sense that one suburb sort of bleeds into another with little discernible difference. Suburbs like Woodbridge are largely marked by residential areas (mix of cookie cutter subdivisions, townhouse communities and garden-style apartments), strip malls, car dealerships, big box chain stores (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc.), and fast food restaurants set alongside traffic-choked main roads. There isn't a much "charm" or community as you'd find in European cities. The area is not very visually appealing but that's the case of the majority of American suburbs. As far as nightlife and cultural attractions and just in general, things to do, they are sort of few and far between in Woodbridge. Like most suburbs, there's the mall you can go to, or the movie theatre or the bowling alley, maybe a random bar and pool hall scattered in one of the anonymous strip malls and the like. In general though, if you're looking for a high concentration of nightlife, socializing, and cultural attractions, you have to go into DC or one of it's closer-in suburbs like Arlington and Alexandria, where there are plenty of things to do. DC is a major city with all the amenities; live music venues, museums, comedy clubs, etc.

Unless there is something specific attracting you to Woodbridge (you have friends/family there?), I would highly recommend staying someplace closer in to the city. The DC area has some of the worst traffic in the nation (we always jockey for 2nd or 3rd place in terms of traffic congestion) and it's not unheard of for a commute from Woodbridge to take as long as an hour and a half (although I'd say an hour each way would probably be the norm). Are you planning on bringing or buying a car? If not, and are relying on public transportation, I believe VRE (Virginia Railway Express) has a station in Woodbridge but don't quote me on that, check their website, which could ease commute time BUT you still have to get TO the station from wherever you're staying which in itself could be a pain. Commute determines everything here which is why I'd recommend living closer in towards DC. Personally, I think anything longer than a 10 mile commute in the DC area is too much. I think you should try to live closer in in Alexandria or Arlington or DC, especially if you don't have a car. It might be more expensive, but you can still find deals if willing to rent out a room, but you have to figure you're paying for more free time (less time in traffic commuting), better access to things to do, and you could quite possibly wind up saving more money since you wouldn't be spending so much on gas.

As far as openness to foreigners, the DC area is a diverse melting pot and you shouldn't have any problems as far as that goes. The Woodbridge area has a high concentration of immigrants from Latin America (largely El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Peru) but the DC area as a whole is extremely cosmopolitan and open to foreigners. I will say however that there are comparatively few Europeans here. Most immigrants are from Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East and the Caribbean. There aren't really any major European immigrant communities to speak of. The overwhelming majority of European-descended people in the DC area have been here (in the US) for generations, have never been to Europe, and only speak English.

[alice]

Hi dullnboring,

thank you very much for your detailed reply. It helped me a lot to get a first impression of what to expect.

[lala617]

Leave at 5:30 a.m. if you're driving into DC and want to avoid congestion. I live in Woodbridge and leave early and just work out at the gym up there before work. Puts me in a better mood than to just leave later and fight traffic congestion.

[jaywallace]

Originally Posted by alice

Hi,

I am an Austrian girl planning to stay in Woodbridge for 6 months. As I haven't found so much information about Woodbridge on the internet I hope that YOU can help me :-)

So, what's life in Woodbridge/neighborhoods? Spare time activities (sports, cultural activities)? Social life? Are people open to foreigners? What's the landscape like?

I would be grateful for any information.

Thanx

alice

If I were you I would stay in Alexandria.

[SaratL]

why not Georgetown and if you will plan to use the metro - also consider Bethedsa/Chevy Chase/Friendship Heights area.

[car54]

I think alice is back in Austria since this thread is two years old!

I hope she enjoyed her stay!