Saturday Adventure in Downtown Durham, Pt. 2: Manda’s New Wheels

An important rule of blogging: Don’t promise a blogpost sooner than you can reasonably find time to write it, folks! Yikes! I’m so sorry for not following-up on my previous update.

Well, without further ado, here’s part deux to our Saturday adventure.

Manda’s New Wheels 

(In which she acquires the bicycle of her dreams and wonders how she ever rode such an awful clunker of a bike for the last 4 years.) 

We toted our delicious farmers' market purchases on the bus and headed over to Durham Cycles…but not before we discovered the bounty (and bathroom) of Whole Foods. After that brief stop, we were back on track to Durham Cycles, an incredibly well reviewed bike shop in town. Let me tell you, the reviews didn’t lie. We were served by the owner of the shop, David, and he was as knowledgeable as he was kind and thoughtful. I had already done some research on the kind of bike I wanted (a commuter) and was torn between two slightly different models of the same bike made by Breezer. One commuter model had a typical body with an upright ride; the other was a ladies’ design with had a low-step for classy cycling in a dress or skirt. Out of the two Breezer bikes, I only tried the low-step only since the ride was otherwise the same and I was pretty much sold on the low-step feature from the start. I also tried a hybrid bike that was marked down into my price range but it ended up feeling like I was steering a boat and the gears stuck. 

In the end, the Breezer low-step was perfect; everything about it felt right! The ride and size is ideal for me and the gears change like a dream. I also love the simple elegance of a white bike and there’s something intrinsically beautiful about its shape, must be Hogarth’s line of beauty.

Here she is!

On yet another nerdy note, I’ve named my bike ‘Bea’, short for Beatrix. I initially liked the name because it has its origins in the Latin word ‘beata’ which can be translated as ‘blessed’, or, ‘bringing happiness’ and that’s how I felt when I found my bike! Just this incredible rush of excitement and adventure. I also Googled Beatrix and discovered that my understanding of the word comes from a later development in Latin which links the noun/(verbal)adjective to church Latin (beata as blessed). Apparently, an earlier definition of beatrix has it as the feminine of viator, which translates to ‘voyager,’ or ‘traveller’! So like the Rossetti painting, I’ve officially named by bike, Beata Beatrix: Blessed Traveller.

May we always have safe travels!

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beata Beatrix, c.1864-70, Oil On Canvas (reproduced from The Tate Britain website)

Saturday Adventure in Downtown Durham, Pt. 1: The Durham Farmers’ Market

Yesterday was quite the day for senses as we visited The Durham Farmers’ Market (click for link)! Back in February, while I was interviewing at Duke, I had visited the Market and its accompanying pedestrian street of crafters and food trucks (yes, can you imagine, the farmer’s market was open—albeit with a reduced number of venders—selling local produce and farm fresh meats, eggs and cheeses in FEBRUARY).

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Before you read any further, because I know you're wondering... there are no pictures for this post :( We ran out the door and I forgot my camera at home. What can I say? I'm working on being a better photographer and I'm sure that as soon as we get our new cellphones, this blog will never go picture-less again! For now, I encourage you, our good reader, to visit the beautiful pictures of the Durham Farmers' Market at: http://rlephoto.blogspot.com/2010/08/durham-farmers-market.html 

The authors of this blog have captured the rich colours and feel of the market perfectly! They also have a few pictures of their own backyard posted here, including a crazy caterpillar! 

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The story continues...

Since we had a second outing planned in Durham after the farmers’ market (see "Saturday Adventure in Downtown Durham, Pt. 2: Manda’s New Wheels"<-- coming soon!) we decided to take the bus into town. Buses here are pretty neat! On the whole, they do not come as frequently as buses in Montreal, but that seems to go with the mentality of public transportation here as well as the prominence of car culture. Most people own a car and drive everywhere; there’s no question about that being the easiest mode of transportation since things are quite spread out. Jon and I have vowed to try to be full-time cyclists, part-time bus-ists and, as needed, occasional car renters for at least the next year. I digress: back to the buses! They’re air-conditioned, the drivers are always friendly, no one is in a huff if you take too long to get on the bus. which is good if you’re someone like me or Jon and need a few extra moments to load your bikes on the bus’ bike racks! That’s right, folks, all buses (so far) have front mounted bike racks to accommodate two bikes. Amazing! And so we road such a bus at 10am yesterday morning to the Durham bus terminal and then walked 10mins to the market!

The Durham Farmers’ Market

The Market was a-booming when we got there! The market is only open twice a week: Wednesdays 3:30pm-6:30pm and Saturdays from 8:00am-12:00pm. We planned on being hungry when we first arrived and so we made a beeline to the food trucks and got the most amazing breakfast biscuit at Porchetta (click for link). It consisted of their freshly made, homemade biscuit, a local farm fresh egg and their tender, rosemary infused, slow-roasted shredded pork. Jon and I were in heaven. I should add that this was consumed with great happiness and our 3^rd bottle of water for the day. It was a scorcher yesterday!

After we finished our breakfast, it was time to check out all the local produce. The market’s central hub occupies about a city block and is only sheltered by a roof. In the summer, as was the case yesterday, there are more venders (farmers, artisanal bakers, candle makers, potters, etc.) than there are places in the sheltered market so they end up lining the street immediately in front of the market, too! Everything we being sold was locally grown and farm fresh: what a treat! This time, our bounty included:

-field tomatoes

-red, brownish-purple and yellow cherry tomatoes

-4 eggplants

-two basil plants

-fresh cut basil

-delicious gourmet cookies

-1 bialy (our very first one: we ate it right away and I thought of my great aunt Frida who would have then for my mum when she visited NYC)

We also bought a Durham Farmers’ Market tote to get into the spirit of things!

By the time we had finished our purchases and were ready for the next leg of our downtown adventure, it was noon and incredibly hot. I’m quickly learning that more than the heat, the humidity gets you here and it gets you good. We kept drinking water… no one else was drinking… but we kept drinking and it was still so darn hot and we still felt thirsty! I figure, or at least I have to hope, that we will eventually adapt to the heat. For now, I’ll never leave the house without 1L of water. We did find some respite though on the BCC (Bull City Connector), a free shuttle that drives through the city, since it too had air conditioning!

 Off we went to Durham Cycles… (to be continued in "Saturday Adventure in Downtown Durham, Pt. 2: Manda’s New Wheels")

Apartment Pictures

As promised, here are some pics I snapped of our new place. As you can see, we've got quite a few boxes to unpack and no couches! I think the plan is, at least for now, to get 90% of our things unpacked and place the furniture we do have and then sort our the couch situation. It's a bit of a funny space to fill-- take a look at the floor plan here and let us know if you have any tips for a seating area: http://www.trinitypropertiesapartments.com/uploads/1/2/3/5/12353323/anderson-2-bedroom.jpg

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom walk-in closet

Master Bedroom half bathroom accessed via walk-in closet

Guest room

Guest room

Main bathroom

Main bathroom

Main bathroom

Hallway and Darcy

Living room/Dining room and lots of boxes!

Front Door

View of the apartment from the front door and into the kitchen

Balcony with our bedframe... oops!

Looking at these pictures, I now realize that I failed to photograph the kitchen! I guess that will be for a future post :)

America the Beautiful

We’re here! We live in Durham, NC – what a strange and exciting reality!

We drove away from Montreal at sunrise on July 31^st after many loving embraces from our family and a few tears shed. The weather was perfect for the longest of our two-day drive down to North Carolina and we couldn’t have been more pleased!

Our first major hurdle was crossing the boarder and although we had gotten some info from Jon’s new peer and fellow Canadian at UNC, we were anxious to receive our Visas and enter the country with a truck filled with everything we own! Thankfully, everything went quickly and smoothly thanks to the friendly and informative CBP officer who processed our entry. As we sat back into our truck and closed the doors, Jon and I turned to each other and smiled sheepish little smiles, almost like two thieves who snuck off unnoticed. It was an odd mixture of fear and exhilaration: we had just passed a major milestone but then had to face the enormity of our unknown adventure in America.

Our drive went as well as one could have hoped, but it was longer than we expected. Still, there was so much to take in and chat about. Jon is the best company. Even though we had hours of music and podcasts planned we ended up chatting away most of the drive! There also seemed to be an endless series of picturesque vistas on our drive that left us breathless. There were rolling hills, beautiful pink flowering trees, corn fields and as we drove further south, a lush sea of vines carpeted entire sections of forest. There were also the sweet little homes in the towns we stopped in to refuel, as well as the big shopping centres that occupy several city blocks. I must admit, the drive really changed my perspective of America.

We finally arrived at our stopover in Fredericksurg, VA close to midnight and it had been a long day for everyone. We got in a good night’s sleep and then set off on the road the next morning around 11:00am. It drizzled a bit in the morning, but that was still an improvement from the heavy rain we had the night before at the end of our drive. We stopped for a quick lunch and then made good time to Trinity Property’s office  (our landlord), signed a few documents and picked up our keys and then we were off to our apartment!

The apartment is close to Duke in Durham, NC. It’s a little more removed from campus and within walking distance to a major grocery store as well as a few bakeries and cafes! Anyways, I’m sure you’d like to hear what the apartment is like! Well, it’s 4 ½ with 1.5 bathrooms. It’s cute, cozy and well maintained; they even just redid our bathrooms! One scary surprise that we noticed almost immediately: NO DISHWASHER (yikes)! We were promised a dishwasher and so called Trinity to see what could be done. Lucky us, we will get a *new* dishwasher installed before the end of the month!

That first night in the apartment we unloaded a few essentials from the truck, including our mattress, and settled in for a much-needed rest. The next morning our hired moving help came early and they masterfully unloaded our truck. It definitely made a huge difference to have the extra help! 

I wish I could tell you we all had an easy move, but that just wasn’t the case for our poor kitty. Before our trip we had Darcy try out two different sedatives/anti-anxiety medications and neither had the desired effect. Darcy is a strong, resilient and (unfortunately) stubborn cat and he fought off the drowsy effects of both pills. At a point he so disliked the way they made him feel he became aggressive. We contacted the vet for more options (this was already after we had asked for the second script) and she said that nothing else could be done. So we made sure Darcy was as comfy as possible and tried to soothe him as best we could and took him out for some fresh air on his harness during the drive. It was very hard to see Darcy struggle as he did and for him to come out of the ordeal with a few injuries from clawing at his cage’s metal door… I am pleased to say that he is nearly fully recovered and I have stayed by his side nearly every moment since we arrived, being a watchful mama.

We’ve been diligently unpacking and figuring out how best to arrange furniture and store our things in our new home, but it’s a bit of a game of Tetris! We’ve also done some shopping trips either to the grocery store or Walmart and both were learning experiences. There’s really so much to take in here! Including our neighbourhood  which is incredibly beautiful and as far as we can tell, populated with only friendly and kind people.

I’ve taken a few pictures of the apartment with all our unpacked boxes scattered about and will post them tomorrow (it’s a bit late now!). Later on, when things have all found a place in the apartment, I’ll do the ‘after’ photo shoot.