The search for a new home in Washington was firstly a very good way to get to know the city, its streets, avenues and milestones. Since I had to move around without my car (a later entry on that shortly), it also was a good workout for my legs... I contacted an agent through which I visited a few flats. Then a colleague told me to check on a website. This was much more productive and allowed me to visit quite a few places. Of course, in some cases, they would ask for your social security number or for your credit score... all foreign concepts to a foreigner... Then I found this flat and fortunately the owner is an Eastern European who worked for the World Bank. But the agent was not pleased that I found something on my own, and required that I pay her a fee equivalent to half a month's rent. After enquiring with the Embassy and my employer, I did not reply to her demands and have not heard anything from her yet.
September 2 was the move-in date. My belongings had arrived the week before at Norfolk after an uneventful crossing of the Atlantic. Whereas in Switzerland, it was a team of Balkan people who packed my things, on this side of the Atlantic, it was a team of black people. They were efficient and quick. They put everything back in functioning order. Nothing was broken during the trip. Nice to have everything back in to rearrange stuff in a much bigger space.
The flat is in a fairly new building, on the 8th floor (from 14). It has all amenities, such as washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, built-in store space, two bathrooms. The building itself has a fitness room, a community room with a pool table, a poker table and a TV (with the tennis channel), a garage and a big roofdeck. This deck is apparently hugely popular on the 4th of July for the fireworks display. My Geneva friends should definitely plan to come around at that time and compare with ours!
This downtown building is situated on one of the main street and part of an area that has improved a lot over the past years in terms of the quality of the buildings, the social activities and security. It is a 20 minutes walk to my work and there is a direct bus (the circulator) just on my doorstep.
You might have noticed that there is no picture of the guest room. Well this should be taken as an invitation to come over. At least, there is a little bit of a surprise for when you come around. Surely you will not be disappointed.
Being finally allowed to drive my own car, the visit of a swiss friend was the perfect opportunity to discover the area. First stop: the Shenandoah national park. Most of it is about driving along the Slyline, a panoramic road up the Appalaches mountain range, with a great view over the Shenandoah valley.
Other highlights include great walks in the lush forest. We did a four hour walk to reach a serie of waterfalls. On our way back we met other tourists on horses. I surely would not have minded highjacking - or horsejacking - them. No, actually for us swiss this was like a walk in the park.
My friend wanted so badly to see a black bear. We were not so lucky - so she got herself a T-shirt with a funny bear and a motto "I'm beary tired". Still we got to see some chipmunks but they were too fast for my camera. At least the deers were more accomodative. Almost made me feel like being in an african national park.
It is written all over the park: the national park benefits from the American fiscal stimulus program. View points, parking spots and trails are renovated thanks to the "recovery dollars". But I have not seen these dollars being used to upgrade the lodges (they could definitely get a facelift) or to expand them. I wondered whether additional tourists would be attracted by spotless parking lots or by cosier and environmentally friendlier lodges. It is quite possible that the return on these dollars will be very low. But here is probably not the place to discuss the effectiveness of fiscal stimulus...!
