Moving to North Carolina: Part 1

Hello everyone!

I know I haven't been updating much this summer. Truthfully, I just felt like I didn't have much to say, because there wasn't much going on in my life (although I did read up a storm...reviews coming soon!). Also, it was summer...I was feeling lazy. But now I'm about to go back to school, and I'm in the mood to be productive again. Plus, things are actually going on.

For example, I recently moved from Florida to North Carolina! This actually happened a week-ago, but I've been busying settling in and haven't had time for blogging. But now I can sit down and catch you all up.

My mom and I left Florida at 7 AM on Wednesday morning. My mom had originally suggested leaving at 4 AM, but I veto-ed that. I have to say, though, there are some definite advantages to starting early - there is less traffic, and by noon you've already accomplished so much. I loaded up the car then night before. Here's a tip for those of you moving: Take stuff out of the boxes, and just put it straight in the trunk! That's what I did with all my clothes, and I was able to fit a lot more in.

We ate almost every meal on the road at McDonald's. I hate to say it, but I loved it. Those Egg McMuffins are just so good! And their coffee! It's not something I would eat every day, but it's fun every once in a while.

We finally stopped in Fayetteville, NC, just an hour outside our destination, Chapel Hill. We decided to do this so that we would be fresh and ready to start shopping for furniture the next morning. Also, I didn't have a bed set up in my new apartment, and it would've been rough to sleep on the floor after driving all day.

To be honest, I had been dreading this drive before we started out. I haven't ever been on a really long car trip, and I thought it would be so boring. But my mom and I listened to the audiobook of Holly Black's book White Glove, and since it's a fast-paced book, that really made the time go quickly. Plus, it was kind of nice to just sit and look out the window for a whole day.

On the road, entering South Carolina

Thursday morning, we got up early and finished the drive to Chapel Hill. When we got there, I was happy and relieved to see that my apartment was actually really nice. I'd never seen it in person - I set up the whole thing over the internet. So really I was just glad to see that it actually even existed. I was scared it had all been a scam.

Once we unloaded my stuff, we set out in search of furniture. I had none. I sold everything in my old apartment when I moved because I figured it would be cheaper to just buy new things. And I was right! We ended up finding this really nice thrift store, the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Durham. It specializes in furniture, and they had a ton of stuff, most of it very reasonably priced. Things went so quickly though! There were several nice dressers, all $50, and by the end of the day they were all gone. I got a desk for $20, a dresser for $35, a nice, cushy chair for $35, a bed frame for $15, and 2 lamps for $5 each. Most of my furniture apparently came from some apartment complex that had just remodeled. So there were about 20 of the same chairs, and 20 of the same desks, etc. We bought my actual mattress new at Sam's Club. 

You know you're in Chapel Hill when there's a giant ram in Walmart...

BUT, we didn't actually pick the stuff up until the next day. Then, we rented a U-Haul and went around and collected all the things that we had paid for the previous day. Thankfully, my mom drove the U-Haul so I didn't have to, and everything went pretty smoothly.

In between shopping and moving, we also tried some of the local restaurants. There is a lot of good food around here! We had breakfast at Breadmans, which was decorated all in UNC paraphernalia, of course. I had eggs, hash browns and a biscuit. The biscuit was especially good and really made me feel like I was in the South (the real South, Florida doesn't count.) Continuing with the Southern Food, we had lunch at Mama Dips, which serves traditional Southern Food. I had fried chicken and yams, which were especially delicious. They had some kind of syrupy, sugary sauce on them - I don't know what it was, but they were amazing! Also, the restaurant had a very cute front porch with rocking chairs. Finally, we also had some fo-yo and Yo-Po, or Yogurt Pump, which is practically a Chapel Hill institution. They have delicious, cheap frozen yogurt. I went there all the time when I lived in town 3 years ago, and I had been craving it ever since. I was glad to be back!

Mama Dip's.
Source

More about the move (and the food) tomorrow!