Our House--In the middle of our street--Our House

This is where we live now, in this house:

We are slowly, slowly, slowly gathering ourselves up here in the great Northeast. It is mighty different, let me tell you. We traveled to Hanover, NH today to buy some things we need (which we have found out is many things. Unfortunately we also brought many things...but somehow what we brought is not what we need) and looked at a map to try and find a good route. We looked up where the nearest Walmart was (Of course, being the Midwesterner that I am, I prefer Target hands down. However, as some of you know, there is not a single Target to be found in the state of Vermont. The nearest one is over a hundred miles away, and is just not practical), and it said it was in West Lebanon, NH, which is just a jump away from Hanover, about 25 miles away from South Royalton.

Fifty miles later...

We were on the interstate and exited in Hanover because we didn't see an exit for West Lebanon (Hanover is where Dartmouth College is located). Immediately upon exiting the freeway we knew we had made a mistake. Cars were backed up all up the hill to get into Hanover, and police were trying to direct traffic. The puffy little Corolla in front of us was very confused, and whenever we had a chance to go, she would pull over and talk to whomever was directing traffic. Eventually we just drove around her, which was a risky move, considering how two lanes can suddenly become one at the drop of a hat, as Jake has detailed previously. We don't know why the road was closed (the only road through town) but it was, and the whole town was trying to drive through today. The detour was quite magnificent. We were driving behind houses, through parking lots, and even around the exterior of the high school! I have never scene a detour more true to its definition. Once we got through Hanover, we ended up back on the freeway, then to a rural route, then a state road. After following many signs pointing us in all different directions, we found West Lebanon, and eventually Walmart. After asking for directions at Kmart.

I don't know what it means, but when you ask for directions to Walmart from Kmart, something is going on.

As we are getting unpacked, we are finding that we have brought too many clothes. Far too many clothes. As we were packing it didn't seem like that many, but upon arriving to one small closet and three drawers, anything more than a week's outfits are too many. We will have to be doing laundry at the town laundromat, which will be something new for us.

Here are some pictures of the place we are living...the outside is glorious. But the inside...well, you can definitely tell that it is a hundred and sixty years old. Our setup is quite unique. We have a room upstairs that includes a bathroom and shower and closet. That is our bedroom. Then we have a room downstairs as well, with an old high back couch with a slipcover that doesn't fit anything made more than a hundred years ago, an obscenely old table, and our little 13" TV (I do have to say that LOST doesn't have quite the same effect on this TV as it does on a big screen with surround sound...). Both of these rooms have locks, and so we will live our life separated. Sometimes we will be downstairs in the living room, and sometimes we will be upstairs in the bedroom. The space between them is shared with two other people, so it will definitely take some getting used to. We also share the kitchen with these two people. One of them is a visiting scholar from China who cooks something very Chinese every day, thus the already small and hot kitchen has a distinct aroma. One more note, food is heinously expensive here. We shopped at the Co-op (only organic and local food) today and although the green beans and meat (raised down the road and packaged yesterday) were the best I've ever had, they were ridiculously expensive.

In summation: new place, new life, no room, no money. But it sure is exciting!

Jake cooking in the tiny hot kitchen