This year has been a disaster. From living in the house with neighbor's dog who yaps non-stop to a car accident and nails in tires, and several other "I can't believe this is happening" situations, I felt the need to get away. I rented an apartment in Raleigh about 20 min walking distance from the downtown. I left the house in "ready to rent" condition, but have not found a tenant by the time I had to leave.
I arrived at the apartment in late April, of course, passing by Augustino Gusto Bakery, one of my favorite bakeries in the area. The apartment was located above the garage, so it took me a little while to bring the boxes in. It looked clean, but very "bare bones" with minimal supplies (even the toilet paper was missing!). The landlord was away and didn't think he was supposed to provide any supplies. I was a bit disappointed but liked the apartment in general.
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| Main area |
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| Living Room |
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| Entryway |
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| Kitchen |
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| Bed |
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| Bathroom |
I did find a cockroach in the dishwasher, a live one too...
Somehow the very first evening (on the day of my arrival) I decided to have bought tickets to a play. Lo and behold, it would be the only play I would attend in the 3 months in Raleigh.
The first night was really uncomfortable as the bed was very very soft. I ended up removing the mattress topper which made it okay. BUT... there was no barking dogs and I felt at ease for the first time in months. And I was in the middle of a large city... That tells you something.
The landlord told me that he had to change the siding to the garage, and it might be noisy during the first week. Indeed, it was more than just noisy!
Luckily, it was only a week. Overall, the neighborhood was very quiet. I took walks almost every day either walking downtown or just to the cemetery. That's right, the cemetery was just across the street and had a lovely trail in a peaceful environment. I also did some running in the mornings when it was not too hot. Sadly, most of the days were hot and humid.
One of the things I was hoping to accomplish in Raleigh is to get Videri chocolate. I tried it for the first time back in 2022 when it was on sale at a grocery store and absolutely loved it. This time the price was quadruple at $12.99! I got two bars but that was a luxurious purchase...
I thought I would go to restaurants frequently but I ended up enjoying good food at home. After renewing my Costco membership, now that I had a warehouse 10 minutes away from my apartment, I bought a ton of delicious items including tofu and mushrooms and experimented with new recipes.
I did go to meetups at least once a week to socialize and meet new people. One of the places I went to was Namu Korean Eats where I tried Gimbap for the first time. It's like sushi but larger in size and with lots of veggies.
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| Gimbap from Namu |
I did some local hiking as well. One of my favorite places was Umstead Park. It was about 20 minutes away and had great trails. Frequently, it was packed with people, especially on weekends when some would line up to enter the park prior to its opening to get a parking spot.
In May, I also visited a birding workshop at the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center organized by Wake Audubon, a local non-profit with a grand mission to "foster knowledge, appreciation, and enjoyment of nature; to encourage responsible environmental stewardship; to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats, for the benefit of humanity and the earth’s biological diversity."
The workshop was very educational as I have never really paid much attention to birds around me. They showed a few useful apps to recognize birds by their song and even offered to borrow binoculars to use in the hand-on part of the workshop where we went outside to spot the birds. I've been using that app ever since!
I signed up for a month of yoga not realizing that it was warm yoga at 80F! I hate hot yoga, but I also hate warm yoga. Needless to say that I didn't continue my membership after the initial trial.
At the end of May, I ended up renting my house for 3 months to someone. In the first week of June, the tenant already broke the dishwasher by using too much detergent. A stressful situation like this prompted me to drive back home to make sure that the water did not cause any damage. I would end up replacing the dishwasher in another nightmare of events lasting through June.
June was not as active of a month. I still went out to meetups but life in Raleigh was becoming a routine consisting of gym sessions, running, cooking, TV and occasional outings to local parks. I did decide to bring my car in to yet another dealership to address the mirror and the engine noise. This time I was taken seriously. They investigated the issue and completed carbon cleaning which minimized the noise. My car was in for almost 2 weeks, and in that timeframe I had a loaner. All of that was done on the warranty and I am forever grateful to Johnson Subaru of Cary. While I was told that the issue is most likely would return given the direct fuel injection, at least for now I have a semi-brand new car. If I realized how frequently I would have to bring this car to the dealership, I would never have bought a new car.
I also took advantage of the healthcare system that appeared to be much better than in Tennessee and got a bunch of tests done.
I started attending Yelp events as it's been a few years since I was able to go to any. It was refreshing to try new businesses this way.
The restaurant of June for me was Sushioki located in Durham that offered sushi in a burrito! It was incredibly delicious, and the size was way above what I expected.
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| Burrito from Sushioki with Tuna and Avocado |
July was a very hot month. Even mornings were not feasible for walking at times, although I was getting used to my morning runs. I would rarely go outside during the day, and even the evenings were intolerable with both heat and humidity.
I went to a few Yelp events and even got a free facial, something that I haven't done in years. One of the events was on a rooftop of a hotel at a restaurant. Very nice set up, albeit in a very hot weather.
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| Charcuterie board from the facial place |
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| Sample food from a rooftop restaurant |
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| View to DT Raleigh |
And I did a lot of neighborhood exploration. Where could I see myself living? Where could I afford to live? What can I afford? All these questions resulted in multiple house viewings and sadly, resulted in nothing but pure exhaustion. Perhaps it's not the time and the place? Maybe... I had an option to either stay in Raleigh in August or do something else as my tenant still had another month on his lease. More to come where I decided to go!
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