Columbia Heights is a pretty sweet area. I discovered that it's originally named after Columbian College, the school that would become George Washington University (through this discovery I also learned that the city of Washington only became contiguous with the District of Columbia in 1871, thereby eliminating Washington County DC and Georgetown as a separate entity), which originally existed in this area before moving downtown.
The area is in various forms of gentrification, which means that rubbing shoulders are people of a wide racial and socioeconomic background. Strong Hispanic presence, mostly Salvadoran I think. About half the time while moving in there was at least one Spanish radio station wafting through the windows from somewhere down the street.
Such a cultural mix also works well in terms of what the area has to offer. A block away is Tivoli Square (Tivoli Theater pictured above) and the metro is one block south after that. It's an area that's constantly buzzing with activity.
Within a five minute walk is everything we could need in terms of box stores with a good smattering of Salvadoran groceries and hole-in-the-wall little eateries. Being able to walk to a Giant, Target, CVS, Best Buy, and a couple liquor stores takes care of most apartment needs right there, and the area still feels city-residential. That's a huge perk.
Behind the apartment are some sports fields presumably used by the adjacent Columbia Heights Education Center, but also by a myriad assortment of soccer and kickball groups, organized and un-. We're a few doors down from a big Catholic church too, but no bells on Sunday mornings yet.
The house itself is newly renovated with lots of common space and a nice back deck that's just begging for a grill. There's four of us there, all '08 graduates (me, Doug of Tufts, David of CSIS and Bowdoin, and Rachel of Northwestern). My room is pretty modest but big enough for what I need. I won't actually be living in it for another week or so due to taking a long Columbus Day weekend to go up to Boston, then house/petsitting for the host parents after that, but it feels good to have some stuff moved in at least.
It'll also be nice to have my commute into the middle of the city cut in half, by metro or bus. This will also mean that I won't have to factor in an hour+ to get back to a bed on nights out. I'm looking forward to that.
So yeah, there was a good amount of lugging heavy stuff over the weekend, mostly kind donations from the people David has been staying with. Once the place is all set and we have them over, they'll feel right at home among their old furniture. This has been my first need to use craigslist and it's made me realize what a great resource it is.
Living up across the border in Maryland has been a great time and a huge help, but I'm definitely looking forward to the new place, even if it's still a couple weeks away for me. I haven't lived with people my own age since college, which is frighteningly over a year ago, so it's feeling about time.
This also means I can finally check off "get an apartment" from my gmail to-do list. Your time will come, "get a real job" check box, it will come.
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