#terribullshit

you need jaffa cakes (mcvities only jacobs brand is Plebeian)

Oooo, are you from somewhere around here? Either way, if I remember right, you live in New York so you’ll probably laugh at me…

It’s definitely way different from where I came from and it’s been a lot to adjust to. I like the energy of the city and I like how it seems like if there’s something I’m looking for, I can probably just whip out Google Maps and find it somewhere within walking/biking distance. Everything was so spread out in Cape Coral, like the closest Starbucks was 15 minutes away by car but here it’s 10 minutes or less on foot, and there’s at least 4 of them I think within a mile of where I live. Having a good art supply store so close to where I live is awesome too. I haven’t really actually gotten out or explored much around here though because I haven’t felt like I’ve had time, so yea I probably haven’t experienced anything close to what RVA really has to offer. 

Driving and parking are incredibly difficult and complicated, but that doesn’t matter for me right now because I don’t have a car and didn’t really want one.

I’m not really a fan of living on campus. I feel like I’d probably be a lot less stressed out and aggravated about my living situation if I had the ability to cook and didn’t have to compete with other people to do my laundry (among other things)…and if the card swipe machine in the laundry room wasn’t constantly broken. There IS a stove in the lounge at the end of the hallway, but I learned very quickly exactly how much of a time sink it is when you have to carry everything you need to prepare and cook a good meal from scratch all the way down the hall. I mean, it’s not like I want heat up Hamburger Helper and bake cookies…I actually COOK stuff.

I definitely feel safe in my residence building, so that’s a big plus. I’ve heard a lot about colleges just not telling students about what goes on around them, so the transparency of the campus police has been pretty great. I get alerts from the police pretty regularly about crimes that happen around campus, and while it’s kind of scary that those things are happening, it’s great that the police actually tell us about it.

Also, FREE STUDENT HEALTH CARE. As somebody with no health insurance and virtually not prior access to health care, that is absolutely incredible. I injured my ankle and said to myself, you know what? I can go to student health and get this looked at for free, so I will because I can. Whenever I hurt myself at home or got sick, I had to just ride it out and hope it wasn’t anything bad.

I think overall I’m not really a big city kind of person, so I’m not too crazy about how incredibly urban it is here. I’m also just kind of dealing with homesickness and how humbling my new situation is. I was kind of a big shot at home and I’m a nobody here.

So, there you go…Richmond’s a cool place, and from what I’ve gathered so far there are a lot of resources available around here, even though I’m not too crazy about the packed, urban environment and the constant intake of secondhand smoke and vehicle exhaust. It really has just been a lot for me, especially considering how reclusive and introverted I tend to be, to adjust to being on my own and 1,000 miles away from my family. Dealing with adulthood and day-to-day life alone honestly stresses me out so much more than schoolwork does.