we made it!

after several months of planning, researching, scrapping plans and starting over, we finally made it out east. we originally thought we'd settle in virginia as that's where most of the jobs in my field seemed to be as well as my current school (northern virginia community college), but God seems to have led us to college park, maryland, home of the university of maryland. after two prospective living situations fell through, we decided to check out a small apartment right on the green line metro (eric requires metro access for both work & school). the picture on craigslist looked fair enough, but when we got to the apartment to view it, we were honestly kind of disgusted- less than 500 square feet of room for the two of us with dated appliances and college kids both upstairs and down. at first, the only advantages to the place were 1) no minimum income requirement (most places we checked out wanted us to make at least $37,000 a year), and 2) literally RIGHT on the metro line- usually we'd have to take a bus or bike to a metro station, but here the station is literally about 100 feet from our house. really, those two points were what sold us on the place- we could afford it, the landlord was willing to let us sign a lease the day we saw it, and eric can get to class in 20 minutes by metro. granted, it reminds me of my very, very first apartment (yikes), but we honestly began to fall in love with it. it's cozy for sure and the kids downstairs are actually pretty sweet (all inviting us to play beer pong and sharing their wireless), not to mention there's an IKEA down the road! despite the parties and generally disrespectful college kids, it's actually a really cool area to live in because sooo many things are within walking/biking distance: five guys burgers, a bagel shop, starbucks, chipotle, subway, a chinese place, noodles and company, cold stone creamery, jason's deli, pizza, wings, sushi... you know how college campuses are.
eric was lucky enough to stay employed with whole foods, and he now works at one of the busiest locations in the nation. it's like an airport! i'm currently working with a group of neurosurgeons, doing the ol' 9-5 type deal again, every day. right now we dont have a lot of quality time to spend with each other, which is definitely an adjustment in terms of 'being married,' but we have lots of things we'd like to do in the area when we finally get 'settled.' there is so much to do here and DC is accessible within about 20 minutes! and so much is free! it's definitely not home quite yet, but it will surely be entertaining for the next two years or so...