I’m officially a North Carolina resident. I have the scars left behind from the two-hour process to secure my driver’s license to prove it.

But aside from that all-too-expected miserable wait at the DMV, the adjustment to Durham and the Triangle has been rather enjoyable. Not that I was expecting anything different, but you never know how a major life change will unfold. It’s now been four months or so since Lauren and I settled into our new home in North Carolina, so I thought it would be a good time to share some of my thoughts and observations as a wide-eyed new resident.

The Real Estate Market is Absurd

As I mentioned, we did find a house. But not after multiple months of looking, submitting offers, and subsequently losing out. Credit our realtor for being upfront and honest about the length of the process because he told us from the beginning it takes anywhere from 1 to 6 months. It took nearly four for us.

Because the market is so hot, here’s the process in a nutshell. A house gets listed on Thursday. Schedule a showing as soon as you can. If you like the house, submit an offer – usually at ask, sometimes above – and wait to respond. Seller usually gets at least one more offer so it goes immediately into a multiple-bid scenario. You figure out your best offer and submit it. By the end of the weekend, the house was usually gone.

Fingers crossed this trend continues on for a few more years.

The UNC-Duke Basketball Rivalry Isn’t Exaggerated

Coming from the absolute best football rivalry (yes, the Iron Bowl is No. 1) made me wonder just how strong the passion would be along Tobacco Road. It’s as advertised.

I got a chance to work the first meeting between the two programs at Duke and seeing the students waiting in line for tickets five hours out, tailgating in Krzyzewskiville on a cold, rainy night, and watching College Gameday broadcast from outside Cameron Indoor left a lasting impression on me. These fans care an awful lot about their team winning and maybe even more about the other team losing.

Somehow the Pollen is Worse Than Alabama

At least this year it was. Don’t believe me, just look at this picture. That was taken above our neighborhood, and it wasn’t just a one-time occurrence. For 3-4 weeks, my vision seemed to be tinted yellow. Clouds of pollen blew through the air daily and it only took a minute or two of exposure to carry that golden evil on your clothes or on your car. I’m holding out hope that this year was an anomaly but I’m not so sure.

The weather, otherwise, has been pretty similar so far. I missed a lot of the snow that hit the city in December and it got much hotter in March and April than it should have been – just like Alabama. Let’s hope the weather stays a little milder through the summer and hopefully fall feels a little more like it should.

Durham is a Low-Key Great Food City

You’ll obviously hear more about Raleigh as a food destination than Durham or Chapel Hill, but I’ve been pretty impressed by the restaurants we’ve visited so far. Of course you’ll find a lot of great eateries in the heart of downtown but there are some neat little pockets of town where you’ll come across a handful of great restaurants. Old Chapel Hill Road has Eastcut Sandwiches, Piper’s Deli, and Only Burger. Just down the road on University Drive you’ll find Nana Tacos and the Q Shack, which is just a half-mile from Fosters Market and Guglhupf Bakery. It’s like that throughout the city and it’s given us a chance to learn the neighborhoods along with enjoying a great meal.

I’ll wrap up the observations on that note. There are a few more that I’m surely overlooking, but I’ll come back and revisit this at the end of the year to see how much different my perspective of the Bull City has become.