Autumn in New England

I’m just going to come out and say it: New England isn’t my favorite place. It’s been a good experience for me to live somewhere different, and I’ve largely enjoyed my time here, but it’s not a place I want to stay after Pat and I finish school. Too many people, too much traffic, too many months of crappy weather… you get the idea.

But one thing that New England does better than anywhere else I’ve ever been is autumn. The colors here are just amazing!

Fortunately, I was able to begin learning this within a few short weeks. One of my then-roommates and her friend are as adventurous as I am; the 3 of us hit it off and began spending our weekends exploring the area.

Over the course of my first New England fall, we visited two local state parks, a state forest, and hiked a couple of local trails. I also went apple picking and pumpkin picking for the first time ever – two important New England fall traditions!

Of course, no New England fall is complete without power outages. In late October, a random afternoon thunderstorm brought with it winds strong enough to wreak havoc on the Connecticut infrastructure. Trees here are flimsy, winds are gusty, and most power lines are above ground. Put those three facts together, and you have this:

The result? A day and a half without power. Thankfully it was only October, so our house didn’t get too cold.

Fast forward about a month, and it happened again. Except this time, the damage was more widespread and we were without power for four and a half days. In that time, my roommates and I discovered that houses are relatively useless when there’s no power. No lights, no heat, no way to store or cook food, and – in our case – no water, because the water pump was electric. So that was fun.

And then comes the New England winter. Cold, humid, windy, dark, and with no shortage of snow. Feet at a time fall from the sky, burying everything and essentially shutting down the state. I never had a snow day as a kid or in college, but I can no longer say that.

Adjusting to life in New England was a long process, but I’m very thankful that I was surrounded by such wonderful people and that together we were able to get out and explore my new home!