Providence In A Day

Providence is a quaint little city.

It was rather cold arriving in Providence, with a cold, dry, wind hitting our faces. What a nice welcome to Providence- my future home for at least a year. We made our way, walking, to our next host's home, up on College Hill near Brown/RISD. We found this place on Couchsurfing (my first choice over hostels, AirBNB, and hotels). I had been looking forward to staying in Providence because it would be my first time being in a Co-op home. The walk there wasn't too bad, but it would have been much easier without carrying bags, since there was a lovely hill to climb (College Hill... should have thought that one through).
Our host, Annejane, was at work, but another housemate (out of the 17 or so that live there), welcomed us with the warmest of all welcomes (his charisma!- well, he is a theater major at Brown). We explored the home and admired the art, the mess, and the character of the co-op house. Just look at the living room:

After settling down, we strolled through College Hill then central Providence to find a bite to eat. I had read so many good things about Providence's restaurant scene, but while walking the city, it felt like half of the establishments were closed down. It was a Tuesday around 2pm. I'm pretty sure they don't do the siesta. We did find something near Johnson and Wales University, a Mediterranean grille cafe. Mediocre food, but not horrible. Afterwards, we made our way to RISD's admissions office, then to the financial aid office. I swear, the admissions office could very well be in the middle of the forest. Our day in Providence ran short, but I got a good, sleepy, feel of the city. I just hope that I can take more of it when I do finally move there.

In the evening we finally met our couchsurfing host at a medieval vocal concert. Random place, yes. Especially because it was at a tomb/museum on the Brown University campus. We had dinner back at the house... a pretty good local, organic, vegetarian dinner. Well, except for the broccoli. Annejane had told us that because Providence has pretty crappy weather for broccoli, it is shipped from California. After talking for an hour or two it was time to hit the couch.

It didn't help that around 2am, there were people in the basement banging away on a drumset. At least it added to the music of the rain outside.