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1/5/2008
I wish I could explain living in EC. I really have nothing to compare it to, since I have lived here since 2nd grade and really can't remember Houston. I'll try and explain everything here, so that you can form your own opinion.
EC is about 13,000 people. An hour from Virginia, (with MAJOR entertainment stuff there), and an hour from the huge tourist attraction, the Outer Banks Beaches.
ENTERTAINMENT
The movie theatres include one small one, with two theatre rooms. Plays most movies out. If they don't play the movies, the other one does. This one is a dinner-movie thing (a matinee??). This is a really nice one, but you have to stand outside for half an hour to even get in.
There is one bowling alley, and it is not a very good one..people smoke in it all the time, and it is very dark and smokey in it. It stinks, and is very foggy-looking. Other than the smell, its not that bad, except I wouldn't suggest leaving your child there at 10 at night, becuase there are some real weirdos that hang out there at night...
SCHOOLS
There are about 5 or 6 elemnetary schools. All of them are not that great, except for Weeksville School. But you have to live in the country, country, COUNTRY part of EC to go there. I went there, and words cannot describe how aweseom it is. I sugggest going to greatschools.net to check out the .schools there.
There are two private schools that I know of, A really small school called Glad Tidings, and a Christian school called Victory.
Two middle schools, ECMS and RRMS. They botha aren't that great. ECMS has more african americans, and RRMS has 51 percent african americans. EC is generally about 50 percent african americans, 50 percent caucasian.
Two high schools, NHS and PHS. PHS is mostly ECMS students, and NHS is naturally RRMS students. Neither are even decent.
We do have a YMCA, but it is more out in the city. We live in the country, of course, and it is difficult for us to go, because it is just so far away. It is very nice inside, and has soo much stuff to do.
SCENERY
EC is right on the water, which is soooo nice in the summer because they have so much tournaments on the water, and so many public beaches you can go to. Definetly a major tourist attraction. EC is a very flat land, and if you live in the country part, every other peice of land is farmland, with corn nd cabbage and taters and cotton, exc.
WEATHER
On average, it naturally rains every other week, once a week. In the summer it gets from the 85-ish to 105-ish. It just depends. In the winter, it gets from 55-ish to 10-ish. This depends as well.
COUNTRYSIDE
Ups: very quiet, rural place, where everyone is very smily and always waves to you while passing them in the car, even if they don't know you. Most lan has water surrounding it. Very friendly place.
Downs: In the winter, the corn stalks gets very high, making it extremely difficult to see around corners. Car accidents out here are very common. People hit deer all the time. "Country hicks, rednecks". The law isn't very effective out here, and everyone does illegal stuff all the time.
DOWNTOWN:
very caffe-ish. huge four & five story buildings with little coffee and sandwich shops. the libaray is HUUGE, and is right on the waterfront. Waterfront parks are everywhere. Museum was built a couple of years ago and is frequently visited by tourists and curious locals. Very interesting exhibits, too. EXTREMELY historical place.
CITY:
Coast Guard base is like the biggest on the East coast or something like that. The WAlmart is in the middle of nowhere on a huge bypass all by itself. ATTENTION QUILTERS: Nobody in EC sells quilt nymore, not even Walmart. Very nice Food Lion and Farm Fresh (grocery stores). Decent fast food places. Awesome sit-in resterautns, very nice and expensive places also.
SHOPPING
We have a very small mall, actually a hall, really. Its like a small strip mall. Joggers on Staurday morning come every week to jog in the mornings. I know this sounds random, but the hairdressers here rock. Like I said, Virginia is 30, 45 minutes away (an hour for us country folk), and has at least four malls within a two hour driving distance that are HUGE.They do have little boutiques, but they are very prissy, frilly, and expensive, if you like that sort of stuff.
OTHER:
I believe I have mentioned this before, but EC is almost exactly 50/50 of causcasians and african americans. That's pretty much it for the culture. EC is known for their Hospitality (our motto is Harbor of Hospitality), and EC is generally a very happy, smily place. It is small, and the activities to do here are very small, and get boring after a while. Very very very historical place, ranigng from wars to spooky legends.
The summer camps here rock, with the kid-college camps and the YMCA camps. It is very hard to choose which one to go to!
COLLEGES:
There are two colleges here in EC. COA is a community collgege, and ECSU was originally a segregated "colored" people college, and it has sort of stayed that way. Still, I know many caucasian people who have gone there. My mother went there, and it is a very likeable, friendly, open place. The teachers there rock.
CHURCHES/RELIGION PLACES:
They have everything here: Methodist, Baptist, Seventh Day Adventists, Power Houses, Morman, Catholic, exc.
I hope I have been of use to you, and if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me. If I have left anything out, tell me!
Clara | Elizabeth City, NC