okay so for sure I am moving to North Carolina on June 8th- 3 days after I graduate from Divinity school. For a while it was up in the air as to if I would go to Duke or UC Santa Barbara for my Phd but I have now decided on Duke.
several members of this board have given me helpful advice on the Raleigh/Durham area, but I have a few more specific questions to ask- I have heard that North Carolina has a few Irish music festivals- mostly in Ashville- but I was wondering if anyone knew what the names of these festivals are and what time of the year they take place..
secondly i have heard that there are places in the triangle that have sessions- but again I don’t know the names of the venues… and if anyone knows of flute/whistle teachers in the area and could tell me that would be great- I have done some poking around myself and haven’t come up with anything…
finally if anyone has any advice on moving… my boyfriend and I are doing the move-yourself thing from Boston to Durham- and we are wondering if we should attempt it in one hard day of driving or split it up over two days- luckily we don’t have cars yet so we are going down together in one moving truck…
okay i think that’s it- i appreciate any input!
-Angela
You can make Boston to Durham in a straight drive but I’d recommend two full days. Enjoy some of the sites along the way. You could take the longer route through the mountains. It’s really beautiful. In any event if there are no time pressures then enjoy the trip.
If you go closer to the coast there’s a lot of interesting things to see. Colonial Williamsburg is pretty cool. There are Civil War battlefields galore (my personal favorites). Just think, you could hit Gettysburg, Sharpsburg, Manassas, Wilderness/Chancellorsville, Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg, Cold Harbor, Mechanicsville, Malvern Hill, Gaines Mill,
Petersburg… etc ad nauseum. WOW what a great time that would be.
I would definitely split it up into two days. A couple of years ago my wife and I moved from the D.C. area up to Sturbridge, Ma. True, I did all the truck driving because my wife drove the car, but Massachusetts to N.C. in one day with a truck would be tough. You never make as good a time as you expect with a truck. Also, I don’t know if you have driven that way in the past, but you are going to run into some serious traffic, no matter when you travel.
I say split it up. Road trips are a lot more pleasant if you don’t feel pushed, and the cost of a motel for one night is well-worth the stress it saves you…especially after spending all that time packing and loading a truck! (with unloading and unpacking at the end of the journey!)
Both when we moved to Durham from California, and when we moved back to California nine years later, we chose to drive (even though on both occasions my husband’s company would have paid for us to fly). Six days leisurely road trip, watching the scenery of nine states roll by, was a blissful way to make the transition from the old life to the new. We still look back on those trips as being among the happiest of our lives…mostly because we took the time to smell the roses (and the sagebrush, and the magnolias).
You’re going to love Duke…it’s a great school, and a beautiful campus (Duke Chapel is absolutely gorgeous…be sure to attend Handel’s “Messiah” there at least once. The acoustics are phenomenal!). Durham’s a nice city. We loved it there…the only thing that pulled us back, really, is the fact that we’re both native westerners who felt a bit like ex-pats on the east coast. Much as we loved Durham, we would get so homesick, even after so many years (my mother-in-law kept up my subscription to “Sunset” magazine during our NC years, but I never once read it, because just opening it made me so homesick I’d cry!). But the city is beautiful, the people are great, and the accent is one of the prettiest to be found in the U.S.
You can even save the motel money and stay here for the night. It takes us 6 and 1/2 hours to go visit our daughter (Angie) in Greensboro from south central PA. We are 30 miles south of Altoona, PA. Oh, and I won’t even make you guys milk in the morning.
You are choosing a great place to continue your education. That area of NC is a great place to be. My daughter and her husband really like it there.
I can’t help you with the info on the festivals or teachers but I am sure with everything going on down there, you should be able to find something. Check with the music dept’s at the college’s nearby.
Celtic Week takes place at Warren Wilson College, just outside Asheville. The dates for this year are July 6-12. According to the schedule, Turlach Boylan and Kieran O’Hare will be teaching beginning whistle classes and Turlach Boylan and John Skelton will be teaching Intermediate/Advanced calsses. The URL for Celtic Week is
Thanks so much for all the information- especially all those informative links, I really appreciate it-its really really helpful.
Has anyone here ever been to the Pinecone beginner sessions? Just wondering if anyone as anything to say about it or any tips… all in all though it looks like there are resources. Hmm maybe I’ll take up traditional banjo while down in NC…
