How big is Harrisonburg???

Blame it on TV and all the Hollywood movies I have watched, in all honesty before I came to the US. My imagination was that every city in the US had huge buildings and street lights all over. So I was a little…well scratch that… very surprised when I landed at the Shenandoah Airport and all around me was green, green, green and more green. I, for a minute there, thought I was completely lost and I was really tempted to ask the pilot if he had lost his coordinates or something. I was even more surprised to see lots of cows and barns on my drive from the airport to Harrisonburg. Though I must say, the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains sure do give the perfect backdrop for this city.

Well, let me tell you a little bit of something about Harrisonburg, the home to James Madison University. Harrisonburg is located in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. Shenandoah, by the way, is an Indian word that means ‘daughter of the skies’; I know you were wondering. The valley gets all the four seasons, so it’s cold over winter, with lots of snow sometimes, we get the most beautiful fall and spring ( my favorite seasons), and it gets quite hot over the summer, with temperatures getting to about 1000F. I am not going to go into much detail about the temperatures because I am not a meteorologist and besides have a feeling that’s the reason someone invented Wikipedia.

So……how big is Harrisonburg? It is first and foremost big enough to satisfy all your daily needs. Compared to the other towns around it, Harrisonburg boasts some good grocery stores, shopping malls, dining areas and lots of fun stuff to keep you busy throughout the year I am a huge fun of the many locally owned and the various International restaurants in the city. Taste of Thai and Clementine’s are my favorite restaurants as of now. Not forgetting Kline’s Dairy bar…you have to have their ice-cream if you claim to have visited Harrisonburg.

                          

Harrisonburg is also known for its great outdoors. It was nationally ranked by the Backpacker magazine as the top spot for families to beat ‘nature deficit disorder’. So if you love fishing, hiking, camping, bird watching and other outdoors stuff, you are definitely in the right city. AND you have to take a trip to skyline drive over the fall... you will LOVE it!

The transportation service is also very convenient and comes in quite handy so you will not have to worry much in case you do not have a car. Remember to smile at the drivers and say thank you when you get to your destination. It’s a little bit of southern hospitality that you will learn about being in Harrisonburg, a smile… goes a long way.

This is just a little bit of information I have for now. Please feel free to check out the city of Harrisonburg visitor information website for more information. The link is listed below:

This is just my view of Harrisonburg. There is a lot of other very important stuff that I might have forgotten to mention. Like the farmers market, which of course is the best part of living in a city surrounded by farms, you have the luxury of getting a huge variety of fresh groceries. I should also mention that this city also has a huge Mennonite community… a what??? Hmmh… where should I start?

Feel free to comment and tell me something our new international students and I might find interesting about Harrisonburg.

Written by: Mueni Faith Masambia