Charlottesville is a small city located in the heart of Virginia. Even though only 40,000 people live here, the University of Virginia brings tens of thousands of students during the school year. There’s almost always some events or festivals going on, and plenty to do in the city center. Above are two photographs of the Quarters, or Charlottesville’s little pedestrian strip filled with bars and restaurants.

There are several interesting stores in the Quarters as well. I’m not a big shopper, but since I had just started taking a Chinese language class I felt obligated to check out something in this Chinese store. I figured things would be super expensive since the store had prime real estate, but there were lots of cool objects here for reasonable prices, so I left with a few things!

At the end of the Quarters is a small outdoor theater that usually has something going on. When I visited there was live music and lots of people out enjoying the middle of the summer. There were plenty of food trucks lining the streets and you were even allowed to drink alcohol here!

Other stores throughout Charlottesville look like normal houses, especially as you get closer to the historic district. The historic was probably my favorite place in town in regards to architecture. I came at night when everything was closed, but I really loved walking around here and seeing all the warmly lit bricked streets and buildings. On the lower left is the Charlottesville courthouse built in 1803. I wasn’t able to find out what the building on the lower right is.

Probably the biggest attraction in Charlottesville is the famous Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson. The Monticello was built in 1772 and was designed by Jefferson himself. He was very passionate about science and architecture, and built his home using designs that were popular during the Italian Renaissance.

Thomas Jefferson loved knowledge and science. As a matter of fact, he is the founder of the University of Virginia, and made sure that it would be visible from his home. On the upper left. On the upper left is a photo taken from his property where you can see the university through the clearing. Photography wasn’t allowed inside his home, but after I toured it I was able to see several of his clever inventions and unique designs. On example that I was somewhat able to photograph is this clock and weather vane on the ceiling of his back porch. He had these throughout his house so that he would always be able to tell the time and weather which was essential to some of his experiments!

Since I couldn’t photograph the inside of the house I can only describe it. There were several rooms on the bottom floor that we were taken through. The first room looked more like a museum with artifacts from all over the world, this must have been an impressive collection back in the early 1800’s! The other rooms such as the two dinning rooms, bedroom, were elegantly decorated and some also had his own inventions and gadgets on display. Once outside the house, you can photograph anything you’d like, such as his gardens above and below. Thomas Jefferson is also known for his outspokenness against slavery, yet ironically he owned several slaves himself. Most of them worked in the gardens and farms but supposedly were treated well.

Lastly, on the property is a large cemetery and the grave of Thomas Jefferson himself. Thomas Jefferson lived a long live, until the age of 83 when he died in the Monticello. As Jefferson is known for being the main author of the Declaration of Independence, he ironically died exactly 50 years after it was ratified, on July 4th 1826.