[COVER STORY]
Kareena Carter
Coming home
in a small world
by Eric Johnson
The variety of international restaurants sheds light on the modern Chantilly story.
So do the smiling faces of people walking down our tree-lined sidewalks.
Even a typical home’s front-yard flora, where a Japanese rose or a Peruvian lily might be found, gives clear evidence that the story of Chantilly reflects a world getting smaller.
Consider Kareena Carter: She’s a perfect example of our community’s place in a shrinking world.
Kareena was born and raised in Germany to an American father and a Greek mother. She grew up in Worms and Mannheim, Germany, and as a child often visited relatives on her mother’s side in Bavaria, as well as in Thessaloniki, Greece, and the Greek village of Chrysoupoli, about 300 and 400 miles from Athens, respectively.
Later, she crossed the Atlantic to study psychology and communications, earning a degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She worked for the Defense Department in Germany for about two years, managed to get her feet wet in multifamily real estate in Charlotte, spent a short while at a job opportunity in Atlanta, and eventually found her sweet spot as the manager of a luxury apartment complex in Chantilly.
“I like to think that I have a pretty good mix of everything,” said Kareena, a professional property manager. And it’s all come together in Chantilly, which she said “definitely does feel like home now.”
Contributing to Kareena’s satisfaction is a full-on project to complete the second phase of construction at the Preserve at Westfields complex on Westcroft Boulevard, near Sully Station. Phase I is a well-established building featuring 312 apartments. Phase II – a brand new building with 283 luxury apartments – is culminating this year and was scheduled to open as the July issue of Chantilly Living was going to press.
County permit hurdles and construction delays have been some of the unavoidable headaches that she has contended with while working through this enormous project. But overshadowing all of the frustrations, Kareena said, have been the many opportunities to talk up Chantilly as a great place to live. Hers is a promotional effort that she can really enjoy as what she says accurately matches a true appreciation for our community.
Chantilly is “an up-and-coming suburb, close to the city if you need the city, close to the highway, and an easy place to find and walk through the greenery,” Kareena said.
“I love that Chantilly has preserved so much of the greenery. Even where homes have been developed, there is a lot of green,” she said. “You can really see it everywhere, and I do appreciate that. It’s one thing you don’t get in a city like DC or New York. And it definitely helps with your mood.”
Family warmth also lifts Kareena’s spirits, whether she’s in Greece visiting her beloved Yiayia (which is Greek for “grandmother”) or enjoying the comp
-any of her parents and brother, all of whom have now relocated to northern Virginia. (Kareena’s parents moved close to Fredericksburg and her brother is now living in Chantilly.)
Her father gets credit for a dream-come-true that laid the foundation for their happy family. While studying Greek mythology in school, Kareena explains, he set his young mind on someday marrying a woman from Greece. And that’s exactly what happened.
“It’s all about widening people’s horizons,” she said with a smile.
Those horizons extend to her mother’s extensive family all over Greece, where Yiayia and many other relatives shower Kareena with hospitality and great food – pastitsio, spanakopita, souvlaki, and much more – every time she visits.
“When you visit, you have to visit everyone, and everyone has something to eat,” she explained. “Food brings everyone together.”
The wide family circle also includes twoloved ones that Kareena calls “my little babies.” They share her fondness of Chantilly, in part because there’s a great dog park near home.
The babies are an 8-year-old, female German pinscher mix named Chloe and a 4-year-old, male miniature pinscher named Jax. She described their relationship this way: “He loves her a little more than she loves him.”
photo by Barry Harley
Kareena’s “babies” Chloe and Jax relaxing at home.
Picture-perfect day in Greece, homeland of Kareena’s mother.
So wide is Kareena’s horizon that it even extends to a group of six families, each with up to six members, that she collectively and lovingly refers to as her “chosen family.” A common thread among these non-blood relatives is that all met while living on or around American military installations in Wiesbaden, Germany. They’re currently spread out from Havre de Grace, Maryland, to Florida, and from Georgia to Houston, Texas. Yet they all stay close.
Family time is always enjoyable for Kareena. For example, a “sister” in the
chosen family circle was Kareena’s companion for a recent trip to explore Philadelphia and attend a poetry event.
But after touring Philly, Kareena said shewas glad to return home. “I don’t want tolive there,” she said frankly.
For Kareena, Chantilly is the best place to be as a green community that balances global flavor with all the comforts of home.
“Chantilly is a pretty close-knit community. We stick together, do events together, like in a Greek community,” she said.
“It’s getting more diverse here. More restaurants are coming.”
“I don’t think Chantilly is going to stay where it’s at. There will definitely be more homes here; that’s not going to stop,” Kareena said. “But I don’t think it’s going to lose its community feeling.”
And for a person like Kareena who has seen the world, that sense of community is a strong reason to stay. “I definitely feel settled,” she said. “And it feels good.”