Moving to Urbana Champaign Area (Chicago, Bloomington: university, taxi, salary)

[Drover]

Originally Posted by ucrox

Oops! looks like we are in a war .... be cool people. Everyone has the right to speak, so long as they are not misleading others. I think we can attribute the differences to margin of error ... what say, friends?

That said, Drover, thank you so much for your detailed and very useful reply. Very extensive and thorough. Thank you for your time.

If anyone has any experience with satellite tv reception, I'd love to hear from you. I currently have Dish tv and I LOVE it but DISH is gonna charge me about 180 bucks in total to move it ... I want to know if its worth spending that money ... if the reception in winter/rainy season in Chambana is not good, I dont want to carry it.

Here, I NEVER had any issues .. nada .. not a single time, even in the worst rain .. it works great.

My mother-in-law had satellite for two years. She lost reception on account of weather all of twice. So, not much of an issue.

[ucrox]

Thanks, asearchforreason and Drover.

It is good to hear about farmers market and of course, DISH tv.

I guess it all depends on individual personalities on how you make the best of what is available.

Thanks a bunch guys ... you are very helpful.

[Aerio]

I drive by that corner almost every day. I don't think a bus readily services that area, unless you're willing to walk across the street and a few parking lots.
It also depends on where you live too, as your residential area may not be services by CUMTD (Champaign-Urbana MTD).

The only Dave and Busters I can think of near Chambana is in the suburbs of Chicago, a good two to three hour drive.
Apparently there are only two in Illinois, both in Chicagoland. One's in Indianapolis also, a two or so hour drive.

Everyone's pretty much summed up the variety of food. There's a variety, much less than what you're used to. If you go out a lot, you'll exhaust the area soon enough.
Plenty of nearby local restaurants in nearby rural towns as well. Charming ones too.

I save my receipts because I'm OCD, that and I just went shopping, so here's an accurate display of food prices.

Meijer

• generic ketchup at 77 ¢
• generic box ice cream $2.99
• bread $1.89
• bananas 49 ¢ (pound)
• yellow apples $1.69 (pound)
• asparagus $3.95

Aldi

• 1 cauliflower $1.99
• 3 broccolis $1.49
• 4 pears $1.79
• 4 tomatoes $1.19
• wheat bread 99¢
• bananas 39¢ (pound)
• Sangria $6.49 (half gone already)
• salt 33¢
• dozen eggs $1.36
• 10 lbs. russet potatoes $1.99
  

Sam's Club

• 2 lbs. strawberries $5.98
• 10 lbs. rice $4.98
• 1 gallon hand-soap $5.88

And let's see...gas fluctuates like usual: 2.66, 2.58, 2.56, 2.65 (today)
Movie ticket: 6.75 with student ID after 6 pm...honestly no idea what it regularly costs -- $8 or so at the "better" Savoy theater.
These prices are from January of this year to now; I just looked at some old receipts.

Obviously I buy at cheaper stores, so that's the gist of that.
Schnuck's and County Market are the supermarkets around here, the kinds of stores that would have all the specialty and detailed items that supercenters or discount stores wouldn't.
They charge higher of course, for the most part.

We have Comcast and wireless internet, about $180 I think for the bill? I can double-check that. Otherwise, it comes with a few "special" channels and DVR.
I've seen houses with Dish here, I'm not sure how that works out here or how much they pay. I'm sure they're affected by the crappy weather we have here though.

[ucrox]

Thanks Aerio for the detailed message. Personally, I think you may be paying too much for comcast. Even out here, my TV + internet + DVR is less than $65. But I do not have any "special" channels There is internet for that
lol

Love the movie price ... we pay between $10-$12 per head on an average. And of course, even though we have the refineries right here, we pay at least 20c more per gallon of gas compared to your prices. Rest of them seem almost the same.

[asearchforreason]

I pay about $80 for comcast internet/DVR/cable. You have to call every 6 months or so after your "promotional" rate expires and get put into a new promotion. We have the most basic digital package (i.e. no HD, etc)

[PenguinSix]

I grew up around Champaign and went to school at the U of I. I now do quite a bit of work in Silicon Valley and SFO so I can relate to some of what you are talking about.

First things first--this whole outdoors thing. Don't go looking for it--you won't find it. Yes, you will find a few state parks here and there, but views? You are in the flatlands caused by the glaciers. It's so flat with a good pair of binoculars you can see the tops of trees in the distance (but not the bottoms) due to the curve of the Earth. The few parks are basically a good solid grove of woodlands surrounding a small (often man made) lake or pond. It's nothing like the Marin highlands or the Sierras. You'll have more hills driving 280 from San Fran to Palo Alto than you will in the whole state of Illinois.

As for the weather, it can be cold, yes, but honestly, you'll get used to it. Your first winter will be the roughest, but you will adapt and you will start to be more comfortable once you realize long underwear is not just for your grandfather and scarfs and hats really do help. First time you feel 40 degrees you'll whine and buy a parka. By the end of the winter when it gets up to 40 degrees you'll go out with just a sweatshirt. My bigger concern is dealing with the 'gray days'--when the Sun is hidden in clouds and the streets are covered in 'dirty snow' (plowed / muddy snow that is very ugly) and it is still too cold and you just basically start to hate life. That's the roughest bit of Winter.

There are many pluses though. Being 5 minutes from work and 5 minutes from a movie and 5 minutes from campus or whatever. Living in a decent, recently built house that costs less than $250,000 if you want to buy. A bit of cultural activities associated with the University as well.

It will be rough to start as is any move. I would recommend (as you are probably already planning) to rent a place for a few months instead of buying a house. Get a feel for the neighborhoods and the general area and your new job before committing to a mortgage.

Good luck

[ucrox]

PenguinSix, thanks for the detailed info ... since you lived in both the places, I guess you have a first hand experience of what we may go through. I love how you put it ...

"You'll have more hills driving 280 from San Fran to Palo Alto than you will in the whole state of Illinois. "

[PenguinSix]

You'd actually be surprised how many UofI grads are out in Silicon Valley. There are quite a few who moved out there following tech work, same as in Seattle (I think I read once a bit of a legend that Microsoft employs more UofI grads than any other university alums).

You might want to check your linkedin connections in the tech industry out there as I suspect a few might have come through Champaign/Urbana at one time or another.

[ucrox]

Yeah, U of I is a very popular school. Looks like we might be moving in May. I guess we will start with the summer

[Drover]

It's not just that it's a popular school but it's one of the most renowned computer science and engineering schools in the world. That explains why there's a lot of U of I grads out in Silicon Valley. U of I is the home base of NCSA and it's where the first graphical web browser was created.