Well, first thing’s first….
Welcome to Urbana! (Population: 40,500, according to some sign anyhow).
There are a couple of things that I’ve learned about Urbana-Champaign in the last few days that I’ve had access to my car. They are:
- Just about every store I need is within a 5-10 mile radius of where I live
- There are about a gazillion billion parks (literally)
- The city is inundated in trees (seriously, never saw so much green in my life!)
- If I drive in any direction past 10-15 minutes, I end up on rural, country-highways lined with cornfields galore (they make great cycling routes)
- So far, it’s pretty difficult to find a good selection of mom n’ pop / cute hole-in-the-wall cafes or markets that are anything other than oriental. Wish I could find some good hispanic markets…
- Did I mention, it’s cyclist-friendly???
I am absolutely loving every bit of this city! I’ve made it a point to take a few hours everyday to go out and explore the city. I choose a direction and, well, go! And thanks to the handy-dandy, absolutely wonderful GPS that my dad provided me with I can always be sure to know the way back home. It’s allowed me to learn my way around the city faster than I ever have and to see what kind of views Urbana has to offer. Take a peek!
Straight sailing!
Cornfields galore
Gorgeous sunflowers every few streets…
Multiple scattered ponds (along with ducks and geese!)
And a beautiful tree-canopy entrance to the street I live in!
Okay, now this is the part where I insert a shameless plug about how wonderful my kitty, Liesl, is 🙂
“So where is all the med-school related stuff?”
I’m sure that you are asking that, right? Step one of actually being on campus: Hit the bookstore and assess monetary damages (hopefully without fainting or running out crazed).
Welcome to the med-school wall where all your hopes and wishes finally begin to come true! (I’m half being sarcastic, half being totally serious, by the way…)
Doesn’t look too bad, does it? Well, take a look at some sample prices:
And my personal favorite (only because it’s spelled incorrectly):
Well, at least there’s a nice “Firehaus” you can stumble across the street to and… yeah….
By the way, next Tuesday (the 18th) is Orientation. More updates then ^_^
Chispirita Dares to Dream 