Moving to Lansing
 

I'm going back to school :P at Michigan State this August. I grew up in metropolises, and I'm curious to see what life will be like in East Lansing.

The next smallest city I've lived in was Grand Rapids, also for school, and it was a pain to be not only somewhere completely car-oriented but also stuck culturally in the fifties. Grand Rapids was middle America at its finiest, and my guess about Lansing is that it won't be much different.

Why these issues matter to me is that a) I do not drive nor have a license, and b) I need access to great produce and healthy, living, dry foods. Not frozen mac and cheese, nor apple crumble mix in a box, nor peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in a squeeze tube, nor any of the other disease-inducing delights that Meijer offered in GR.

My quality of life is dependent on access to real food, as well as prepared but healthy and nutritious convenience options, like what one might find at Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and small, family-owned grocery shops at reasonable prices. This may be counterintuitive to the average Michigan diet... so I'm wondering what efforts I will have to make to maintain my lifestyle in Lansing.

How far off-campus do you plan to live from MSU? There is a Foods For Living organic grocery store on 2655 East Grand River:

foodsforliving.com

Thanks for the link!

Google maps shows that I will be living near a "Georgia's Gourmet Pizza."

I know that there's a lot of take-out/fast food in my area but I'm only interested in healthy "granola" options.

Other suggestions are welcome.

I've lived in East Lansing for the last 10 years without driving. Try to live on the #1 bus line as that's the most frequent and will take you to all the health food shops/markets. See CATA.org Also lots of bike lanes. Several farmers' markets: http://www.localharvest.org/search.j...ty=1&zip=48823 and also MSU Organic Farm sells on campus every Thursday http://www.msuorganicfarm.com/farm-stand

East Lansing is certainly as car-oriented as the rest of Michigan, but there are plenty of students that live without cars. My first suggestion would have been to visit and try to choose a place to live based on being within walking distance to the stuff you have mentioned, but sounds like your housing is already chosen? Is it provided by MSU?

That's awesome to hear! I'm by the 26, 20, and 1. I heard the 26 was best... glad the 1 is frequent as well!

I will be within 17 min walking distance of my main building, which is honestly too good to be true for me. I'm living off-campus--- I was stressed to the GILLS hunting online, having never been to Lansing, but it was worth it! Owen Hall is the crappy grad option that I refused to settle for, and so many communities seemed to be run by sketchy property mgmt companies...

An aside-- the only lease I've signed in my life was in Ontario, where the law actually considers tenant rights, and my lease was basically created from a template included in the law....

Anyway, glad not to be hooked by DTN and its contemporaries nor paying thru the roof to live in a walk-in closet in Owen.

Sounds like a good plan. Only warning I'd give to folks moving from out of state is that walking in winter will be ... special. :) But if you've lived in Ontario and Grand Rapids, you should have no trouble.

Exactly why I bought Tecnica Moon Boots.:D

Any suggestions for a great cell phone plan?

I will mainly need unlimited text, maybe 150 anytime minutes... maybe a small amount of data when I don't have wifi. I don't want to shell out a ton for a phone, but wouldn't mind buying it outright to avoid a contract. Prepaid is preferable so that there aren't surprises in the bill.

I'm paying $20 CDN a mth now for unlimited talk, text, voicemail, and all the extra little things. I don't think I'll have as great a deal given that I'm on an ex-employee plan, but I would like to pay around $20/mth or as close to that as possible in the States.

I've heard of Net10...any comments on this provider or other ones?

So nobody was able to offer suggestions for a cell phone provider... bc all the plans suck for me! From the main providers at least. A friend of a friend from Ann Arbor recommended Republic Wireless. Just ordered tonight, we shall see how this works out!

No ideas for you; I don't know of anything that would be close to the deal you mentioned having at present. When I lived in Michigan I had Verizon with an employee discount but I was under a contract and it still came to ~$45/month IIRC.

Sorry this is late for the OP, but it may help others: T-Mo offers a $30 monthly no-contract plan which includes unlimited text, first 5GB of data at 4G (throttled over 5gb) and100 talk minutes (10 cents per minute over 100 mins).

Big difference between East Lansing and Lansing. You will find it much easier to accomplish what you want in East Lansing.

http://www.elazteco.me/ELAZTECO.ME/restaurant.html

Topopo Salad. I might fly there just to get another one.