my friends think i live in po-dunk town
i invited some of my close friends to come visit me here in champaign-urbana. they often joke that they'll see me in chicago. they know that i don't live up there, but i think deep down, they rather be up there. 2 of the friends have been here for the urbana conference, and they did not enjoy it one bit. i don't blame them b/c really, champaign-urbana, isn't showing their best side in the middle of winter with snow and wind chill to a few people from down south. :P it isn't really hospitable.
anyways, the joke has continued that we live in a po-dunk town where everyone farms*. while i know they are saying these things in jest, it's come to bother me. perhaps it's my snarky mood. i feel like i have to defend champaign-urbana. it isn't like this horrible backwards town with nothing to do but sit out in the cornfield all day.
i think, secretly, my friends are scared to visit**. they all come from and live in large cities, so i don't think they know what to expect from a smaller city. well, if they ever come, i hope they can see the charm of champaign-urbana. and i really hope they don't come and then complain about where i live. it will make me snarkier.
* of course, to add to their teasing, i've told them i grew a garden this year.
** a subset of my close friends have known each other since high school. they had no problem flying out to visit each other when some of them moved away. granted, they moved to cities like san fran and l.a. for visiting me here in champaign, it's been mostly talk. we'll see if they really do come. granted, one of them did come visit me a few years ago. it was sweet. i think she enjoyed it. :P
posted by Ramona @ 10:10 PM
3 Comments:
Anyone who thinks C-U is a po-dunk town really needs to get in touch with reality! Send them to Canton, or Effingham, or Charleston, or Sterling (all towns in Illinois that I've spent time in), and they'll come much much closer to po-dunk. For a city of it's size, C-U has plenty to do if you know where to look (I've lived in the same-sized Bloomington and the larger Peoria, and C-U possibly wins over the other two combined). I think the problem your friends might be having is that there aren't nearly as many places to massage their consumerist tendencies hear, so they quickly get bored. I don't know these friends, so I'm not calling them out specifically, but I have a hard time seeing such a nonsensical dislike of a place like C-U by people from big cities to be much of anything except an anxiety that their expected and deserved creature comforts won't be adequately supplied if they leave the enclave of suburbia. So feel good about yourself: you really are the superior person here. (and I'm only half joking with that last line.)
hmm, perhaps i shall send them over yonder. :P
i don't think my friends will dislike champaign too much, though i think it will be different for them. i hope they'll think of it as a breath of fresh air on the modest lifestyle here and maybe change some of their consumerist tendencies (which are rather few)....
really, i don't think they'll think it's so bad. i was being snarky yesterday, like i said. :)
I've also found this curious in the past. What do people want to do when they visit someone that isn't available at a high quality in Champaign? Here are the things I've come up with:
1. Outdoor activities require pretty significant travel to be high-quality (this would also be true in Chicago).
2. There are basically no night clubs (you're limited to bars for late-night outings).
3. There are no comedy clubs.
4. Some things are available more rarely (such as big sports events).
5. There are no high-quality historic sites to visit.
6. There are no high-quality museums, zoos, etc. to visit.
7. There are no Six Flags-style amusement parks.
My guess is that they fear they'll get bored because there aren't tourist-ish spots to visit to keep them occupied. The first thing that people in big cities offer me when I visit them is a trip to a museum. The first thing I offer people that visit me in Colorado is a trip up into the mountains. The best you can do in Champaign is offer a tour of the university.
I'd be interested to hear what these people would specifically want to do that would be unavailable to them. More importantly, I'd be interested to hear what they actually do in LA or wherever that they wouldn't have access to. Sometimes it's hard to just sit around and play board games.
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