Ansgar

Apartments: Avoid The Reserve at all costs. When I say they almost killed my wife, I'm not exaggerating. Our upstairs neighbor had her water pipe burst, which they didn't shut off for 3 hours after the emergency maintenance number was called. They refused to do any cleanup or repair any damage even though our lights, oven and dishwasher were all fried. When the black mold started coming in, they refused to even look at it until my wife started having respiratory problems to the point that I had to move her into her mom's place in St. Louis while I packed the apartment. They "fixed" the black mold by painting the mold white and then tried to charge me $200 to break the lease after refusing to allow us to move to a different unit and started talking about a "cleanup and repair fee," both of which they backed off of once I threatened to tell every news station in the state about it (no legal recourse as Missouri eliminated mold protections from renters' rights due to it happening too often). Granted, your results may vary. (Lived there from Summer 07- Summer 08, so they may have changed since then) Eateries: Gumby's Pizza is amazing, but eat there because it doesn't keep well during delivery. Okii Mama is not amazing, but is still quite good and very reasonably priced. Most of the Chinese restaurants are subpar at best. Lots of chain restaurants. Shopping: Game City is great for gamers of the console variety. Ray (the owner) has a personal rule that if he doesn't have it, he will find it for you and carries everything from new releases on the current systems to the occasional Atari 2600 and even Sega CD games. The primary shopping area is the Columbia Mall with a decent selection of stores and a pretty average food court with a carousel in it. Travel: The regional airport flies to and from Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth (one each way for CHI and two each way for DFW daily) with outdoor uncovered parking. If you want to fly out of St. Louis or Kansas City, MO Xpress charges $46 for one way or $86 round-trip, but you are expected to tip the driver. A car is a necessity in Columbia, even though it is one of the more cyclist friendly towns in the state. *edited for grammar*

Just got accepted to ECU's MA program. I have a wife and mother-in-law who will need to move with me due to the job market in St. Louis' collapse. How is the job market in Greenville? I'm from St. Louis and they're both from Raleigh, but have been in St. Louis for the last 15 years.