ICECOLDECON

Hi Bayerko, Alumni village is not in what I know to be the Frenchtown part of Tallahassee. Frenchtown is on the northside of campus and would include the Brevard St area that I referenced above. Alumni village is on the south side of campus, which is a better (though not by a whole bunch) part of town. It is a bit isolated from campus, but to be honest I don't know as much about that area of town, as I rarely ever needed to go into there. I have heard of break-ins on the south side of campus, but those were cases with people living on Pensacola street, which is right on the edge of campus. Really, one just needs to be smart. I had a friend who lived on Pensacola and a group of guys knocked on his apartment door, he answered, and they knocked him out and robbed the place; the lesson would be, don't answer the door if it is a group of strangers. I think you asked what your closest supermarket would be and I am pretty sure that would be the Publix on Ocala. It is clean, relatively new, offers decent prices (lots of buy one get one free items) and is open to midnight if I remember correctly. If you want to use google maps, it will probably tell you how far the supermarket is from the Alumni Village address (just type in the alumni village address, click search nearby, and enter Publix). Volunteerism was big on campus, as was sports (our fitness center was pretty good). For a list of organizations go to: https://fsu-sgms.symplicity.com/index.p ... ps&au=&ck= Hope this helps

Also, downtown is pretty during December for the city's winterfest.....that is definitely worth attending.

I posted this in the Gainesville forum, but I think that I mentioned my experiences in Tallahassee enough to warrant its inclusion on here: I wanted to make some quick comments about Gainesville. I attended a Summer Session in 2008. First off, yes it is very hot; but not really much hotter than most of the other places in the state (I have attended both Florida State in Tallahassee and South Florida in Tampa). I actually think Tallahassee got hotter, during the summer, than Gainesville. Humidity is a problem though, Gainesville was by far the most humid of any of the places in FL that I lived. You most definitely can live at UF without a car. Since I was there during a summer session, the buses were operating on a reduced schedule, but I still found it extremely easy to get to the supermarket and mall using the bus system. Yes, it is inconvenient to live anywhere in FL without a car, but of Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Tampa, Gainesville was by far the easiest (somewhat a product of the small size and compactness of the city). When I was in Tallahassee (2002-2006) practically no students used the city bus system and buses not in the bad parts of town came every half hour at best and usually only on an hourly basis. The same is true in Tampa, only the problem is exacerbated by the length of the routes. In Gainesville, students use the buses, they come pretty frequently, and the routes arent too long. Now, I think the bus situation at FSU may have improved since I left as the university; I think the university implemented its own bus system b/c no students rode the city buses, but still, Gainesville buses are more than adequate. The area around campus is also nice. They have the best pizza shop I have eaten at since leaving New York (I love New York Pizza), a ton of lil restaurants, along with the bars and clubs you would expect. Compared to Tallahassee, the area around campus in Gainesville is wonderful (if not a bit too loud). In Tallahassee, I could not walk down Tennessee St without being approached by multiple homeless people begging for money and the Brevard St area straight north of Tennessee St had drug dealers and prostitutes. My first year in Tallahassee, a guy was murdered in my complex a couple of apts down by a local drug gang. (If this was a post about Tallahassee.......and I might copy this post there.....I would mention that Tallahassee has a bad ring around FSU and then is nicer on a second more outter ring). As someone who has lived in Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Tampa......I would choose Gainesville in a heartbeat over the other two. Now all that being said, my advice to someone moving to Tallahassee would be as follows: (1) Get a car or scooter (2) Live in that second ring I talked about.....stay away from living by the university and try to avoid the NW part of town. In general, the area around Tallahassee Mall is nice. The people who mentioned London Town are dead on, I lived there for over a year (back when I had a car), and it was absoulutely awesome and in one of the nicest areas of Tallahassee. (3) Be prepared to see a large dose of southern culture. Culturally, the area is more an extension of southern Georgia, rather than the displaced northerners that you see in South FL. (4) Be prepared to make your own entertainment. The city is pretty dead outside of college football. The Miracle 5 theatre is a pretty good Tallahassee secret....they play some neat movies there that dont make it to one of the bigger cineplexes. Now it is not the worst place in the world, but Im still surprised to see all the positive comments here. During my time there, I think the most common thing I heard from my classmates about Tallahassee was I love FSU, but I wish it wasnt stuck in Tallahassee.

I wanted to make some quick comments about Gainesville. I attended a Summer Session in 2008. First off, yes it is very hot; but not really much hotter than most of the other places in the state (I have attended both Florida State in Tallahassee and South Florida in Tampa). I actually think Tallahassee got hotter, during the summer, than Gainesville. Humidity is a problem though, Gainesville was by far the most humid of any of the places in FL that I lived. You most definitely can live at UF without a car. Since I was there during a summer session, the buses were operating on a reduced schedule, but I still found it extremely easy to get to the supermarket and mall using the bus system. Yes, it is inconvenient to live anywhere in FL without a car, but of Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Tampa, Gainesville was by far the easiest (somewhat a product of the small size and compactness of the city). When I was in Tallahassee (2002-2006) practically no students used the city bus system and buses not in the bad parts of town came every half hour at best and usually only on an hourly basis. The same is true in Tampa, only the problem is exacerbated by the length of the routes. In Gainesville, students use the buses, they come pretty frequently, and the routes arent too long. Now, I think the bus situation at FSU may have improved since I left as the university; I think implemented its own bus system b/c no students rode the city buses, but still, Gainesville buses are more than adequate. The area around campus is also nice. They have the best pizza shop I have eaten at since leaving New York (I love New York Pizza), a ton of lil restaurants, along with the bars and clubs you would expect. Compared to Tallahassee, the area around campus in Gainesville is wonderful (if not a bit too loud). In Tallahassee, I could not walk down Tennessee St without being approached by multiple homeless people begging for money and the Brevard St area straight north of Tennessee St had drug dealers and prostitutes. My first year in Tallahassee, a guy was murdered in my complex a couple of apts down by a local drug gang. (If this was a post about Tallahassee.......and I might copy this post there.....I would mention that Tallahassee has a bad ring around FSU and then is nicer on a second more outter ring). As someone who has lived in Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Tampa......I would choose Gainesville in a heartbeat over the other two.