A New Student’s Perspective: Take advantage of prime location
If you’ve ever been on campus past 4 p.m. on a Friday, you know that Rider is a suitcase school. No matter how many Bronc Buffets the Student Entertainment Council (SEC) plans during a semester, students just don’t stay on campus. However, this doesn’t mean that there is nothing to do once the school week is over. Although planned activities on campus are limited to certain times and places, there are many things students can do to let loose (on a limited budget) after a hard week.
The SEC hosts free movies every weekend, which are shown in the BLC. For example, this weekend Blood Diamond is playing, which is something I know a lot of people wanted to see. The BLC is just a short walk away for everyone, and could fill two or three hours of a boring Saturday. However, if the weather is nice, and you don’t want to stay inside, grab a Frisbee, ball, racquet, and a bunch of friends and do something. Last week, when the weather was so nice, I could see several students outside playing lacrosse, Frisbee and just tossing a football around. These activities get your body moving and help relieve the stresses of the week.
If you have a car, or want to take public transportation, there are many things to do in the immediate vicinity of Rider. Let’s face it — As much as we’re thrilled we can drive to Philadelphia in an hour and New York City in an hour and a half, sometimes it’s just not practical to go into these cities on the weekend. Instead, Princeton is just 20 minutes away, and there are so many things to do there. In fact, it’s one of my favorite places to go on the weekend. The area where the Princeton campus is located has lots of little shops, restaurants and even a movie theater that could fill a nice afternoon or night. The Bent Spoon, a delicious little ice cream store, has some of the best frozen treats I’ve ever tasted and the Princeton Record Exchange sells slightly used CDs for under five dollars. Searching through their huge selection of all different genres of music will keep you occupied for hours.
If you’re in the mood for bowling, there are many different bowling alleys in the area. My favorite to visit is Colonial Lanes on Route 1. Although a lot of their equipment is older, the prices are good (Saturday afternoon games are 99 cents!) and it really is a lot of fun. Also, right off of Route 1 on Sloan Avenue is the Hamilton AMC, which has discounted ticket prices for students.
Although the majority of students go home on weekends, this doesn’t mean there’s a lack of things to do. The possibilities are endless, you just have to be creative and have fun.
— Nadine Tester
