Orange Key Fact #926: Princeton Is Just Kind of Bizarre

In light of a recent visit from two friends from high school, I realized, as one is wont to do, that it's the little things that make Princeton so special. Everyday musings aside (“Gee, I chugged a possibly hazardous number of Red Bulls to get me through Dean’s Date!” or perhaps “The competitive, back-stabbing nature of that intro class is just so invigorating!”), there are some things we simply forget are unique, interesting, or downright bizarre.While by no means a comprehensive list, what follows is a collection of those things we take in stride, those things that fall under the heading “Only at Princeton…”

1. We are so taken with the benefits of flexible logic that we enforce trayless policies in several campus dining halls and eating clubs, but often force Rocky/Mathey students to use disposable plates, cups, and bowls at weekend brunch. Here’s to a marriage of green dining and fiscally-responsible employment models!
2. We have a bubble tea joint on Nassau that serves—get this—exploding boba. “Would you like regular boba or exploding boba?” (As if that were even a question.)
3. Many of us live in beautiful residential college buildings in which we have to ascend two flights of stairs to reach the nearest bathrooms (ahem, Holder). We even convince ourselves that the “It’s 5 a.m., so I refuse to believe that my bladder is about to pull a Tycho Brahe” game is normal.
4. We can’t do the usual student bouncer thing on the Street. Nope, we go all out, ensuring that only those possessing an ever-changing rainbow of passes (or a great color printer) can get into those exclusive eating clubs.
5. We (or at least I) become as star-struck by seeing the likes of Cornel West in Starbucks (or, in the case of my roommate, by running over his toes on her bicycle) as we do by seeing Wu-Tang Clan’s GZA.
6. There are so many stray cats on campus that a student cat-catching group was organized in order to address the issue.
7. We work out in a building with tiger gargoyles on it.
8. We find nothing unusual about the majority of campus having access to five meals a day (with the option of multiple swipes into each meal).
9. We require all those under the age of 16 to be accompanied by an adult when entering the East Asian studies library in Frist. (Underage vandalism of obscure libraries on college campuses being on the rise, and all…)
10. We have a campus masturbator?

Weird? Quirky? Fascinating? Perhaps all of the above. So maybe it’s time to add some new Orange Key Facts to the repertoire and remind students what Princeton is really all about.