Testudo fail

Maybe you read my top five things about the University of Maryland blog. Maybe you agreed with what I had to say. Maybe you thought I was completely out of my mind.

But hey, I’m not a tour guide. I’m not some guy trying to get you to pay $30,000 a year to come here. If you’re reading this, you probably already go here.

The truth is, living at this university isn’t that awesome. Some things here suck.

For example:

Walking to class sucks.

Walking up Stamp hill is enough to take down even the most in-shape person on the campus. A walk from Leonardtown to Knight Hall takes about 25 minutes — on an incline requiring what some might consider a full day’s workout for your calves.

I guess it’s good to get some exercise, but not if you get to class looking as though you just came from a sauna. And by senior year, most people live off the campus, so the walk gets even worse.

I have friends at other schools who can wake up for their 8 a.m. class at 7:55 a.m., while I have to wake up for mine at 7 a.m. Sure, they probably go to smaller schools. But still, it sucks. Especially in the winter.

They don’t clean the dorm bathrooms on weekends.

Oh sure, that totally makes sense. The maintenance staff doesn’t clean the bathrooms on the days when people are going to completely destroy them. Everyone’s gone into the dorm bathroom on a Sunday morning only to face the horror lingering from the previous night. Someone could throw up on a Friday night and it won’t be cleaned up until Monday morning. Of course, it’s understandable that the staff gets the weekend off, but the problem remains.

Those bikers.

Because walking to class takes so long, many students choose to ride their bikes to class. In theory, that’s fine. Bikes are fine. People who ride bikes are usually fine. But I’ve seen too many close calls in which a biker looks kind of like this:

There are bikers on this campus who don’t try to run people over, but they’re in the minority. Solution: The university needs to put in bike lanes to curb this problem.

The Leonardtown shop

This might be the most surprising entry on this list, but hear me out on this one. The Leonardtown shop is a tragedy. Want to watch football with some snacks on Sunday? You can’t (ideally, you would have friends to watch the games with too, but that’s really your own problem). The Leonardtown shop is closed from 4 p.m. on Friday to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. So if you want snacks for the weekend, you have to buy them in advance, but that’s just unrealistic. Why isn’t it open on weekends?! Take my money!

Venturing far from the Campus

Last time, I wrote about how Route 1 is one of the best things about this university, and I certainly stand by that. But once you get past Plato’s Diner heading away from the campus, you might as well be in the desert. There’s almost nothing to do there unless you need your bicycle fixed, which is what makes going to Washington so appealing.

College Park doesn’t have the best reputation among college towns, and judging from the UMD Alerts messages I receive every so often, that reputation is probably deserved. That said, College Park’s Old Town neighborhood isn’t that bad.