# I don't drink. What can I do at a rural college on the weekends? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 7, 2001, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889 "2001-10-07T04:26:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/1 "2001-10-07T04:26:56Z")
I’ve spent all my Saturday nights haunting the SDMB, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing 😉 but I’m going insane sitting in this tiny little cinderblock cube. There’s a TV in the lounge on the floor above me, but we all know what weekend late-night TV is like. So recommend me some stuff to do that doesn’t involve running errands (because there is NOTHING in this town!!) and can be done indoors (because it’s REALLY cold here) and don’t involve a lot of people (because I am the only fucking student on this campus who doesn’t drink!) ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/2 "2001-10-07T04:33:05Z")
It all involves outdoor activity and pickup trucks, and much of it involves dogs, and possibly guns. Are you still interested? If not, then I suggest that you get down on your knees and pray. Yes, _pray_, brother, and thank the Lord God Almighty for His most Wondrous Gift–the Internet. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/3 "2001-10-07T04:38:42Z")
Well, I know that when I was in college there was one activity that could be done indoors, didn’t require drinking, and could be done alone, but worked better with at least one partner… good luck finding a partner. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/4 "2001-10-07T04:38:44Z")
Seriously, though…Where is this college located (broad general location)? Do you have access to a car? Does the dorm have a kitchen? Go downstairs and learn to make perfect omelets. Do you play cards? Poker, bridge, pinochle, rummy? Bingo? You can’t be the only dorm castaway. Go up and down banging on doors, see if anybody wants to play Monopoly or Scrabble. Hey, don’t knock it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/5 "2001-10-07T04:39:51Z")
_Shame_ on you, Shibboleth! When he’s down on his knees _praying_…! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/6 "2001-10-07T04:41:59Z")
Well, you are in Vermont, right? So ski season should only be a few weeks away. Take up skiing or boarding, that should fill the weekends. Or studying, that sometimes works. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/7 "2001-10-07T04:44:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \* > \*\*_Shame_ on you, Shibboleth! When he’s down on his knees _praying_…! :eek: \*\* I think you have confused The Cat Who Walks Alone with poor **Daowajan**. Or maybe that was me confusing those two? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/8 "2001-10-07T04:57:54Z")
Wah? [sub]or did I just whoosh shib?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/9 "2001-10-07T05:01:44Z")
No kitchen. No car. Town with no businesses. Wisconsin. I snowboard and play poker, and rarely have heavy homework. ---
**Author:** ![Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Helen\_s\_Eidolon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helen_s_Eidolon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/10 "2001-10-07T05:06:40Z")
Taboo. It’s a board game, requires at least 4 people to play properly, but it’s a blast. Even for cool college kids 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/11 "2001-10-07T05:07:13Z")
I think this is why I went to the University of Minnesota… I like Duck Duck Goose’s suggestion, myself. Or, I guess you could _gasp_ study! Or perhaps get a job where you could work on Saturday nights–at the front desk of your dorm or something like that. Heck, you could probably just go down and talk to the lonely person working the front desk. Our front desks had videos and games and stuff that we could check out for free. I know you like anime–perhaps you could join or start an anime club at your school. Do you have crayons or markers? Draw or color a picture. My friends and I were rather strange, I guess–we’d have occasional “coloring nights” complete with Kool-Aid and sometimes chocolate chip cookies, Disney movies, or “Ranma 1/2”. [sub]You’re not in Ripon, are you? Then I feel very, very sorry for you :).[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/12 "2001-10-07T05:07:29Z")
Hmm…you know, no-one living in the dorms should feel that socially isolated. Ever. The one almost redeeming feature of the dorms is that living in subhuman conditions forces you to make friends pretty darn quick. If you’ve been away at school for over a month, and you still haven’t found people who would hang out on the weekends with you, that’s not a good sign. What year in school are you? From what you’re saying in your post, and in another thread (no, I don’t have a cite for it. Daowajan complains about the hypocrisy and annoyance of comfy campus fashionably-hip pseudo-radicals.), it sounds like your college might not be the best place for you to be. Can you transfer? I hope things get better for you. –Scribble. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/13 "2001-10-07T05:11:27Z")
I’m probably going to transfer after two years. Or one year, if the higher-level English classes here aren’t any good. The problem is I have no idea what I want to do with my life, and finding a larger, more specialized school would be a bit of a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/14 "2001-10-07T05:13:13Z")
Beloit. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/15 "2001-10-07T05:20:36Z")
Wisconsin, huh? I spent my freshman year at the University of Wisconsin at Platteville. There was a five man to three woman ratio, so semen production always outstripped demand. Luckily, I’d grown up in an even smaller Wisconsin town, so I had ample training in being bored. But compared my home town’s teensy Andrew Carnegie-endowment public library, old “P-U” did have an impressively sized library. And there was no hope for a “Y” in my home town, so the equipment available at the field house was also quite a treat. Now, if you come from an even larger town than your UW, you may just spend your time doing what I eventually did, at an even more accelerated pace: hit the books, easily outdo the drinkers in class placement, and use that to your advantage to transfer to a bigger school. ---
**Author:** ![Theobroma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@Theobroma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Theobroma)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/16 "2001-10-07T05:20:53Z")
Offer to be designated driver (someone else who has the car then gets to drink) and get free Cokes from the bar all night. I did that lots of times when I was in college! Alternate idea–start a club to enjoy something you’re interested in, if none exists already (chess, bridge, dirty movies in outer space, dueling, etc) ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/17 "2001-10-07T05:28:52Z")
Smoke? ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/18 "2001-10-07T07:11:46Z")
Learn to play an instrument. Guitar/accordian or similar if you got some talent, harmonica/tin whistle/etc… if you don’t. Don’t know music? that’s easy to learn and you’ll never run out of music you know or that’s new to you in cheap books. If you get decent, you could try and sucker the drunks into giving you their booze money for the weekend in exchange for lessons or an hour’s entertainment. Play practical jokes on people who are too tipsy to realize it was you, film it, and sell the tapes to their friends. I also like looking at pictures of passed out college students with decorative markings added to their faces or hands dipped in bowls of water posted on the net. Lastly you could buff yourself up in your room all winter and walk out in springtime looking like Bruce Lee. Lotsa ways to do that. ---
**Author:** ![frock75](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ad7895/32.png) [@frock75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frock75)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/19 "2001-10-07T07:18:25Z")
Crack…often and in massive quantities. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2001, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889/20 "2001-10-07T07:53:26Z")
You can’t find something to do in Beloit? It’s not that small of a town. And your only an hour away from Milwaukee, and about an hour from Madison, both all freeway driving, a quick trip to the big city. Or you could cross the border into South Beloit and beat up some fibs:D And by the way… \*\*What do you mean you don’t drink!?! You’re in Wisconsin! Alcohol is our religion! I suppose your under weight too! What are you doing here?!! And what do you mean “it’s really cold here”? It’s only October! You ain’t seen nothing yet, tulip! \*\*😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-drink-what-can-i-do-at-a-rural-college-on-the-weekends/85889.md?page=2)