At URI almost 50% of undergrad students live off campus and there is an ongoing debate of where the best place to be is, between Bonnet, Matunuck, The Pier, and the infamous Eastward. If you have ever lived in Eastward, or live there now, you know that any other neighborhood pales in comparison and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. You know you live in Eastward when...
1. Your neighbors have become some of your best friends
You were so stressed about not being able to just leave the door of your dorm open to make friends with whoever walked by, but soon realize your street is just a larger scale of your hallway. Instead of running in and out of tiny dorm rooms, you pop in and out of your neighbors houses. Whether it be to invite them to dinner or a party, ask for life advice, or even just to say hey, they quickly become your go-to friends.
2. When you want to go out, you just step outside and listen for parties
No plans? No problem. Put a cute outfit on, grab your roommate, and take a step outside. Chances are if it’s Thursday-Saturday, you will be able to hear something going on. Sometimes it takes a stroll along the block, but more often than not, you find yourself at a party full of all your other neighbors who did the exact same thing. If someone asks "who you know" there, you answer “I’m your neighbor!” and there are no further questions. For some odd reason, though, you end up at the Rugby House every weekend. Regardless of where you thought you were headed for the night, or what other party you found down the road, you always seem to end up at there. The only problem with that? Everyone else in town ends up there, too. It’s hot, loud, and overcrowded, and chances are you’ll see at least 5 people from class, that boy you have been avoiding, and surprise surprise, all your neighbors.
3. You adventure around Black Point and Hazard Rock at least once a week and never miss a sunset
The question isn’t “do you want to watch the sunset?” it’s “where do you want to watch it?” It’s a slightly different angle from each place around and everyone has their favorite. If you are lucky enough to live in Eastward, there are about 5 sunset spots nearby and you can mix it up week to week. For a distant, purple-y sunset: Narragansett Beach. Want to catch a glimpse of the Newport bridge and climb around? Hazard Rock. For more of a woodsy scene, or for an evening walk/run: Black Point is beautiful. If you want to sit in your car and stay cozy and warm while you watch the orange pink ball drop into the ocean, you head to Point Judith Lighthouse. And of course, there is always Scarborough, if you don’t want to trek those extra couple minutes to the other favorite spots. If you are ever bored and need to get out of the house, there are so many options for potential adventures and none of them cost a dime.
4. When in doubt… you go to the beach
Feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Beach. Want to avoid homework and responsibility for an hour? Beach. Need some fresh air and want to pet some dogs? Beach. Bored? Sad? Angry? Happy for no reason? Beach, beach, beach, and beach. It doesn’t matter if it’s only prime beach weather for a month of our time here, it’s never too cold or windy for an impromptu beach trip.Your family is jealous of all your pictures and your parents question how you ever make it to class. Your friends from high school can’t comprehend how close you live to the beach or why they didn’t come to URI. It’s just SO close, so why not? Scarbarough becomes your backyard and you often have to remind yourself you are here for school and not on vacation.
5 .Everything besides the beach is so far away (not really but it feels like it) and Bonnet is a major turn off
When the beach is only a 5-minute walk away, it’s easy for the 20-minute drive back to campus or… Bonnet… seems like an hour. Campus is so “far” that a day of classes is all or nothing. If you skip one class you skip them all, because why would you drive all that way to only be there for one 50 minute lecture? But once you are drive “all the way there” for one class, might as well stay for them all! The library and gym seem inconvenient, but that’s ok because you can just run and study at the beach. Driving to the dining fall to eat is out of the question because you don’t need a meal plan when you are only a few minutes from Crazy Burger. The farthest most uncharted place of all though? Bonnet. You can’t comprehend why anyone would rather live in Bonnet than Eastward. Who cares about a 5-minute shorter drive to school and slightly cheaper gas? You have a 5-minute walk to the beach.You beg your Bonnet friends to come to you, rather than vice versa. Why drive to a party in Bonnet when you can step two feet outside? As far as you are concerned it’s not even a debate.
6.You see everyone you know at Stop and Shop
"is that that guy from down the street? do I avoid him or say hi? does he recognize me? …ok going for the awkward smile and head nod" You recognize everyone and can’t pin point exactly where you know them from, you just could have sworn you’ve seen them around. We all go to Stop and Shop even though Shaws is apparently cheaper, because it’s just a little bit closer. You see the guy who’s pineapple you stole on Friday night in the produce section and decide maybe you don’t need fruit this week. You turn the corner and the frat guys from a couple streets over have two grocery carts full of various juices…So they are having a party tonight, good to know. Everyone is buying chips and salsa on Taco Tuesday, mixers on Friday, and a haphazardly filled cart of everything else we “need" on Sunday, or Monday, or whenever we get around to it. It’s always interesting to see what your neighbors are eating and comforting to know that nobody else has mastered responsible grocery shopping yet either.
7. On Sundays, you wonder if you actually live in a ghost town
The rowdiness of the week dies down every Sunday (unless it’s above 50 degrees and filled with darties). From random Monday night fire works going off, to people driving around blasting music with the windows down tuesday, nonsensical screams on the street on wednsday, a tv being thrown out of a window on thursday, to your neighbors knocking on your door at 4am on friday and Saturday…You wouldn’t believe any of that happened at all if you came to Eastward on a sunday before 2pm. It’s silent. Does anyone even live here besides that old lady walking her dog? Everyone’s lights are off and everyone is either in bed catching up on sleep, or in the library catching up on school work. If you go for a walk down the street though, various clues will hint to the craziness of the week. You have found so many random, inexplainable, articles around town from lost ID’s (that sucks) to plastic swords (why???) to shoes (how did you even get home without those?) It’s never a dull moment. You can’t even pass judgments though, because you are almost positive you have lost a few items of your own at one point or another.
8. You do a double take when you see someone who isn’t in college
"Was that a child? What are children doing here?" You question how and why anyone would want to raise child in such an…interesting place. Better yet, you wonder why people choose to retire here? It’s a beach town for sure, but besides those rare Sunday mornings I mentioned, it’s usually the farthest thing from calm and peaceful. You have the homes of all the non-college neighbors mapped out and try to stay on their good sides. Luckily, most of them, tend to keep to themselves and you don’t really see them much except when they are walking their dogs, which you of course happily pet. You take note to raise children and retire in any beach town other than Eastward Look.
9. Instead of RA’s you have landlords and Narragansett PD
You thought moving off campus and away from RA’s meant for a free-for-all but that simply is not the case. Your land lord is more annul than your mom about how her house is cleaned and what the lawn looks like. She might not live close by, but you feel like she is always watching and she somehow finds out that someone moved a singular rock from your lawn on NYE. You know that the rocks are in front of every lawn so that nobody drives or parks on them, but that simply is unavoidable. You are lucky enough to have a parking spot in the driveway of your own house, but if you want to have more than one friend over at a time, parking becomes a major issue. If we can’t park on our lawns and can’t park on the street, where are all the cars suppose to go?
You always get creative and figure something out, but when you don’t, you are left to deal with Narragansett Police. Your Landlord seems to be everywhere but these guys actually are. They lurk around every corner and become tow-happy on the weekends. As frustrating as they are, you have learned to cooperate because god forbid you don’t, and end up with the dreaded orange sticker…Those are worse than the little yellow write up sheets we all got in the dorms (more expensive too). You are just hoping you can get through the year without one of those, and praying your landlord doesn’t notice that one tiny stain (why put white carpet in a college rental house??) and that you get your security deposit back.
10. You never want to leave and return to your “real” Home
Regardless of any downsides of living in Eastward, there are many more ups and you love your home. You don’t want to leave and return to your hometown for the summer, or anywhere away from the ocean for that matter. You always thought you would end up in a city when you are older but now realize living by the water is better. You wonder if you will ever live in a place surrounded by (almost) all other people your exact age going through the exact same things, how much you will miss this place and realize how lucky you are to get to live here at all.
