Shipping to and from the Orange Bubble

January 5, 2022
Amélie Lemay

My Princeton dorm can be identified by my building, floor and room number, but it's not a mailing address to which the postal service can deliver. How do you receive mail and packages in the Orange Bubble? The answer is Frist Campus Center, the hub for student life located in the middle of campus. Every student has a mailing address at Frist that remains the same throughout your time here, and you can ship to that address just as you would ship to your home.

When a letter or package arrives for you at Frist, you receive an auto-generated email notification. Somehow the notification that something is waiting for your pickup is always incredibly exciting, even when you know it's just a pair of socks you ordered.

Letters can be picked up at the mail desk during normal business hours, and packages can be picked up anytime from the package kiosks. Using the package kiosks feels a little bit magical, in my opinion. You approach a wall of package cells with a touchscreen in the middle, but you don't know which cell contains your package. When you scan your Tigercard at the touchscreen, one of the cells automatically pops open for you to take out your package. This grand reveal truly does add pomp and circumstance to the moment, even for the reception of something as mundane as that pair of socks.

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package kiosk with open package cell

There are also specialized email notifications for specific deliveries, like oversized packages (for which you have to go to the oversized mailroom) or perishable items. My parents sent me flowers for my birthday, and I received 3 emails in the course of about 20 minutes asking me to immediately come and fetch my perishable delivery from Frist. Never fear that you will not be made aware when you have a perishable delivery waiting for you, but do fear that your inbox will be flooded.

As for shipping out of the Bubble, there are numerous mailboxes and UPS drop boxes located around campus (the mailbox closest to my dorm is about a 5-minute walk). The U.S. Post Office is located on Nassau Street just a few minutes past the E-quad, and there's a UPS store near there as well. In summary, the walls of the Orange Bubble are quite permeable for sending and receiving whatever you need.