As January closes and February is underway, we’re another month to the already thirteen-ish months of living through a global pandemic. This past year has been, in minimal terms, tumultuous and historic. Now, I have never been much of an active person in the first place, but like others, I am beginning to run out of new hobbies and random things to try out. As a result, I have resided myself to endlessly scrolling through Instagram and rewatching the entire Marvel cinematic universe in chronological order. And seeing that I have exited the baking bread, Animal Crossing and Among Us phases of quarantine while also failing to learn how to crochet a miniature blue penguin, I scoured the internet in search of new things to explore this semester on Grounds. Being an excellent and kind individual, I’ll share my ideas below. Please enjoy these five safe and University-friendly activities to attempt this semester.
Revive Pokémon GO
If you dislike deleting old apps like Temple Run or Candy Crush, it might just be time to break out Pokémon GO and revive the hype in capturing fictional animals and forcing them to fight each other. Most quarantine hobbies tend to keep you indoors, as we are in the midst of a pandemic, but apparently it’s ‘healthy’ and recommended to get fresh air by medical professionals. So while I would love to spend an hour or two attempting to clean out my camera roll without actually deleting anything, finding ways to get outside may not be that bad.
Memorize Just Dance choreography
When I was younger, most of my music taste came from the song lists created by the Just Dance Wii games. And, since technology is a big thing these days, it is relatively easy to find video clips of the various choreography of Just Dance’s best hits — Rasputin, This is Halloween, and Oops! I Did It Again. So, if you want to get exercise or be able to say that dancing is one of your hobbies, I highly recommend setting up your phone or computer on your school issued desk and dancing to your heart's content to Cotton Eye Joe while making your roommate regret ever meeting you.
Sell Your Soul to Duo the Owl
If you want to learn a language while also not learning a language at the same time, Duolingo is a good way to accomplish this goal. Since selling my soul to Duo, the app’s green mascot, I have spent 1122 minutes studying 2154 words in Spanish yet I remember absolutely nothing apart from how to say ‘house’ in Russian. It’s дом by the way. Do I remember how to pronounce it? No.
Time Travel
If you are like me, you may be a bit tired of living through history from time to time. So, if escapism interests you, I suggest dressing up in crocs and warm colored flannel shorts while collecting Japanese erasers and silly bandz. Or, if you had a different childhood, explore it and smother yourself with nostalgia. Nothing is better than reorganizing your collectible cards or cringing at your reading log choices that your school made you fill out.
Download a Nature Identification App
Wanna look like a weirdo by stepping off designated pathways with your phone out while circling around a random tree? Of course you do! Apps like Seek by iNaturalist allow you to identify a wide variety of plants and animals by simply accessing your phone’s camera. Or in my instance, you’ll get weird looks as you chase ants crawling across asphalt or attempt to observe a horse only for it to be identified as an American bison. Otherwise, it’s great fun and a good way to get outside — mask-on of course — and ignore your academic responsibilities.
To conclude, it is understandable that during the past months, some people have simply watched trends pass by without investigating them or dedicating their time to other matters like school work or family. Sometimes free time is not obsessing over a hobby, but simply sitting down and doing absolutely nothing.
Read More
U.Va. “Tourapocalypse”
By Adair Reid | 4 days agoSpring is a beautiful time for Guides to go on the offensive and really highlight the beauty of Grounds from the pollen-caked sidewalks to the lovely-smelling new mulch.
Dear Power Outlet, My Dearest Darling Love
By Maggie McHaty | April 17, 2024My dearest darling love, the concussion to my midnight snowball fights on the Lawn, the 2023 sewage flood to my Brown Residential College, I know I should not have come back.
University squirrels unionize
By Claudia Hunn | April 11, 2024This week, an unlikely group discovered their own collective power as workers by unionizing — a community of University squirrels now known as the Squirrel Workers’ Guild, or SWG.
