Feeling stuck on campus? Gotcha!
As if you hadn’t noticed yet, I’ll remind you again: the weather is cold and is getting colder. The exteriors that we once threw ourselves to get away from the cramped buildings are now testing our limits, granting us only the time to cover the distance from our station A’s to B’s. In this situation, it is only natural to feel stuck in the buildings that we are used to visiting every other day. If you are also like me, trying to minimize your time spent outside, it may be difficult to plan what to do in between your classes. You can go back to your room/apartment, but you only have an hour and a half. Is it worth it to walk all the way back there? Should you visit one of the libraries? But, until you find the motivation to start your work, the clock will already be showing the class time. Here, I’ll try to give you my suggestions that may be a better option than scrolling mindlessly on your phone. Or, maybe fresh places to scroll? You may or may not have heard all these things. Yet, here is your concise and compact list of activities that will enlarge your space perception of the campus, offering you new domains to spend time.
Create an on-campus coffee shop checklist
This one is obvious, but there are many coffee shops on campus. If you are a regular customer of that cafe that’s right next to your class, maybe it could be a good idea to break that habit and visit another one. You can either determine your go-to coffee and try that item in each and every one of the cafes on campus, creating your own caffein ranking, or can learn about the best selling offerings of the cafes and agree or disagree with those accepted campus truths. Ex Libris, Pret, and Harper Cafe may be few of the cafes that are well visited. However, you may add the Harris Cafe in the School of Public policy or Gordon Cafe in the Integrative Sciences Building to your list. If you need a more extensive list of cafes to add your to-go list, you may want to visit this link to see your options.
Although this is an old list with lots of permanently closed cafes, this may serve as a starting point for your discoveries.
Logan Center
I know that Logan Center may not be on you road to classes; however, it offers a wide range of cultural activities that are close to home. Without getting too far from the campus, you can listen to the University Chamber Orchestra’s concert and spend a quality time looking at the responses of various artists who “‘draw’ on each other’s minds, creating new genres of art and scholarship” through “drawings, sketches, diagrams, scores, texts, and ephemera”s in the On Drawing Drawing On exhibition. I know that we are all aware of the existence of Logan Center and their great arts experience offerings. Yet, it is always so easy to forget these kinds of opportunities when busy with writing a seven-page history paper.
Visit Oriental Institute
Oriental Institute is right under our nose, next to quad, yet many of us haven’t even been there once. You may want to pay a visit to this well curated institute when you are not sure what to do in that 50 minutes break in between your two classes. Not leaving the territories of the Quad, I am pretty sure that that 50 minutes will not be enough. Now hosting the Joseph Lindon Smith: The Persepolis Paintings exhibition, Oriental Institute can easily help you fill that gap in your schedule for a couple of days.
“Landscape scene of the monumental terrace including the Gate of All Lands, Persepolis, Iran (oil on canvas, 318 x 201 cm, OIM G4).” Image via
Travel around the quad – but without leaving the buildings
Some of us are aware of the hard-to-find passageways between the buildings. However, did you know that you can travel around the Quad without even stepping outside once? The legend says that every building on the Quad is connected to one another in one way or another. However, it is not always as easy as passing from Harper to the Wieboldt building. You may have to take the stairs a couple of times, just to see that the passageway is on the third floor of one building and the basement of the other. If you have the patience to complete the track, you may want to add this item to your pre-graduation to-do list.
Discover new study spots
You don’t always have to do something actively, You may have lots of readings to do or internship meetings to attend in the middle of the day. So, instead of an institute, a study spot is better for you. Yet, the good, old Reg may have made you have enough of it. Why don’t you try to discover new study spots on campus then? Did you know that there are comfortable chairs and two large study tables right in front of the study abroad office? Or, have you visited the library on Eckhart’s second floor? There are many departments and offices on campus that have their own study spaces and/or libraries available for student use. So, instead of sitting in the same cubicle on the third floor of Reg every time, you may just want to visit one of these secret jams on campus.
Thumbnail image via
