Note: ‘Summer Schools’, ‘Internships’, ‘Online Courses’ and ‘YouTube’ have been updated for the year 2015-16. Older articles under the Guide can be viewed here.
Vacations are an iffy issue, really. What’s one to do with so much time? T5E brings to you a compendium of things to do that may help you answer this timeless conundrum.
We know that everyone has different priorities and goals, so we’ve arbitrarily divided the denizens of insti into three categories (at the risk of political correctness) to maximize the utility you get out of this list. Whichever category you fall into (or think you fall into), we hope that this list will help you have (or think you have) a not-failed summer.
Wannabe World-Changer
You have never spent your time watching cat videos. (“Cute kittens? Meh.”) You have simply too many things to do all the time. (“Volunteering? Sure! I may be able to squeeze it in between my Korean classes and my evening taekwondo lessons.”) Your dreams usually involve plans of world domination. You definitely have inspirational quotes stuck all over your bedroom wall. (“I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”) You’re one of the rare people who actually make use of a planner, and summers for you conjure up images of competitive internships and intensive courses. (“Relaxing? Work is relaxing.”)
For you, we have compiled a list of resources to use as you pursue your goal of conquering the world.
a) Summer schools
b) Internships
c) Travel
Average Joe/Jane
You know that the holidays are for having fun. You’re only a quarter-way through your reading list, but you’ve watched all the movies and TV shows that you wanted to and a few that you didn’t. (“I’m on season two of Sherlock and season five of Castle and ohmygod I discovered this amazing show I’m addicted to…”) You’ve thought about volunteering and taking up language classes but something keeps popping up, distracting you. And you’ve gone jogging for a whole week at some point in your life, before you decided that sleep was more important.
For those of you whose summer dreams fall between the vagaries of parental sanction (“I am NOT paying for that trip”) and some very real limitations of the self (“I couldn’t wake up every day at five if you PAID me”), here’s a list of do-able things that just might redeem the vacations:
a) Books, movies and more
b) Online courses
c) Volunteering
Absurdist Slacker
You live with the glamorously doomed conviction that life is one big anti-joke. You suppose you’ll write it all down some day to give all those philosophers a run for their money (“No, I am not wasting my time. This is an active political protest against the mindless capitalist cult of productivity.”)
Soon.
Meanwhile, there are a few sites you have to check out. (One of them might start with an “F” and end with “acebook”.) There are YouTube videos that absolutely must be watched. (“Haha, that was one of the best Bieber spoofs I’ve seen–oh wait, what’s this on the sidebar?”) There is an endless universe of delectable uselessness to be explored.
And come on, some of these websites are actually educational; profound, even. What would we do without Quora’s bite-sized globs of information about, well, everything? Or daily shots of existential angst and ‘romance, sarcasm, math and language’?
So here’s a list of websites that’ll help you along nicely on your downward spiral into the depths of absurdism <dramatic music>.
We’ve kept in mind that you prefer not moving too much.
a)Youtube
b)Facebook and social networking
c)Obscenely addictive sites and blogs to follow
And that’s T5E’s bit to your vacations — have a great one!
