cute date ideas by Ellie F. '28
or like. hang out ideas
It’s Veteran’s Day, which means it’s been one year since my For Real Official Actual First Date here at MIT. Because I’m sentimental, here’s a list of fun Ellie-tried-and-tested things to do with one or more people that you love, for any definition of love <3
I’ve roughly grouped these by distance from where I live. Let me know if there’s anything else cool that I should check out :)
In dorm
I live in Simmons, so your mileage may vary.
-
Take advantage of the craft room
- Ideas! Paint something together, fold origami (if you’re folding with someone else, try something modular!), or create a gift with the yarn and fabric supplies.
- Make fancy desserts in the dining hall
- Because if I’m paying that much for a swipe I may as well feel like I had a bougie meal.
- Bake in the kitchen
- Solder stuff in the EE lab
- Study breaks
- Simmons has insanely good study breaks. In the past month, we’ve averaged about two a week, with cake, cookies, apple cider donuts, s’mores, and more. This is a fantastic way to make people come over to study so that I don’t have to leave my room.
On campus
- Enjoy some shows!
- I have to plug Video Game Orchestra (VGO), Asian Dance Team (ADT), and Next Sing of course :) but there’s also lots of theatre, like Shakespeare Ensemble, LOST, and Musical Theatre Guild. Dance shows are a blast, and you can NOT miss fire-spinning arts shows (some of the bloggers perform in those!)
- More study breaks but this time on campus
- Mostly I mean Weekends @ MIT, which hosts a great study break every Friday night. I’ve especially loved chocolate night (I took home so much Ghiradelli), Bob Ross night, and gingerbread house making (we made Simmons). Apart from Weekends, there’s also some cute events by other clubs, like the Undergraduate Society for Women in Math (USWIM).
- Rush frats
- I might be a girl but those all-male frats are giving out steak and lobster with no discrimination. Enjoy the hell out of those huge rush budgets.
- Visit the MIT Museum
- Explore campus
- I like the view from the top of the Green Building (and there’s secret Good Hot Chocolate in there too). Another fond memory was reading every poster in the astro building (Building 37).
- Speaking of astro check out the sky
- The light pollution is a bit horrendous here but in 12.409 Intro to Hands On Astronomy, we got to go out on the roof of Building 37 and take astrophotography. We also drove out to Haystack Observatory, where there are way more stars :)
- Take a PE class
- Learning to waltz is a very useful skill if you’re determined to break it out at every possible opportunity.
In Boston/Cambridge
- Boy do I love shows!
- I love classical music (thanks Dad), so the BSO college card is amazing for me. MIT provides discount tickets to the Boston Ballet, so I’ve been to the Nutcracker and Swan Lake too. I also recently went to my first non-classical concert :0
- Man am I a sucker for museums!
- MIT provides free access to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. We like to bring sketchbooks and draw all the pretty things we see.
- Playgrounds
- Last spring, a few of us went on a playground crawl, which is kind of like a bar crawl except instead of alcohol there are swing sets. We went to about four or five playgrounds, though we didn’t make it to the Cop Slide, which unironically is my favorite playground ever.
- Walk
- Cross a bridge, go into Boston Commons, look for ducks, find yourself downtown and check out a ritzy hotel, browse Newbury Street, follow the Green Line, spend too long in a bookstore, walk up North End and then down into Seaport. Walking with people is the best.
- Pretend you go to another school
- My first finals week, we eschewed studying for Chemistry in favor of climbing BU’s Jenga building. When the snow froze into smooth ice in February, we slid around Harvard Square and made a fool of ourselves.
- Pretend you have money
- We went to Macy’s and tried on a bunch of expensive suits and dresses and also apparently you can do makeup there and they won’t stop you.
- PUZZLES!!!!
- I’ve had a lot of fun WINNING at Red Fox Escapes, an escape room company on Mass Ave, and Boda Borg, which is a giant collection of escape rooms and obstacle courses you can try over and over again. Additionally, BAPHL (Boston Area Puzzle Hunt League) runs an in-person puzzle hunt about twice a year.
Outside Boston
- Pick apples
- Every fall, DormCon (and various other groups) has a huge apple-picking trip, and I never got the appeal of biting straight into an apple until I went on one of these.
- Go to a dorm retreat
- I will get a good grade in Simmons Hall, which is both normal to want and possible to achieve.
- Hike in New Hampshire
- Or Maine, if you’re willing to drive further. Remember, before we had “touch grass,” there was “go take a hike.”
- Nyc
- This is probably the canonical spring break trip for people traveling. Yes, we went to a museum every day.
Have fun :)