Gradlife

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By: Georgia Maxwell, Gradlife Ambassador

This semester has completely flown by for me, and I’m sure it’s been the same for you. In honour of the classic end of the year look-back (inspired by Spotify and those DJs on Youtube … do they still do those remixes?) I thought I’d devote this week’s post to reminiscing about all the fun Grad escapes that Gradlife ran this semester.

Games Night

We ran a TON of Games Nights this fall, where we played all sorts of fun games like Skribbl, Scattegories and Codenames! While it’s hard to say, codenames might have been the most popular, with students getting very invested in winning. We’re going to keep running the Virtual Games Nights next semester, and will be adding some new games into the rotation, so stay tuned!

Doodle Night

Every Doodle Night I was always blown away by the talented Grad students we have at U of T! For each Doodle Night, we did a different set of challenges, with students drawing their research, self-portraits, arch-nemeses, you name it! Typically, we would cap off the event with a group doodle, and everyone would suggest a new element that we each had to work into our own drawings. This always produced some especially fun (and wild!) work.

Recipe Share

Although I am no chef, Recipe Shares were always a fun, low-key space where Grad students came and talked cooking, technique, and of course, kitchen failures. I’d like to thank all the students who shared with me their tips and tricks on how to cook, I can honestly say my meals have improved because of it!

Snowflake Social

To celebrate the end of the semester and the beginning of winter, last week we ran our first ever snowflake social and it was a smashing success. I was blown away not only by the snowflake creations some people made, but also by how funny it was when I tried to unfold my snowflake only to find out it was confetti. Thank you so much to everyone for coming out and making the event so much fun! My windows are now decorated with beautiful snowflakes and I love them!

For one of my first Gradlife blogposts, I wrote about how scared I was to start Grad School online, during a pandemic. And while it hasn’t been the easiest thing in the world (surprise, surprise) getting to meet and hang out with so many Grad students through our Grad Escapes has been one of my favourite parts of the year so far, and it has definitely made my Grad school experience better than I thought it would be. If you attended some of our events, I hope they made you semester a little shinier too. If you haven’t—fear not! We have a fabulous line up of Grad Escapes, Connections and Talks lined up for the winter semester, and we can’t wait to meet you. 

You can sign up for our last Virtual Games Night of the semester on CLNx: https://clnx.utoronto.ca/home/gradlife.htm?eventId=28045

This winter we’ll be running a weekly Coffee and Crafts hour, as well as Creative Writing, Games Nights AND improv events! You can check them out and sign up on CLNx: https://clnx.utoronto.ca/home/gradlife.htm