Ways to fill a summer holiday

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Ok Dopers - I need your help.

I’ve been off school for about a month after finishing exams and i still have 3 weeks until i go on holiday and i have absolutely nothing to do. For the past three weeks I’ve been getting up every day and doing the same things - browsing the straight dope when my parents are at work and watching old cheers re-runs. I don’t even like cheers.

I think I’m actually going crazy - I’ve started falling out with myself. I need something to keep me busy and since i can’t think of a single thing I have decided to ask you guys. I have no money so things like shopping and the cinema are out of the question and i despise sport. I begin to feel nauseus when I’m out in the sun for too long and lots of my friends are still on holiday. What can i do??

I need some kind of project or task or anything at all to get me away from the tv. I’ve been known to sit there for 12 hours at a time and its not healthy. What did you do when you were my age (17) when you had no money? If you’re in the same situation what do you do? Suggestions would be appreciated very much.

2

Gardening?

You could do a craft project, but it takes money to buy the materials. You do end up with something at the end of it though and maybe your parents would be happy to loan you some cash to get you started.

Or you could bake, maybe start making the main meal each day. Heck that could fill half a day if you do it right, start by making sure the kitchen is immaculate, then search the SDMB for a good recipe, then get the ingredients together, make the meal, prepare the dining table and of course cleaning up afterwards. Oh and I forgot you get to eat it too :stuck_out_tongue: Once your done cooking, eating and cleaning you can come back to the SDMB and report how it all went.

3

Hmm, cooking… Well, although i live with a brother and 2 parents they all have jobs (my dad has two) and they all have busy lives so i don’t remember the las time i ate dinner with any of them. If i did cook none of them would eat it cos I’m hopeless and most of us just live on microwave things or take aways. I’d ruin the garden if i attacked it, my dads been working on it in his spare time and its looking perfect right now, theres not even any grass to cut. Thanks for the suggestions though, leechbabe

4

Ahh well sorry I couldn’t be more of a help Dawne. If you lived a little closer I’d suggest you come over to my place and babysit for me. Then I could surf the SDMB and watch TV all day instead of you :slight_smile:

Another thought - how about the local library? Sometimes they have cool programs running over the holidays.

5

Any free museums in your area? That’s always good for at least half a day.

If you have a camera, go out and take some great pictures.

Weed the garden.

Find a pen-pal on line.

Try some new hair-do’s.

6

Any chance of getting a job? I know it’s hard if you’ve only got three weeks, but maybe you could try a temp agency or something?

Failing that, how about going for a long walk or bicycle ride? At least it’ll get you out of the house.

7

Well, wait. You say that you all live on “microwave and take-outs”. So, what about following up on leechbabe’s suggestion and making some main meal that you can break down and freeze into individual portions?
Homemade dinner, but still microwaveable for People-On-The-Go.

And the idea of “nobody would eat it because I’m hopeless” is easy enough to overcome. Just get a basic cookbook or surf online for easy recipes.
You can check, for example, http://www.allrecipes.com for recipes.
they’ve even got sub-categories for easy meals, fast meals, etc. The recipes submitted are by “normal” people, not usually chefs or professional cooks, so they’re pretty easy to follow.

Stuff I Have Learned:
Read the recipe completely through first. Make sure you understand what to do and when, and how to do it. THEN assemble all your ingredients. Make sure there aren’t any “hidden” ingredients in the instructions that aren’t listed in the ingredient list. Follow the recipe exactly.
It usually will come out halfway decently.
Believe-you-me, if I can follow some of these recipes, anyone can. Honestly, even my mother and DogDad say that the only thing domestic about me is that I live in a house. And I’m housebroken. That’s about it.
If you want / need help finding easy yet tasty recipes, I’m more than willing to answer any questions you might have. My email address is in my profile.

Alternatively, you could ask your parents if there’s anything they would like you to do, or anything you could do to make their lives a bit easier while you’re out of school. They might surprise you.

8

Read. A lot more interesting than TV, plus you don´t feel like you´re wasting your time. And you can sit outside in the garden (in the shade, if you prefer) and get some fresh air while you´re at it.
If you´re not a big reader, try it anyway. Find an interesting book and whoosh it´s five hours later and you´ve spend them in an exciting world.
Try writing, or drawing, or some other creative activity. If you don´t know what your talents are, try everything until you find out.

9

Or what about redecorating your room? While I don´t know what your parents think if you painted the walls in bright colours, it sure is fun, and there´s surely no harm at all in painting that bookcase dark red and gold or whatever you fancy. Or you could actually try and make some furniture of your own - start with simple things, and make sure you get stable material if it´s supposed to support a lot of weight.

Also, make sure you never become so sensitive to misspellings that you actually feel compelled to correct your own posts… sheesh. :wink: spent, not spend.

10

Well, it’s just a suggestion, anything to help out another doper, how’s about painting my house?

It really needs it and you are sure to find it very rewarding. It’s a small house, right up your alley.

It’s just a suggestion.

11

I would, elbows, but i think you live quite far away.

I hope i don’t sound to dismissive, but when you put together lots of reasons to not do lots of things it can sound wrong. Thankyou for the suggestions.

universe - I’d love to redecorate my room but my parents would be very very mad. They like to have control over the decorating and anyway, someone would have to pay for all of the stuff. My bedroom as it is it hideous, id love to paint it a different colour but they would insist on doing it themselves.

I have quite short attention span to some things, I like to draw sometimes and i chose to do art for the last two years but its not something i ever want to stick with. I do enjoy reading and I’m halfway through a book but It’s really strange and I’m not sure iw ant to carry on, but i promised my mum that I’d stick with it.

As for the cooking thing, somebody would have to buy the ingredients and my mum is paranoid about me burning down the kitchen. Hence, I’m not even allowed to bake cookies. Wow, I’m making it sound as though they give me no feedom at all, its not as tough they keep me chained in the basement but they are quite protective about their home and the things that go on in it.

I’d like to go on bike ides but i don’t have a bike. I wouldn’t mind walks but its so damn hot these days. I can’t wait for winter.

Kalhoun - all great suggestions, but weeding the garden would take 5 minutes because its so immaculate, i have no camera (and theres nothing good around here to take pictures of anyway) there are no local museums, if i went to the city id have to go alone and id rather not. That also costs money. As for the pen pal thing, thats how i think of all of you, in a way.

I guess I’m just too hard to please. I think I’m just going to beat a few moe people at online checers, watch more charlie’s angels re-runs and stay locked indoors, talking to myself. Ahh, the joy of 12 week holidays.

12

I have the exact same problem! I can’t find a job and I’m bored out of my mind, and school doesn’t start again until september. My plan is to get a job at the MSPCA (MA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). If they don’t hire me, I think I’ll just volunteer there instead. Maybe you could volunteer somewhere? Hospitals always need people (I worked in a child care center at a hospital, taking care of the kids of the people that worked there - a lot of the volunteer positions don’t invovle working with sick people).

13

Ooh, I’m terrible with children. Really terrible.

I don’t get on with a lot of adults, either come to think of it. Something to do with a lack of enthusiasm? Phht. Well, it made work experience memorable.

14

hehe…and that would be why I’ll be working with animals. the only problem is that I think I’ll end up with more pets than my tiny apt can support

15

Animals don’t like me, I’ve never had a pet in my life.

I see you’re from Boston, is it nice this time of year? I’ll be there in four weeks for a few days whilst I’m on holiday.

16

It sounds like a lot of your arguments are coming from “my parent’s wouldn’t let me do that.”

I’d ask them anyway. It doesn’t hurt to ask. Explain to them that you are looking for something productive to do, and you might be surprised.

17

sorry i didn’t answer sooner! i’ve been up in the wilds of new hampshire for the past 24 hours, camping.

It’s been beautiful the past few days! low 80’s, sunny, not too humid. Just pray that it’s not humid when you’re here, it can get stifling.

18

Write a book.

Force yourself to go for long walks.

19

i hear ya Dawne! i’ve been going nucking futs since uni broke for summer about a month ago. i hate sports too, and i hate the heat.

why dont you try n do what i did. obscure, i know, but picked up chainmaille (about 15 quid will get you set up with the basics. either that or get your rear end over to java.sun.com and learn to program java. it’s really not that hard, and the results are quite cool…
wait, i would say that. damned stupid artificial intelligence course…
you could of course try n get a job… i know summer-holidays jobs suck, but there are some very cool jobs out there (i just got one :)). the final offering i bring to your attention is music. find a band you really like and spend time on kazaa hunting their stuff down…