Step 1: Dip your feet in the Fountain of Youth in McKeldin Mall
Sometimes there are days when the temperature goes above 18 degrees Celsius. This is the best time to soak in all the sunlight you’ve been missing all these days in the cold. Don’t feel weird if you’re the only one dipping your feet in the water. I’ve seen people enter the water fully.
Step 2: Look around for other fun activities in McKeldin Mall
On warm days, McKeldin Mall is also the hub for a lot of fun activities. I was lucky that the warm days also coincided with Earth Day. Some clubs had some stalls with fun games set up. Some of them had their very own flea market.
But this wasn’t the most exciting part of the setup. They had two huge bouncy castles for people to jump around in. I tested both of them.
Step 3: Take a break and have lunch. But try to spot the UMD fox.
UMD has its very own fox. Some people nicknamed the fox Foxtudo, which is a play on the name of the school mascot Testudo. Interestingly, there was a small rumor going around that a rash driving student ran over the original fox in his drunken stupor and that the fox I spotted is a new fox.
Step 4: If you’re tired and drained by the heat, take rest. Go to the College Park Aviation Museum the next day.
The College Park Aviation Museum is around a mile from South Campus and was an easy morning walk for me. The museum is home to the runway that was originally a part of the College Park airport. It houses several life-size recreations of many airplane models. It also has a flight simulator but this setup was mostly geared towards younger audiences.
