Winter Woes: 15 Ways to Shake Off The Gray (Weather)

Warning: These are tried and tested ways to take away the winter woes, but you're going to have to get down and nerdy.

1. Dance!  Play some of your favorite music or slap on some headphones and dance around your living room.  Close the blinds and let loose.  Not a good dancer?  No one will know!  (This is also a great way to warm up in your chilly Azeri house or apartment.)

2. Go for a walk.  Bundle up, it's cold out there!  But once you're hatted, scarved, booted and gloved up, walking around should be no problem.  Make a game out of it, Azeri scavenger hunt!  List of things to find: Xanim shouting "Eggs for sale!", Children laughing, Men smoking, a tree with leaves still on it, 3 cayxanas, a store that sells your favorite chocolate (buy some!) or sweet (buy some!), clothes hanging on the line, a stray dog, a stray cat, 2 chickens and someone carrying bread under their arm.

3. Make something, anything!  I have crayons, stickers, plastic containers, scissors, colored pencils, pens, magazines and loads of other miscellaneous things which can be used for an art project.  Maybe you don't have any of these things, maybe you don't think of yourself as the "type," believe me, you are.  A fun activity I like (because I like mess for art's sake) is to take a cup of rice, beans or any type of dry good which functions the same and make designs on table tops.  Spell out inspiring words, one bean at a time, make loopy designs, make a race track for a qapik (my nephew snuck a race car in my bag, so I have a bonafide toy car to use), design a "rice print" of your dream house.  The point is to use your imagination and if in the process you laugh at the ridiculousness of you, and how glad you are no one can see you, bonus points.

4.  Sing loud! Sing off key!  Just sing.  Put on your favorite song and sing along or sing a capella.  Start off quiet and then get louder.  Sing a fast song slow and sing a slow song fast.  Try out different styles (bonus points for implementing mannerisms and dance moves of the original artist). Laugh.

5. Read out loud in any accent you can muster.  This one is particularly fun if you have an audience.  Have audience members assign the accent or cut up pieces of paper with country names, be sure to include countries whose accent you've never heard and make it up.

6.  Meet someone new.  Invite them to tea.  Pay for them.

7.  Make your favorite hot beverage, find a blanket and read a "throw away" book.  I drink a lot of coffee, but maybe that's not your thing.  This time of year is perfect for hot chocolate or hot tea.  Looking to spice up your chocolate life?  Add a little cayenne pepper (qırmızı istiot) to your hot chocolate for a little bite!  Track down a copy of a book you'd never confess to liking (because you're obviously too smart to like such nonsense) and stay in for the day.

8.  Write a letter to someone.  We all love receiving real mail so why not send some?  Winter is the perfect time to reflect on your feelings and write a letter to someone who has touched your life.  If you stop finding the words to reflect your emotions, stop mid-letter and draw them a picture.  Tell them the picture represents your feelings for them and it's their job to interpret it.  Tell them to write back their interpretations.

9.  Do something nice for someone else, secretly!  In Peace Corps, it's hard to have secrets, this presents the additional challenge of trying to do something for someone else that no one, other than you, knows about.  No bragging, no telling anyone, this is a secret just for you.  Revel in the warm fuzziness of your good deed.

10.  Invite people over for the weekend.  Have a game night, movie night, art night or all three.  Do something fun together which you can all laugh about later.  Make funny face masks, make dinner, quote your favorite movie/poem/book, talk about life and love.  Learn something about them you never knew.  Talk about the funniest thing that's ever happened to you, the nicest thing someone's ever done for you and the best date you ever went on.  Keep the conversation joyful and charge people a piece of chocolate for cynicism or down talk (not that we don't need this too sometimes, but the point of this night is to shake off the grays and find some happy).

11. Find your favorite uplifting quotes, post them around your room/apartment/house.  Read them when you're feeling gloomy.

12. Have a gab fest.  Load up on kontours, make a phone date with one of your favorite someones and blab about your crappy day.  Make sure you return the favor.

13.  Learn something new.  Struggling with that ğ sound in Azeri? (Or is that just me?) Practice until you get it right!  Grab that GRE/LSAT/GMAT manual you've been hiding and do a lesson a day.  Borrow a book from someone and read about something you know absolutely nothing about.  Talk to someone who majored in something very different from you, ask them about what they learned.  When you have internet access, YouTube a video of something you've been wanting to try (belly dancing anyone?). 


14.  Download your favorite podcasts or news shows.  Laugh or cry listening to The Moth.


15.  Laugh.  However that can happen for you.  Hang out with your favorite funny friend, draw on an eyeliner mustache for a Facebook photo, do an amazing activity with your students, learn a cheesy joke and laugh while telling it (bonus points for others looking on with a "that is the lamest thing I've ever heard" expression). Play a game of hide and seek or tag with the neighborhood kids.  Seek out those "laughter" opportunities.


Please feel free to add your own, but these are (tried and tested) ways that I try to shake off the cold when winter weather gets me down.  Happy 2012!