It seems like just yesterday you and your best friend were pretending to study in Main Stacks or waiting in line for a table at La Note. Now the day you’ve both been dreading has arrived as your best friend embarks on a semester abroad. All you can do is think about how much you’re going to miss your partner-in-crime who’s always down for questionable Artichoke Basille’s pizza at 2 a.m., a cathartic cry sesh after an impossible midterm and spontaneous trips to San Francisco. Nonetheless, you hug goodbye with a brave smile on your face, knowing that the Clog has your back with ways to live vicariously through your best friend as he or she takes on the world. Here are some easy ways to feel like you’re right there with them!
Share your locations with each other on the Find my Friends app.
This way, you can track your friend’s movements (if Wi-Fi is available) through the streets of Italy or the castles of Germany from the comfort of the couch that you haven’t moved from in two or three weeks. If you’re ever missing your friend you can just open the app, track his or her location and shoot off a text asking why he or she is still at that club at 7 a.m. on a Monday.
Social media stalking is crucial — even more than usual.
Stay updated with your friend on Snapchat and Instagram, because it’ll probably be the only way you will have consistent access to his or her face. Photoshop your face in next to your friend’s because you’re really there in spirit, right?
Eat what your friend is eating.
You will inevitably have a difficult time mimicking the exotic foods that your friend is likely consuming, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Maybe cut back on the Chipotle and In-N-Out in place of a good ol’ fashioned hot dog to have alongside your friend’s wienerschnitzel.
Learn a new language.
One way to live vicariously through your friend is to learn the same language that he or she is surrounded by in his or her temporary home. Since you’ll be stuck in Berkeley, you might as well take advantage of the incredible course offerings and take a class in Spanish, French or even Icelandic. You’d be killing two birds with one stone by also successfully fulfilling a breadth requirement.
Watch chick flicks that take place in foreign countries and cry.
There’s no shame in watching Mary Kate and Ashley’s “When in Rome” and deluding yourself into believing that you and your other half are taking on the world together. “One day . . . One day . . .” you cry into your empty wallet.
Contact Carina Zhao at czhao@dailycal.org.