This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at C of C chapter.

Classes are back in full-swing — as weird as it might feel to be online at the moment. But, because of this, I have been reminiscing on my time during quarantine and all of the hobbies I picked up over the summer. Here’s a little look into what I have done during quarantine.

Cooking

I started cooking and baking a lot over the summer. I made mostly Spanish dishes, such as the Spanish omelet called Paella. Paella is personally one of my favorite things to make because you can change up the ingredients each time, depending on how you’re feeling. If you ever want to try it, my recipe is below!

Addie’s 35-ish Minute Shrimp & Sausage Paella

ingredients

– 2 tablespoons olive oil

– 14 oz smoked sausage

– 1 small onion

– 2 cloves garlic

– 1 diced tomato

– 1 teaspoon paprika

– 4 cups chicken broth

– 1/4 teaspoon turmeric

– 1 1/2 cups of Arborio rice

– 1/2 cup frozen peas

– 1 lb raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)

– salt and pepper to taste

instructions

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium heat.

2. Add chopped onion and sausage to skillet. Cook and stir for 3 minutes.

3. Turn heat to medium-low, add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.

4. Add tomato and paprika and sauté for 2 minutes.

5. Add chicken broth and turmeric and bring to boil.

6. Add the rice and turn the heat to medium-high. Boil uncovered for 17 minutes.

7. Finally, add shrimp and peas. Boil uncovered until shrimp are pink and done.

Painting & Drawing

Until this year, I hadn’t really gotten into drawing and painting. My favorite part is the shading when drawing because it is so satisfying. I feel like, even though the summer was so short, I have painted a million different things, like portraits, landscapes, records and album covers, and even flowers on a mirror. This also gave me a cheap way to have decorations for my apartment; I am so proud of all of the pieces I have done because they were fun to create, regardless of how good they look. Painting and drawing definitely allowed me to be creative and focus my energy and thoughts into the artwork.

Music

In other news, I created a 36-hour playlist. THIRTY. SIX. HOUR. PLAYLIST. It has literally every single genre of music. Some of my favorites are from Niall Horan, Harry Styles, the 1975, Declan McKenna, Victorious, Lemonade Mouth, Childish Gambino, Bazzi, Hamilton, and Lady A. If you want to listen, there is a link attached!

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4wkX8PzC1XnLtT0Myd25vo?si=6fnpR9f2TcSO…

What I Did to Keep Myself Busy During Quarantine