During the day, the grassy hills by Janss Steps are mostly used for studying, sunbathing or just taking a time-out during a stressful day of class. But at night, the hills become a slope of adventure and fun for the intrepid students who take part in the popular activity of ice blocking.
Ice blocking is simple: Take a giant block of ice and use it to slide down the grassy hills next to Janss steps. It offers hours of fun and, along with exploring the campus at night and visiting the famed underground steam tunnels that run underneath the entire campus, it was an activity that was on many graduating students’ to-do list before leaving UCLA.
For these graduates, the beginning of the school year was their last chance to enjoy their undergraduate experience at UCLA. Some set out to make the most of it by creating so-called “bucket lists” of things they wanted to do before graduation.
One graduate, Anthony Simone, even went as far as creating a Facebook group of 91 things he wanted to do at UCLA before leaving this spring.
Simone’s list overflowed with UCLA pride, including leading an 8-clap at a USC game, getting Sproul Hall to spell out UCLA during finals week, and training his body to instinctively shudder upon hearing the USC fight song by setting it as his alarm. But he also revealed a more quirky and random side with items such as throwing an orange onto the roof of Hedrick Summit, dressing as Quail-man for Halloween, and trying to catch a squirrel on the hills next to Janss steps.
Item No. 5 on Simone’s list was to explore UCLA’s underground tunnels, an activity that students are warned against from the very first day of orientation but is nonetheless widely popular. Yet although Simone managed to check off 49 of the 91 items on his list during his four year stay at UCLA, he never went tunneling.
On the other hand, Salmon Hossein, another 2010 graduate, checked that item off his list in his first year, visiting the forbidden tunnels during finals week with a group of seniors to find out what was really down there.
“It’s miles of underground tunnels down there, and there’s even an underground bridge which is below Dickson Plaza,” he said.
However, Hossein, who was caught by a police officer in the tunnels but not seriously penalized, said he understands why UCLA prohibits tunneling to students.
“I can see why it’s prohibited, there’s 400-degree pipes down there. If you accidentally slip or fall you could have a first- or second-degree burn on your hands,” Hossein said.
But Hossein’s bucket list included not only going underground at UCLA but also experiencing the university from some of its highest places.
“Hanging out at the top of tall buildings like Kerckhoff or Broad with your friends is really relaxing and you get a great view of UCLA,” he said. “On a good day, you can even see the ocean.”
The top of Broad Art Center marks the setting for another very popular student activity which ranks high on many people’s list of things to do: frisbee golf. Frisbee golf has gained so much popularity among students that an entire 18-hole golf course which spans the area of the campus has been mapped out with UCLA landmarks like the Bruin Bear and a statue of a naked woman in the sculpture garden serving as designated holes. Friends of Rodney Perez, a third-year mathematics student, embark on the 18-hole course on Fridays when they have free time, or after stressful midterms or finals, he said.
Many of the graduating students wanted to better explore not only the UCLA campus, but also the greater Los Angeles area. Visiting places like the Getty Museum, the Santa Monica Pier and the Griffith Observatory were high on many people’s lists, yet a number of them found smaller, more relaxing places where they could pass the time.
One of Hossein’s favorite experiences in Los Angeles was taking part in the Venice Beach Drum Circle.
“Every Sunday, around sunset, around a hundred people just show up in Venice Beach with all kinds of different drums: Congo drums, Indian drums, rock and roll drums, and just beat it out,” said Hossein.
For people like Perez, Venice offers a completely different yet still unusual experience. On the last Wednesday of the month, Cafe 50’s offers its Wacky Wednesday special in which people who wear traditional two-piece pajamas between the hours of 6 and 10 p.m. eat for free at this 1950s-style diner.
Yet bucket lists aside, for many of the departing seniors, the UCLA experience is more about the little moments, like spending time talking with friends in the dorms or just sitting on Janss Steps passing the time in between classes.
For Simone, creator of the list of 91 things to do, his friends were a big part of his experience at UCLA, often helping him come up with ideas for the list and helping him complete others. Some of his best memories from the list include item 78, “Febreeze someone,” which one of his friends was unfortunate enough to be on the other side of, and the challenge to eat 32 cookies, which another of his friends helped him through even though he had to stop at 20 when his body began to ache.
Although his list kept him busy and other activities like ice blocking, frisbee golfing and tunneling were alluring, Simone says he will remember everything, even the most mundane moments of his UCLA experience.
“When you leave, you’re going to realize that you’re still going to miss even the most boring routine days as much as the exciting ones because it’s just a special place where you feel at home and you’ll miss that.”