Near the end of January, my friends and I went to our first trivia night at Slow Train, a cafe in the town of Oberlin. Every Thursday, Slow Train hosts trivia, and you can buy drinks and snacks while answering questions with teams of up to 5 of your closest friends. Every week since that first night, we’ve been back, with varying levels of success, but it’s one of my favorite new activities for a few reasons.
Q: What do 2016 pop culture, the Winter Olympics, songs with piano solos, and the human heart have in common?
A: They were all recent trivia topics!
First of all, the topics are different enough that pretty much everyone can be successful in one round or another. We’ve had rounds of general knowledge, pop culture, sports, science, and history. There’s always a visual round, where teams scan QR codes or get printouts of photos to identify, and the topics of the visual rounds have ranged from famous towers to celebrity baby photos. Plus, there’s often an audio round for music fans or a wordplay round, which are also really fun to figure out. Even if you struggle with one topic, the next round is usually something completely different, and if you have a bad night, the next week has a new host and a new set of topics. A rough round can also be a source of fun—I can’t tell you how many times we’ve checked answers after a round and started laughing about how hilariously wrong we were. Either way, the variety of topics keeps things fresh and interesting, and I usually have at least one round that I feel really confident about.
Q: True or false: I am a competitive person.
A: Definitely very true!
Most of my friends can tell you that I love a good (friendly!) competition, whether it be a board game or a classroom debate. As part of Oberlin’s orientation process, we have to take an assessment called CliftonStrengths, which gives you a list of your top 5 strengths that will best benefit you in the workplace, classroom, and other professional settings. My top strength was indeed competition, which was funny, but honestly unsurprising. Considering all of that, weekly trivia night has given me a fun outlet for my competitive nature, and it’s always fun to hear the results and see what placement we got. Our record so far is 3rd place, and we’ve placed 4th at least three times. (We don’t talk about the week that one of our teams got 16th and the other got 14th.) Also, even if you’re not doing well in the overall standings, there are other fun ways to compete. If you go with a large enough group, you’ll have to split into two teams, so you can try to outdo your friends. Every night, the Slow Train baristas also award a point to the best team name of the night, which is often a pun related to squirrels, Oberlin, or coffee. If you’re at all like me and love a good competition, I highly recommend trivia night!
Q: How many of my friends started a new activity this semester?
A: Too many to count…
Finally (and perhaps most importantly), trivia nights have given me a much-needed opportunity to reconnect with my friends. Obies, as a general rule, are pretty involved and very busy, and my friends are no exception. Almost all of us got new campus jobs, joined new clubs, or took on difficult course loads this semester, and there have been several entire days so far this semester where I don’t see my friends outside of our mealtimes. However, we try to come together for trivia nights—the least number of friends that have shown up on a given night is five, and the most we’ve ever had was eight (in two teams of four). We work together to answer questions, talk and play games between rounds, and tease each other about our ridiculous answers. During a semester where it’s been hard sometimes to find time for socializing, our weekly trivia tradition has given us all the chance to connect over something fun.
So if you’re ever bored on a Thursday night in Oberlin, head to Slow Train with a group of friends and try your hand at trivia! It’s always a great time, and I know I look forward to it every week. Hope to see you there!
