Spring break planning

Earlier today as I was climbing up the stairs to my apartment, I slipped on an ice pool, or as the tenants nearby like to call it, the IP. Everyone who has approached my apartment must be warned of the IP because it is never-melting and is nearly impossible to see unless you’re looking for it. For some reason, the concrete slopes inward before the stairs and without warning, you find yourself surrounded by ice and slipping all over the place. And today, like many others, I slipped and fell down as my cell phone flew out and smashed into little pieces. Clearly, with the IP alive and well, winter is not over yet. \nBut there is something to look forward to. Believe it or not, even though the ice pool has not melted, spring break is rapidly approaching. Since we were 13, we’ve seen on MTV that Spring Break is a time to go out and party in skimpy bathing suits. But now that we’re at college and MTV has completely stopped playing music, we can conclude that the times have changed. Well, sort of.\nDuring spring break we’re still expected to return with wild party stories of crazy hookups and forgotten nights. But that just sounds like a typical Thursday night for a good chunk of people on our campus. And what if we’re not going to the Bahamas? Is it such a sin to stay in Bloomington, or go home, and then return to school (dare I say it?) without a tan? We’re all supposed to be getting in shape in order to wear our bathing suits, but what if we’re staying some place that is going to be cold? Are we still expected to buy into the pressure? At this rate it’s hard to imagine Bloomington having turned into a completely warm paradise in just two short weeks.\nFor spring break this year, I’m going somewhere I’ve never been in my entire life: California. From my perspective, there are only three states you need to visit if you live in America: New York for New York City, Illinois for Chicago, and California for L.A. and San Fransisco. This is how odd my life is — I’ve been to Poland and Norway, but never California. Believe me, Poland is not quite the hot vacation spot you’d imagine.\nCalifornia is warm and sunny, not as “perfect” for vacationing as somewhere like Mexico, but I can’t wait. I’ll be visiting a few of my friends out there in college, sight-seeing, shopping for clothes that are much more fashionable and expensive than my own and maybe even swinging by Haight-Ashbury to fulfill my long-time dream to be a hippie. \nWherever you go for spring break and whatever you choose to do, just realize you don’t have to be any sleazier or party any harder than you normally would. You don’t have to kill yourself preparing for spring break like it’s do or die, either. This mean, don’t go on the “Spring Break Diet.” As a girl who wishes to remain anonymous explained, “The Spring Break Diet consists of not eating for two weeks to save up all your calories for drinking alcohol at night.” This way you lose weight but can still party all the way up to and through spring break. Spring breakers going someplace that requires a bathing suit: Please, please, don’t do this. Spring break is no reason to turn to extreme diets. No one is going to like you better if you wear that two-piece, and you especially shouldn’t care because all the people you’ll meet you’ll only know for three days of your entire life. \nSo maybe we should all try to do something interesting and productive this spring break, or at least something that we will be able to remember in the morning.