Spring break gives students a chance to relax

By Analiese Grohalski
Western Herald

For many students, spring break is a time for relaxing, going on trips with friends, visiting parents, or just enjoying the absence of class. Western Michigan University students found many different ways to have fun over the break.
One student who didn’t travel too far, junior Junki Ogawa, said he had a good time staying in Kalamazoo and making a trip to the Metro Detroit area. His journey to the east side of the state proved eventful, shopping at Sommerset Mall and getting some clothing.
“I played Risk for the first time, too,” Ogawa said. “It took four hours and I lost! I didn’t want to play that anymore.”
Apart from an exciting board game experience, the foreign exchange student from Japan spent the rest of break studying for exams, doing homework, partying with some friends, and regaining energy for the upcoming week.
Senior D’Juan Rudolf also went to Detroit last week. A transfer student from Tennessee State, Rudolf went with his fraternity brothers from the southern state.
“Well, I went to a birthday party, and went to church and Sunday dinners with my girlfriend’s family,” Rudolf said.
Student Amber Drobny unwound on her spring break and stayed at her home in Plainwell, Mich. She said it was just a good time to relax.
Drobny also attended a concert, which she said was fun.
Junior Rory Salinas said he had the best spring break ever through the Alternate Spring Break program at WMU. He traveled to St. Louis to volunteer for Beyond Housing, a non-profit organization that helps provide a living space for low-income families.
“I wish more people knew about it,” Salinas said, referring to ASB. “130 to 144ish people give up their spring break and pay $225, which overall is a really good deal.”
Salinas said that he and 10 other people all lived in a small house for a week and that the whole group meshed really well.
The group worked on renovating a house and learned many things such as how to build a new wall and fixing light switches and building doors.
“I learned so much,” Salinas said. “The supervisors were surprised how fast we learned everything.”
Salinas said that while the group was in St. Louis, they didn’t think of anything except what they were doing there, and when they came back, they felt reality hit. He was surprised with Michigan’s warmer weather.
For student Jourden Ashi, the weather on her trip to Florida wasn’t exceptionally hot. Ashi went out in the sun whenever it was out and played bingo when the sun didn’t show.
Bingo might not be considered the traditional thing to do on spring break, but that’s what happened when she went with her best friend to visit her friend’s grandmother.
Ashi also took a trip to Chicago.
“I just shopped and hung out,” Ashi said.

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Posted by kleonard on Mar 10 2010. Filed under A & E, Weekend Scene. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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