Feb breakers flock both near and far

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Feb break. It seems but a distant memory amidst the flurry of new Febs, scrambling for courses and brave forays into the icy landscape. A week into the second semester, two Middlebury students reflect back on their different vacation experiences.


Opting for the sun, six girls relax in the Dominican

If my vacation over Feb break taught me anything, it taught me this - all-inclusive-ness is a beautiful thing.

Upon arrival at the Melia Tropical resort in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), I (along with my five Midd travel buddies) acquired a gold, hologrammed plastic bracelet for my left wrist. This snap-on bracelet was the kind of bracelet that can never be removed, not that one would ever, ever want to. And why is that, you might ask? During our week in "The DR," we were fortunate enough to do the following, without paying anything extra - kayak, sail, windsurf and play beach volleyball. We had access to seven or eight bars, which featured any and every type of beverage. By "any beverage," I will clarify that on day three of our trip, one of the girls (who will remain nameless) asked for the coconut drink. Ten minutes later, a coconut had been yanked down from a palm tree, cut open and filled with rum (and diluted with coconut milk, in case the idea of plain rum was disgusting). For meals, we dined at buffets for breakfast and lunch (best nachos ever), and at a la carte restaurants for dinner. Mont Pellier water was the unlimited bottled water of choice, and between the six of us, we probably drank two hundred bottles or more.

In terms of the atmosphere of the resort, well, we were the youngest, apart from those under the age of ten, most of whom frequented the Flintstones Kids Club. Yet, on numerous occasions, one of my friends who spoke excellent Spanish received invitations to the nightclub Mangu (outside of the resort, and therefore too far for us). We were told that if we went there, we could dance, drink some beer, hug and maybe even kiss. Tempting. By about day three of the trip, we realized it was probably better to plead ignorance and just speak English in order to avoid these awkward encounters. Our second realization was that no one at this resort had ever seemed to have seen a group of six twenty-something girls. So, you might be wondering, what kinds of acquaintances did we meet? Who, besides us, ventured to the remote side of the Dominican Republic to bask in the glory of all-inclusiveness? On the first full day of our trip we came across Max, the lone Russian who appeared at the same bar, in the same chair, every night. We encountered a Canadian wedding party, which included one member of the Canadian swat team (which, come to think of it, probably would have helped had we ventured to Mangu). He and his buddies were the closest we came to making legitimate friends. Edwin, the resort's activities director, seemed to make it a point to bump into us numerous times during the evenings. He multitasked between sipping on a cuba libre and ensuring that the nightly activities, which included Dominican disco nights and fire twirling, ran smoothly. On our last night in the beautiful Punta Cana, we dined at the Japanese restaurant where we were fortunate enough to meet Louis and Luc, the twins from Montreal who were celebrating their fiftieth birthdays together.

When we left the Melia Tropical on Feb. 10 to return to chilly Vermont, it was rather strange to drive back into the unmanicured world, where palm trees aren't perfectly lined up and people don't walk around in bikinis (or in many cases, no bikinis at all). However, we intentionally chose the all-inclusive package, so that we could experience this vacation phenomenon. And, while maybe we didn't meet our future husbands, or anyone our age for that matter, the people we did meet are ones that we will never forget, in an endearing and hilarious sort of way.

-Alyson Bourne '07.5


Winter athlete stuck at Midd finds fun in Burlington

Most winter sports athletes were unable to escape Vermont's single-digit temperatures with a ten-day vacation to the Bahamas, as many of our peers did after J-term. Feb Break is scheduled during the height of conference play, and I found myself stuck on Middlebury's isolated campus for the entirety of the break. One-by-one, as they left for their road trips or exotic destinations, my fellow first-years in Stewart dorm stopped by to offer me their sympathy. Yet despite the warnings that I would die of boredom if I remained on campus, we, the Middlebury women's basketball team, managed to keep ourselves busy up here outside of daily basketball practices and games.

Just as many students do on regular weekends, we hit up Burlington for its fast-paced, sleepless night life. One evening, after one too many meals at Ross Dining Hall, we headed north to the heart of the city to cheer for the Vermont Frost Heaves in their American Basketball Association (ABA) game versus the Cape Cod Frenzy.

Located in Burlington's Memorial Auditorium, the venue was small but packed with locals who make these Frost Heaves games a family affair. The ABA makes these events very family friendly, as they feature contests for kids during time-outs and breaks, music from an area radio station and special rules where an outside shot can be worth up to four points. During each home game, the Frost Heaves also choose a "local celebrity" to be an honorary member of the team, and this particular night was Middlebury Night - featuring Russ Reilly. The College's former athletic director and current assistant Men's Basketball coach, Reilly was given the chance to dress in a Frost Heaves uniform and sit on the bench with the promise that if the home team had a strong enough lead, he could go into the game to play a few minutes.

Sporting brand new Frost Heaves t-shirts, we scored seats right behind the home bench where we joined in spirited cheering for Reilly and the heckling of Frenzy showboat Rob Sanders. As expected, we watched these talented athletes drain three-pointers from five feet outside the arc and complete some impossible drives to the basket. What I did not expect was an exciting game of basketball.

The Frost Heaves and the Frenzy swapped leads back-and-forth throughout the nail-biter game, and owing partly to the team's depth, the Frost Heave's play was not a one-man show. Cape Cod, on the other hand, stayed in the game thanks in part to the talent of Sanders, but as the Frost Heaves began to pull away, Sanders' frustration and laziness mounted until he eventually stopped playing any defense at all. The crowd got what they wanted. The Frost Heaves were able to seal the game 119 to 113, maintaining enough of a lead for Reilly to get in the game for the final seconds of play.

It wasn't the Bahamas, but all in all, seeing our former athletic director in uniform playing alongside nine towering professional basketball players made up for any boredom and loneliness we had to endure on campus over the break.

- Katherine Gura '10