Students spread out for spring break

Author: Margaux Fimbres

While midterm season is in full swing, the College decided to give sleep-deprived students a 10-day break starting this Friday, March 20, with classes resuming on Monday, March 30. On Friday afternoon, College Street will be jam-packed with students loading up cars with friends in the passenger seats, the occasional textbook somewhere in the back and dirty laundry in the trunk, ready to flee campus and midterms alike. Spring break comes right before snow showers are predicted to hit Middlebury, to the dismay of some students remaining on campus. Some students making a quick getaway plan on taking advantage of spring break by catching up on sleep, visiting friends from home, enjoying home-cooked meals and frantically searching for summer jobs. Other students, whether on a Middlebury sports team, a community service trip or on vacation with friends and/or family, find themselves breaking out of the usual routine and traveling to exotic destinations.

Drew Waxman '10.5 will be journeying with 10 other members of the Dissipated Eight (D8) to the sunny island of Bermuda. Waxman, who is the business manager of D8 and organizer of the trip, said this will be D8's 21st consecutive spring break trip to Bermuda, and will be his second year participating. According to Waxman, every spring break, D8 lodges at the same hotel (the Fairmont Southampton) and sings at the same restaurants. They have created a bond with the restaurant owners, who feed the a cappella singers after their performances. Waxman and the other members of D8 on the trip will be singing, exploring the island, hiking and hanging out at the beach for one full week.

In response to the question of how this year's spring break trip will be different from last year's, Waxman said, "The group dynamic is always different since there are new members every year. This year we have three new members going and it's a really great bonding experience for the group." Waxman is particularly excited to explore the island and go cliff jumping.

Far away from the sunny beaches of Bermuda, Nick Alexander '09 will be spending a month in Kabul, Afghanistan. Alexander, who is currently studying abroad at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, will be working for Mirwais Yasini, the deputy speaker of the Lower Afghan Parliament and a former minister of counter-narcotics under President Hamid Karzai. Mr. Yasini has recently announced his candidacy for the upcoming presidential elections, to be held in August. Alexander's responsibilities will include speech writing, composing press releases and writing summaries of meetings. Primarily, he will be facilitating Mr. Yasini's interactions with foreign dignitaries, journalists and the international community in preparation for the elections. In the past, Alexander has worked for Afghanistan's embassy to the United States as well as Afghanistan's mission to the United Nations. "This will be my first trip to Kabul and it is one that I am very much looking forward to," Alexander said.

The women's water polo team is headed to train in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex. Kristen LaPlante '10 is one of 15 players to participate this spring break. "With so many girls, we'll be able to get a lot more quality training than we did with only eleven players last year - not enough to even play a full scrimmage at practice," said LaPlante, who went on last year's training trip as well. The Coral Spring Aquatic Complex is also where Olympic swimmer Dara Torres trains. "We actually met her last year, and supposedly she is back there and training now, so hopefully we can meet her again!" said LaPlante. The women's water polo team will rent a big house right on the water, and will accompany the renters on a yacht cruise on the first night. The team has multiple games scheduled against a club team in Ft. Lauderdale and a team from Florida International University. They train in the morning in an outdoor pool that LaPlante described as "beautiful" and then compete in the evening. Regarding water polo spring break traditions, LaPlante said the team goes out for a fancy dinner, and this year there will be a "fierce, intra-squad Survivor/Amazing Race-type competition." LaPlante can't wait to go to Florida "to be outside all day, even when playing!"

Forrest Orme '09.5 and Richard K. Saunders '09.5 will be leading the Middlebury Mountain Club spring break trip to the Smoky Mountains. First, they will drive to the Tennessee side of the mountains, through Gatlinburg. Along the way, they will stop at Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum and Dollywood (the Dolly Parton theme park) and plan to buy samurai swords. "We will hike until Thursday, climbing Clingman's Dome, meandering the luscious valleys and hopefully staying away from the snow," said Orme. They will then depart from the woods near Cherokee and drive to Asheville, N.C., "for some barbeque, beers and the famous Warren Wilson contra dance." Following what Orme described as "a night of revelry," they will drive to Washington, D.C., to eat omelettes and will return to Middlebury by Saturday.

Christian Gettermann '11 will first drive first to his house in Westchester, N.Y. with five friends and then venture up to Canada to stay at another friend's house near Montreal. Gettermann and his friends will then meet up with two more friends in Montreal and the group of seven will stay in a hostel. He is looking forward to exploring and partying with his friends in Montreal the on the last couple of days of break.

Instead of catching up on some rest this break, Hannah Epelbaum '09 will join Hillel on its urban farming community service trip to Savannah, Ga. Epelbaum volunteered with Hillel last year in El Salvador and is looking forward to being a part of Hillel's first trip to Savannah. There are eight students joining Associate Chaplain Rabbi Ira Schiffer to help plant organic gardens in lower-income areas.

"We are doing this project so that people who would otherwise not have access to organic fruits and vegetables have it at their disposal," said Epelbaum. Epelbaum looks forward to the warm weather and "helping people where I can, with a Jewish twist."

Annie Sullivan '10, a member of the track team, will travel to San Diego, Cal. for spring training. Every morning the team will train on a track that overlooks the Pacific coastline and occasionally have lighter workouts in the afternoons. "The training is hard, but we have a considerable amount of free time to lay on the beach, go to the zoo, go shopping, or take a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park in Los Angeles," said Sullivan. Sullivan likes how the trip provides a great bonding experience in uniting the team. The team will compete both Saturdays of spring break and train during the week. According to Sullivan, traditions include trying to consume the "Big Breakfast" from Konos, which is a "massive breakfast platter that takes an enormous appetite to finish," and first-year skits about upperclassmen.

Vincent Blais '11 is jet-setting to London where he will be staying at a friend's family's house near Abbey Road. He is excited to be in a big city and experience London relatively independently. One of Blais' friends from home who has recently studied in London gave him a list of great places to investigate. "I'm probably most excited to eat great food after a couple of months of subsisting on Ross pizza," said Blais.

Joining the crew team's annual spring break trip to Lake Lanier, Ga. is Dale Freundlich '10. The crew team spends nine days on Lake Lanier living in houseboats. Every morning, the team catches the sunrise as they practice on the cold lake and are out on the water as the day heats up. Having trained indoors in the "sweat shop" since November, Freundlich said the team is "itching" to get in boats. On Saturday, March 28, the team will wrap up the week's training with a race on the 1996 Olympic Race Course against other teams that are training there as well. The night before the big race, the crew team brings out all of the tables from the houseboats and puts them on the dock for a "pasta feed" for the whole team. One traditional event involves a race with all of the coxswains rowing and a rower in the coxswain's tiny seat. "We have a lot of positive energy and months of hard training going into this trip, so I'm looking forward to see what we can do with the racing season when we get back!" said Freundlich.

For many of these students, a vacation after spring break might be needed. For the rest of us catching up on addictive television shows, catching up with friends or catching some sun, rest up now - because it is only 10 days before it's back to four hours of sleep a night and snow on the ground in March.