Everyone knows what’s supposed to happen: A couple of youngins’ cram into an old Volvo and head south to have a skimpily-attired, fabulous week – with all the implied trimmings. Though some undergrads might have the traditional experience, Gannon University students enjoy their spring breaks in a variety of ways.
Lauren Lim, a sophomore nursing student, plans to spend her break with her “swim trunks and flippy floppies” – on a boat, naturally. Lim said she will cruise the Bahamas with her mom from Sunday to Friday. Their vacation will take them through Gran Bahamas Island, Cay Island and Nassau.
Lim said she and her mother are going on the cruise to celebrate their joint-March 8 birthdays.
In addition to its birthday theme, this cruise is special to Lim because she said it’s the first she has been on.
She said she plans to take full advantage of the unique offerings she will have as an honorary sailor. “We’re planning on doing some excursions and we are going fishing and snorkeling,” she said.
Lim said she looks forward to going to a place she has never been before, but there is the added bonus of getting out of Erie. “I’m excited to go some place warm,” she said.
Justin Bartoo, a junior business administration major, said he wishes he, too, could catch rays of warmth from the bulb of light not often seen in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
Bartoo said his ideal vacation spot would be a warm beach in Panama City or Miami Beach. But he said he’s looking forward to spending time with his McDowell High School friends in Erie and working at General Electric.
Becky Iscrupe, a junior occupational therapy major, will get plenty of sun during her trip to San Pedro, Honduras, but its purpose is more about helping others. Iscrupe said she is going on her third Gannon service trip. She said she attended the previous service trips in Florida and New Orleans and had to come back for more.
“I always go there hoping to help people, and in return they help me form the person that I am,” she said. “It’s a nice little exchange.”
Iscrupe said she won’t receive most of her tasks until she gets there, but she said she knows she will work at a school, a nursery and a medical relief facility. She said she will hand out surveys with 100 questions to local residents about what services they need.
Though serving others is the main reason for the trip, Iscrupe said students will have the opportunity for one day of traditional spring breaking when they go to the beach on Friday.
Whether students are homeward bound, flying south or staying in Erie, spring break is a much needed breather from school work and a time to “chillax.”
So grab a surfboard, a Snuggie or a bag of SunChips – if you can’t get the real thing – and enjoy one of the many luxuries of being in college, which will all too soon be stripped from you and replaced by arthritic knees and real responsibilities.
