Spring break: two words that college students nationwide associate with freedom, fun and relaxation, and two words that Boston University will be celebrating Friday afternoon.
Whether traveling for service or pleasure, staying near campus or heading home, students are looking forward to the mid-semester week off.
For some, like College of Communication freshman Virginia Soskey, this vacation is an opportunity for traveling to new places.
Soskey and her two friends are globetrotting to Hong Kong and Thailand to visit her friends’ family, who recently moved to Hong Kong for an 18-month stay.
“We’ll be visiting her family and then traveling to Thailand with them to stay in a resort,” she said.
Soskey said she looks most forward to exploring a new city.
“I’m going to a place I have never seen and probably won’t ever see again, so I am super excited,” she said. “Though I won’t be able to go home to see my family, this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip that I couldn’t pass up.”
She is especially enthusiastic about the opportunity to immerse in a new culture and unfamiliar surroundings.
“I’m most excited to see and experience a whole new culture,” she said. “I want to do everything I can there possible.”
Because the weather will be warm, Soskey said she and her friends will probably visit beaches, in addition to city attractions.
“I’m not exactly sure what we’ll be doing exactly, but I’m down for everything and anything,” she said. “I’m just thrilled to be able to experience this in my lifetime. I will remember this trip for the rest of my life.”
For other BU students, the week-long vacation brings positive thoughts of home-cooked meals and sleeping in their own comfortable beds.
Gregory Cogswell, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said he is excited to return to his home in Florida.
“I could really use the break right now &- it’s just been a constant flow of work,” he said. “A week of not really doing much is pretty exciting.”
Though Cogswell said he is not too homesick, he said, “it will be good to be home.”
He is also eager for a break from eating in the dining hall.
“I’m most excited about my mom making me dinner,” he said.
For CAS freshman Ge Wang, however, going home would mean journeying overseas and back to her native China.
As an international student, Wang didn’t want to deal with the stressful commute from BU’s campus to China and back in such a short time, which is why she chose to stay in Boston for break.
“If I go to China, it will take me 30 hours on the flight there and then 30 hours back,” she said. “And there is a really bad jet lag.”
But because students can’t stay in the dorms over breaks, Wang applied for vacation housing through BU, which the university offers for a moderate flat rate.
“I’m going to stay at Hotel Commonwealth,” she said. “That’s where BU houses students during vacation.”
She said she is not alone.
“A lot of my friends are staying too because they are international students like me,” she said.
And although Wang will not be returning to China until summer, she said she is going to relish her free time.
“I’m looking forward to break even though I’m not going back,” she said. “It’s going to be fun with no work to do.”
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