Point of View
What are your plans for spring vacation?
BERKELEY — The NewsCenter visited the heart of campus recently to ask a random sampling of UC Berkeley undergrads about their plans for spring vacation, the week of March 24-28. None talked of partying on the beach in Cancún, but several will be kicking back in Palo Alto, and many will be catching up on sleep — as Bears do. Here's what's in the cards for 13 Cal students.
I'll be celebrating my birthday; I'm turning 21. I'm going to hold an '80s party at home in Palo Alto: hanging floppy discs from the ceiling and watching '80s movies like "Sixteen Candles," "The Breakfast Club," and "Ghost Busters." — Mika Toribara,
junior, social welfare Hometown: Palo Alto, CA |
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I'm going to take a motorcycle driving course and then practice. If you take the course, you don't have to take the driving test and it lowers your insurance rates. Hopefully by next year I'll be able to buy a motorcycle and use it to ride to school. —
Albert Kong, sophomore, linguistics Hometown: Corvalis , OR |
I'll be staying at home, maybe go camping with friends in Santa Cruz. So the details are up in the air. I was going to be a volunteer in New Orleans, but my parents wanted to see me. — Michelle Rodrigues,
freshman, undeclared major Hometown: San Jose, CA |
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I'm going to Chicago for my cousin's wedding. For the first weekend it's going to be his wedding; for the rest of the week I'm just going to tour around Chicago. I've been there once before. I really like Chicago a lot, because it's just like how I imagined it to be. It's a real city: not too much industrial, not too much residential. A nice balance of both. It looked just like on "Family Matters." — Huda Adem, freshman,
undeclared major |
I may go snowboarding in Tahoe; they say they're going to have snow until May. Other than that, just work — school work and work work. I'm a bartender at Jack London Square, at Heinolds's First and Last Chance. My most popular requests are Bloody Marys and margaritas. — Eddy Hong, senior, psychology |
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I'm going to Colorado Springs
to visit a friend. Other than that, I have
no specific plans. — Kevin Gorman,
freshman Hometown: Florida, Hawaii, Japan, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Moro Bay, San Diego, here. My dad is in the Navy. |
I may make a jacket for a friend. I make clothes; I've designed a few outfits — prom dresses and cocktail dresses. This one is a jacket on an Asian-inspired theme. The print references kimonos; it's in that style. The jacket has three-quarter sleeves. — Rosa Poggesi, senior,
psychology and art Hometown: Palo Alto, CA |
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I'll see friends, catch up on sleep, see family. Spring vacation seemed too short to get out of the country. All of my mid-terms are before the break, so hopefully there will be no school work. — Frazier Cunningham,
junior, economics Hometown: Newport, CA |
I'm going to catch up with a lot of friends and my mom. And I'm going to be doing a lot of homework and reading — for political science and a sociology class about research methods. I'm trying to tell myself that I will do it. With my mother, we really enjoy going to the movies, and going to church. So I go to church with her, even though I'm kind of disconnected from religion right now. We talk. She's a good friend of mine. — Alyssa Reyes,
sophomore, mass communications Hometown: Los Angeles,
CA |
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My family and I are going out to Anza-Borrego, to the desert. There's a wildflower bloom right now, so we're going to take pictures. Going out and doing field work, I can recognize different animals and some plants, but I'm not particularly knowledgeable. It will be nice to be at home and away from school; I need a break. I have midterms when I get back, so I'll probably bring my books. — Kelly Kaban,
sophomore, molecular environmental biology Hometown: Huntington Beach, CA |
I'm on the track team, so I'll be practicing here on campus, and we have a few meets in Arizona and Southern California; we'll be traveling to those. It's an open meet, so we'll probably play Pac-10 teams like USC, UCLA, Washington, and some other rival schools, especially Stanford. And I'll probably go home and visit my family. Luckily, my midterms were before spring break, so now I get to relax. The Sunday before we come back from spring break, I'm going to get back into school mode, and be ready to hit it on Monday. — Michael Bradley,
freshman, bioengineering Hometown: Oakland, CA |
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My original idea was to go backpacking, but I think it will be chill time with my family. It's my grandpa's 80th birthday, and I'll be hanging out with my mom and sister. — Theresa Diederich, freshman, conservation-resource studies |
I'll be catching up on homework.
I don't really have enough money to go anywhere,
but a friend of my partner is coming up and we're
going to see him, so that's exciting. I sound like such a loner now: "Play video games! Do homework! And maybe see a friend!" Now I have to do something interesting! — Natalie Jensen, senior,
English Hometown: Dana Point, CA |
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To learn lots more about Berkeley's undergraduate student body, see "The undergrad lowdown."