March 25, 2019Spring Break page 2

Sparking joy: Self-care tips, tricks for your next week offRHEA SWAIN

STAFF WRITER

Alas, spring break has come to an end. As we return to the world of midterms, assignments and es-says, take the time to reflect on how your week off went.

Some of us explored dif ferent travel destinations, while oth-ers spent quality time at home with family. Like myself, if you identify with the latter group of people, it’s all too easy to get into a pattern of spending most of your time binging a favorite show or scrolling through so-cial media. But it's important to make the time we have to un-wind more fruitful. Self-care is one of the best ways to do so, as it diversifies the ways in which we de-stress.

A CLEAN SLATEAn excess of “me time” during

breaks can be overwhelming, which is why it's imperative that we give ourselves a clean slate be-fore fully engaging with more ar-chetypal, "fun" self-care activities. A clean slate can mean different things to different people: a digi-tal detox, a bit of spring cleaning, catching up on sleep lost in the semester or even experimenting with a new diet.

While cleansing in all its dif-ferent forms can be tiring, it's in-credibly cathartic. For instance, a clean physical space equates to a clean mental space, which would ultimately — according to Ma-rie Kondo’s philosophy — spark some well-deserved joy.

TREAT YOURSELF, CHALLENGE YOURSELF

The main rationale behind self-care as a concept is doing what makes us happy, as self-care goes hand-in-hand with self-love. Co-zying up with a book and a cup of tea, having a spa night and sleepover with friends, participat-ing in some much-needed retail therapy or trying out new eater-ies are simple but amazing ways to treat ourselves. Revisiting old pastimes gives us a sense of nos-talgia and comfort, which can make breaks all the more relax-ing and rejuvenating.

Every once in a while, it's healthy to challenge yourself in your free time. Picking up a new creative hobby — like baking or watercolor painting — is easy and cost-effective when there are thousands of tutorials online that can guide you through it.

Even during the school year, try attending yoga or spin classes at the fitness centers with friends to nourish your body and your mind. Self-care is about focusing on yourself, but socializing and having someone to accompany you through the process of self-care can be more gratifying than going at it alone.

CULTURAL IMMERSIONTime flies if you immerse your-

self in the educational but enter-taining resources that cultural hubs around New Jersey have to offer. One such resource is New York City’s Broadway. One can appreciate the diverse thespian talent on display by checking out

classics like “Wicked” and “The Lion King,” or modern-day mar-vels like “Waitress” and “Ham-ilton.” A wacky, must-see sci-fi musical brought to the Lyceum Theatre by its huge fan follow-ing on Tumblr, “Be More Chill,” opened on Broadway two weeks ago. It stars Will Roland of “Dear Evan Hansen” and the insanely talented George Salazar from the musical’s original off-Broad-way cast.

If you have the opportunity to take an art history class at Rut-gers, visiting museums in the city or even the local Zimmerli Art Museum can help you enrich and apply your knowledge outside of a classroom. Walk along New York

City’s Museum Mile and admire the artistic and historical wonders around you.

Sometimes, the museum itself can be a work of art. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggen-heim, with its great rotunda and spectacular collection of modern and contemporary art, is one such museum.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a ticketing policy in which students from certain states, including New Jersey, can pay any amount of money that they would like to enjoy the museum if they present a valid student ID. One can spend hours getting lost in the Met’s galleries in all its grandeur.

RITUALIZE SELF-CARERegardless of whether you have

time off, taking care of yourself should be simplified and made a part of your daily routine. If you enjoy journalling or making lists, consider making daily or weekly self-care lists consisting of emo-tionally and mentally rewarding activities that include, but are not limited to: drinking eight glasses of water a day, going on a long walk every weekend, eating a salad (or some chocolate), medi-tating for 5 minutes, putting on a face mask and even taking a nap.

Moving forward, refreshed from spring break, take the ini-tiative to love yourself a little bit more every day.

Just because you're not in school doesn't mean you shouldn't be learning new things. If baking is foreign to you, the freedom that comes with a week off makes for perfect practice time. UNSPLASH

While maligned, Florida is still one of America's best trips CLARISSA GORDON

CORRESPONDENT

To be frank, Florida has be-come the butt of the joke in recent years. Take the current Twitter trend, for example. The challenge asks each user to Google search “Florida man” along with their birthday and share the ridiculous news headline that pops up first.

For my birthday, Oct. 17, I got: “Florida man gets 40 years for plotting to bomb Target stores.” Compared to others, my result wasn’t so extreme, and the more wild ones that went viral make you question what’s really in that

Floridian water. Aside from Twit-ter trends, Florida has always been known as one of the weirder states in the U.S., and stereotyp-ical demographics include senior citizens, college spring breakers and Cubans. Because of its do-mestic location and lackluster rep-utation, Florida has become a last resort vacation option for many Americans.

Personally, I never had a partic-ular desire to visit the Sunshine State myself. As a native New Yorker, one of my weaknesses is my snobbiness — when it comes to location, I’m a little hard to im-press. That is, until I was invited

to Miami for a long weekend birthday celebration last month, and it quickly became one of my favorite destinations.

The everlasting 80-degree weather and clear ocean blues made me feel like I was in Mexico or the Caribbean, especially since I stayed at the famous Fontaineb-leau hotel. The nightlife is boom-ing, and there’s plenty of culture to immerse yourself in as a tour-ist, from Wynwood to Little Ha-vana to the Everglades. The city itself is diverse and it’s really diffi-cult to get bored there, especially as a lively young person. Once a person who stuck up my nose to

While South Beach is seen as one of the most oversaturated vacation spots in the United States, that doesn't mean it's overrated. It can still be a great time, if you know where to go. UNSPLASH

the idea of Miami, it wasn’t long before I understood why it’s such a popular destination.

And I think our generation is beginning to catch on. After having one of the most fun weekends of my life a month before spring break, I pre-pared myself for another Flo-ridian escape, except this time in a more stereotypical fashion — I was off to Boca Ra-ton for the week, a coastal albeit generally boring town made up of mostly families and retirees. Al-though I definitely needed some-thing more relaxing, I couldn’t help but feel jealous toward the countless college students I knew who were hitting Miami.

I was also a little surprised — Vegas I get, and Cancun or Cabo I definitely understand, but for some reason, it felt like every college student went to Miami for spring break this year. That’s not to say the sunny city doesn’t de-serve it — actually, it makes total sense as to why everyone hopped on the bandwagon.

Mexican resorts marketed to-ward college students are cool because you don’t have to be 21 to enjoy the nightlife and party-ing, but they can be on the pricier side, require a passport and over-all lack culture. Many Mexican

spring break spots are American-ized, and you mostly stay on the resort for a week.

The most convenient part about Miami is that it’s do-mestic. It's only a 3-hour flight from Newark Lib-erty Interna-tional Airport, but if you do it right, Miami feels like it’s a designated vacation town far, far away.

If you can afford to stay on glitzy South Beach, great, but Miami Beach and its surrounding areas are nice too. Miami Beach is free and open to the public, so you can enjoy white sand and crystal clear ocean at the same price it would cost you back at the Jersey Shore.

Need some cheap but Insta-grammable restaurant options? We recommend Naked Taco on South Beach, a casual joint with vibrant aesthetics and delicious Mexican fare. Miami is also filled with gorgeous Art Deco architec-ture and has become one of the art capitals of the world, so if you decide to go next spring break, be sure to check out Wynwood, Mi-ami’s arts district.

For all of these reasons, Miami is the ideal spring break spot for college students. Before you rush to the DMV to finally renew your passport, consider taking your tal-ents out to South Beach instead.

“Once a person who stuck up my nose to the idea of Miami, it wasn't long

before I understood why it's such a

popular destination.”

Spring Break page 3 March 25, 2019

Northward bound: Canada is underrated, under budget PRIYANKA BANSAL

MANAGING EDITOR

When it comes to spring break destinations, it seems like an obvious choice to travel south to a warm resort. Cancun, Cabo and Miami are all popu-lar spots for college students. If you’re from New Jersey, you are probably desperate to get away from the cold. Here, while spring has technically sprung, the temperatures are still sub-40 degrees and the winds are harsh. Every Rutgers student is yearning to strip off that winter jacket and replace it with shorts and a crop top.

Here’s an underrated point of view: traveling north might be a better experience, for you and your bank account. Montreal, Quebec is one out of many reli-able vacation spots that is perfect for college students for a multi-tude of reasons.

THE BUDGET Being a “broke college student”

is a common theme among the Rutgers population. Even while working 1 or 2 jobs, it can be dif-ficult to pay for a vacation upward of $1,000 as a student. Cancun, Cabo and other beach resorts cost way more than an average Rutgers student can afford.

Montreal, on the other hand, can split those costs in half. “For four nights, I ended up spending more money on food than I did on the apartment,” said Adisesh

Yeragudi, a School of Arts and Sciences junior. “It was very af-fordable on an average college student budget.”

Split between four people, Yer-agudi said he spent approximately $17 on housing per night and $20 in total for gas.

“Because of the exchange rates from U.S. to Canadian dollars, Montreal of fers a lot of experience for a little mon-ey. I got to enjoy culture, food and nightlife that was New York quality for Ohio prices,” said Timothy Nuber, a School of En-gineering junior.

THE NIGHTLIFEOne of the main reasons stu-

dents travel to resorts in Mexico each year is the nightlife. With a drinking age of 18 years old, Mexico offers college students the sacred liberty of adulthood: happy hour. But people tend to forget that Canada, our other neighbor, also has a drinking age of 18. With this, there are plenty of cheaper bars, lounges and nightclubs to escape to over spring break in Montreal.

Some of the most lively and popular of these are located on the famous Saint Laurent Boule-vard, a 6.8-mile-long avenue for food, drinks, partying, exploration and much more. While you may not be drinking pina coladas on a beach, Montreal’s nightlife scene is more than enough.

“The Montreal nightlife is unre-al, yet authentic,” Nuber said.

Specifically, Nuber said bars such as Les Foufounes Élec-triques and Bootlegger, L’Au-thentique were the most excit-ing. Bootlegger fuses together bar culture with Montreal’s culture, bringing French come-dians to interact with the audi-ence and perform live stand-up, while mimicking the style of the American 1920s.

“Both experiences shared a so-phisticated colorfulness unique to social life in Montreal,” he said.

THE CULTUREOne of the most captivating

aspects of Montreal is the cul-ture. As Americans, we often assume that Canadian culture is no dif ferent from ours, aside from the constant cold and ste-reotypical politeness. Yet, travel-ing to Montreal is eye-opening. The remnants of French-colo-nized Canada are apparent and ingrained in the present culture, with French as the official lan-guage and societal standards that wildly contrast with Amer-ican ones.

These cultural discrepancies leak into the tourist experience.

“Without a flood of white-priv-ileged undergraduates to deal with every spring and summer, you can rest assured the clubs, bars and restaurants you go to are the same ones even the most seasoned locals do. In-stead of catering to the inter-ests of tourists, the nightlife in Montreal is infused with the

Yes, it's still a bit cold. Yet, if you want a cheaper trip with just as much fun, consider our neighbors to the North. Plus, you can blend in with the locals. PRIYANKA BANSAL / MANAGING EDITOR

avant-garde tastes of the city folk,” Nuber said.

So, next time you are deciding where to go for spring break, don’t rule out or dismiss our northern neighbor. Canada has many over-looked experiences to offer.

“Where else could I find a com-edy routine about the experiences of Black Canadians just blocks away from a punk rock mosh pit ringed by old arcade games — all while drinking the same eight whiskey sours?” Nuber said.

Group trip tropes: Recognizing different kinds of spring breakersJORDAN LEVYFEATURES EDITOR

Spring break is a time for what college students love best: de-bauchery and poor fiscal deci-sion-making. Best of all, the vaca-tion is a study in group dynamics, archetypes and the limits of com-mon sense. Here are some typical kinds of students you’ll find on a spring break trip.

THE ONE WHO CAN’T HELP BUT OVER DO IT

This is the companion that’s on their third shot at 10 a.m. They charge their dab pen more than their phone. You catch them googling “where to buy reagent test kit,” but decide that it isn’t

your business to inquire further. By the time the group heads down to the continental breakfast, they’re worried about keeping their food down instead of fueling up for the day. The first instance of vomiting happens before you hit the beach, so for an hour or two they bathe in the sun, trying to recover. Eventually they catch up to the rest of the group, ready to rage, and this is where they tru-ly strut their stuff.

By 6 p.m. this pal is back in form, slurring their words slight-ly. At 8 p.m. they’re striking up aimless conversations with every passerby. By 10 o’clock, they’ve accumulated bruises that they won’t remember getting in the morning. Before the night ends,

their phone has been confiscat-ed to avoid regrettable FaceTime calls and text messages. Don’t forget, when tucking this friend into bed, always remember to lay them on their side and have a gar-bage bin nearby.

Catchphrase: “Nah I’m good, I promise.”

THE ONE WHO SECRETLY CAN’T AFFORD THE TRIPThis is the friend who sub-

sists solely on the snacks they brought with them. You all love the shore, but eventually real-ize that this friend literally only wants to go to the beach. When a new plan is suggested, there’s a instant counter-offer, and it always it’s notably cheaper. Of

Traveling with friends can be a joy and a challenge. There are many kinds of companions, so be sure to figure out if you can have confidence in your confidants. UNSPLASH

course, there’s nothing wrong with running a tight budget, but the problem is that this friend won’t admit they’re on one. When the group settles on a new plan, they release a twisted, ner-vous laughter.

This friend lags behind in the back of the group. It’s almost like they’re in mourning, so preoccu-pied with what they’ve lost that they can’t have a good time at all. The “broke student” stereotype is accepted as the norm, but some mix of pride and shame won’t let them admit it. Of course, as the age old adage goes, “Pride comes before the fall.”

Catchphrase: “Yeah, I’ll Venmo you later.”

THE ONE WHO LEFT THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHER

BACK AT HOMEFrom the moment they wake

up, this friend is glued to their phone. When you guys get ready to take a flick, they carefully ex-amine the scene to make sure there’s nothing “incriminating” in clear view. They swear they they don’t have an unhealthy relation-ship, but any time they put their phone away for more than an hour there’s a barrage of calls.

By 11 p.m. they have to be back in the hotel room to hop on Face-Time and say goodnight. The group will poke fun at this friend, but mere jokes can’t match up to the intense psychological pressure they’re already under. The worst case scenario for this friend is if they engage in adulterous acts, be-cause the pressure will inevitably

land on the group to keep their secret. That’s quite the burden to bear, so you might want to go easy on the one-liners.

Catchphrase: “Guys, I’ll catch up later.”

THE RESPONSIBLE ONEYou know who this person is,

because everyone calls them the “mom” of the group. If you com-pare your spring break excursion to “The Simpsons,” then this friend is Lisa. They’re the most prepared, most informed on your destination and the group lets them handle all the booking in-formation. Magellan doesn’t hold a candle to them when it comes to navigation, as they’re master of Google Maps. Unfortunately, that also means they’re the friend re-laxing the least.

They might be a bit curt in conversation, but that’s because they’re too busy focusing on … everything else. In fact, they have the distinct responsibility of dealing with the screw-ups you’re traveling with. They always have a water bottle on hand for your pal who loves to indulge. This friend is sober enough to hop on Face-Time and quell any fears of vaca-tion infidelity. Most importantly, once three weeks have passed after the trip, they’re the one who comes to collect from the “fiscal-ly challenged” friend. While on break they’ll push your nerves, but in retrospect you’ll realize the trip would have been a complete mess if they hadn’t.

Catchphrase: "Look at me, I'm the captain now."