Students scramble to finalize Spring Break plans

The vast majority of Lewis & Clark students will flee the campus and head to locations near and far this Friday. Some will be looking to better themselves or a community, while others will be content with the mere freedom of a week without class. The world is your collective oyster this Spring Break, how are you going to eat it?

Kyle Miller (’10) and Kelly Aldinger (’09) are leading a group of twelve to the Redwood State Park. They are excited to expose students who have never been in the wilderness to extremely large trees. “It will be really fun to actually show them what it is and teach them about the outdoors,” said Aldinger. There are a few long hikes planned, along with backpacking and some “Easter fun.” They will be lodging at the Wolf Creek Environmental Education Center, which will provide for the creature comforts. They might be a bit chilly (there is no heating), but a number of two-person cabins will provide plenty of living space.

No spring break is possible without a physical means of getting away. If you are looking for cheap/free transportation to your vacation destination, consider Ben Bateman (’10) and his friend’s rather sketchy method. Last year, they were looking to travel to Berkley, California. They didn’t have a car, so they found a strange man on Craigslist.com who was heading in the same direction.

He had some extra space and wasn’t looking for compensation. So at 1:00am, Bateman and friend found themselves waiting in a dark alley behind a bar for the man who would be driving “an unmarked white van.” When he showed up, they discovered that the van had a large mattress instead of seats. Bateman and friend were expected to lie on it for the duration of the trip. They did, and they took turns staying awake just in case the driver became homicidal. They discovered during the voyage that this man was going to a Hammond Organ convention in California and then down to Mexico for some dental work.

But air travel is probably your best bet, especially if you are looking to get out of the country. Professor Elliott Young and seven students from his U.S./Mexico borderlands class are flying to Oaxaca to learn about its inhabitants. The students have spent the semester researching Oaxacan residents of Woodburn, Oregon, and will now experience the southern-Mexican region first-hand.

Each student has a concentration and as a whole the class will produce a diverse survey of immigration between these two locations. Maile Speakman’s (’10) specific project is a study of transnational and trans-cultural identity. “We are going to learn about what it’s like to live down there, so we have a better reference when we’re working with the [Oaxacan] community in Oregon,” said Speakman. “We will have a better idea of the places they came from and the organizations we can work with across the border.” Each day of the trip, the group will meet with different organizations, like the Centro de Atención al Migrante, which provides support for people who migrate. By working with various institutions and Oaxacan citizens, Speakman is looking forward to “putting a human face to all this discussion of immigration and boarder politics.”

Danielle Johnson (’09) and seven LC students from her volleyball team are also heading to Mexico. But their destination is San Felipe, a small coastal city and veteran of Spring Break madness. Its website boasts, “Easter week and the surrounding “Spring Break” weeks, when college students from schools around the southwest USA invade San Felipe, is the busiest time in town. Hotel rooms are at a premium and traffic jams are routine.” But Johnson and her friends are not seeking the alcohol-fueled, nudity-laden Spring Break MTV has portrayed since 1986. Johnson recalls watching the televised ocean-side debauchery. “I think it kind of terrified me when I was younger. I don’t think that’s the way our spring break is going to be,” said Johnson. They are staying in a house built by one of the students’ family members and are looking forward to interacting with the locals instead of other American vacationers. “All of us went abroad and so all of us are fluent in second languages. It’s not going to be a bunch of white kids going down and drinking, and hanging out with a bunch of other white kids.”

To get away from the inebriated and sun-splattered multitudes, you have to get creative… and remote. Ben Brysacz (’08) and Director of College Outdoors Joe Yuska are leading eight students to Paria Canyon in Utah. They will be working with the Forest Service and the Grand Canyon Trust to locate and count Tamarisk trees, a species native to Africa and Eurasia. The Tamarisk is devastating the ecosystem in the canyon with its ultra-absorbent leaves that parch vulnerable plants. With GPS equipment in tow, the team of students will hike 17 miles into the canyon and map the invasive growth. Everyone has backpacking experience, which is important with 20+ pounds of camping equipment, which doesn’t even include clothes and other personal effects. And the route is not bereft of obstacles. “Everyone is bringing either neoprene booties or Tevas because we are going to have to actually ford the creek a few times,” said Brysacz. A biologist from the Grand Canyon Trust will accompany them to help guide the research, but otherwise they are facing nature alone. Paria is a slot canyon with vertical, jagged walls, and if it begins to rain suddenly, they could be at the whim of a flash flood. But precautions are being taken by equipping the team with a satellite phone and methods for accurate weather tracking.

Whether you are going to spend your week of freedom saving the environment or determining the human body’s ultimate margarita capacity, remember: Spring Break shouldn’t be taken for granted.

There are forces beyond our control vying for the immediate demise of our beloved vacation. In 1991, for example, Sonny Bono banned the residents of Palm Springs, California, from wearing thongs in public spaces.

The city that once hosted a yearly quagmire of binge-fornication and uninhibited shenanigans now settles for respectability year-round.