Michelle Ajemian
Staff Writer

The sun shining brightly, sand curled in between your toes, the cool blue ocean crashing up against the shore and a waiter bringing you a piña colada with a cherry and pink umbrella in it (non-alcoholic of course).

Television shows like MTV’s “Spring Break” have made spring break an institution of fun in the sun, but students at the University of La Verne did not spend their breaks in typical fashion.

“Usually people decided to go south for spring break, but we decided to go north in the cold,” said Lisa Tundis, a junior liberal studies major.

Tundis and her friends ventured to Etna, Calif. population of 700 and left their high maintenance lifestyles at home.

Their days consisted of activities that they would not normally do in La Verne such as climbing to the top of a mountain, learning how to shoot a gun, petting farm animals, playing fugitive from one end of the town to the other and toasting marshmallows in the fire.

Spring break provided that much needed break from school and allowed students from out of state to head home for more than a weekend.

Kristina Vaughn, a sophomore movement and sport science major, headed home to Issaquah, Wash. Vaughn had not been home since Thanksgiving and was welcomed with unpredictable weather.

“It was really odd, because on Monday it snowed and then on Friday it was in the 70s,” Vaughn said. “It was weird because I was used to the heat.”

Other students headed north on a whim and just for the sake of getting away for a couple of days.

“I went with some friends to San Luis Obispo and it was very last minute because we booked a hotel on Monday or Tuesday and were there Thursday through Saturday,” said Nick Solis, a junior liberal studies major.

Not everyone went north for spring break. Others headed east to the exhilarating city of Las Vegas where there is something different to do every night and drinking and gambling is expected, if you are of age of course.

“I had fun living up the nightlife and seeing another side of Vegas now that I have turned 21,” said Claire Bodenhoefer, a junior liberal studies major. “As they say, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.”

If you are not of age Las Vegas leaves you some options like seeing the parrot show at the Flamingo, tigers at the Mirage and the pirate show at Treasure Island as freshman Naime Laskar did.

“It sucked because I couldn’t gamble which looked like a lot of fun and couldn’t go to clubs but I still had fun because Las Vegas offers a lot of fun shows,” Laskar said.

Sun, sand and the beach are the words that come to mind when thinking about spring break, and some students did head south to celebrate spring break in the typical fashion.

“I went to Rosarito and went dancing with the girls, ate tacos and laid out on the beach,” Lidia Dominguez, a junior psychology major, said.

Others traveled to Tijuana for the night.

“I went to TJ just to get out of the house and go down with some friends for the night,” Mike Gonzales, a junior movement and sports science major, said. “We went dancing and saw some crazy stuff because it is TJ.”

Rather than venturing away, Southern California provided fun for some students.

Nilda Chavez, a junior sociology major, spent her spring break by going to the Lakers game and seeing the musician John Legend in concert.

Some were perfectly happy spending their spring break doing absolutely nothing, besides the occasional breaks for homework and sleeping.

“This was the first spring break I did not do anything because I had been killing myself with homework and needed sleep,” said Aubry McSweeny, a freshman environmental biology major. “I probably average about four hours of sleep a night during school and during spring break I got around ten to twelve hours of sleep; it was amazing.”

Whether people basked in the sun down south, became one with nature up north, partied hard in Las Vegas or did homework, it is obvious that break was much needed and students are already looking forward to next year’s spring break.

Michelle Ajemian can be reached at majemian@ulv.edu.