The —-.The Battalion Page 3 • Friday, March 12, 1999 Aggielife 33reak Time Of llli hipPtt Bnden; air pan child; parar. araged h chi focus: s for !!■ lips, warnings for spring breakers help make traveling safer BY STEPHEN WELLS The Battalion I ustrai nded ?ntsf latihc t’s happening all over again. Students skip their final class before the weekend begins. The cars still left in the parking lots are be ing packed up with spare underwear and junk foot!, leaving little room for passengers. ■ Spring Break has descended upon the stu- 15 dent body of Texas A&M, who cannot wait to bare their bodies at the beach or ski down the slopes. Whether or not a student chooses the pfe-assembled package tour or the chaos, spon taneity and bail money of a road trip, the feel- s of freedom associated with the absence of ture for nine days tie each Spring Break ex perience together. I For some students, packing up the car for an oh -fashioned, Griswald-style string of random 1 pre elents remains the best value in town for wav 'Spending a week dodging responsibility. persenH Heather Alexander, a junior agricultural de- tiiai vllopment major, said the random nature of a ro, d trip is its greatest selling point. [AIM® “1 think it’s best to just take off and not know wl ere you’re going until you get there,” | ■exander said. “It’s just that there’s a complete rai domness to going on a road trip. ■ “You never know what’s around the corner, TTTlsd why bother spending a lot of time planning? a V6u can go to the river or go camping if you bmng camping stuff. I’ve gone through Austin to party on Sixth Street and been on the road to ;TtoEB m P out on a beach the next day. The only lim its are your imagination and your gas money.” I One risk students run while on an un planned trip is not realizing where the worst ar eas of travel are. ■ Wanda Paris, a travel agent for A&M Tfavel, i said while this may not be a problem in places e p! liMe Aspen, other popular destinations have 10US their seamier side. IIH “If you go to Cancun, you definitely need to " know where you are going and be aware of where you are,” Paris said. “It’s just like riding uZ the subway in New York City. There are some Places that are safer than others.” f Another popular student alternative is the lalf-planned trip. Scott Carrol, a senior biolo- w jy major, said the thrill of going on an extend- un - pd trip without actually booking a hotel room - is enough to keep the half-planned trip a staple ac ^ in the student vacation diet. “My friends and I once went down to [South] ®dre for four days without buying any beer or ^■ying for a hotel room,” Carrol said. “The first U|day we slept in our car, but we met some peo- pie my friend knew on the second day and just flflL crashed with them for the rest of the trip. : in fn nat4 vited. rdetc “During the day, we’d look for kegs on the beach and just go from one to the next, and we’d crash on the floor of the hotel at night. It ended up just costing us about $50 or $60 for food and a little money for the floor space,” he said. Testing the generosity of others can prove to be a risk as well as a boon to cash-strapped spring breakers. “Be careful around other students from oth er schools,” Paris said. “One hundred thousand students a year go to Cancun on Spring Break. You can meet students from another campus and party with them and have fun with them, but never go out alone. You’ll never see them again after your trip, so be careful around oth ers.” Flying to any location the week of Spring' Break can be made better if students think ahead. “A lot of people don’t know that Spring Break flights are always overbooked,” Paris said. “You want to be at least two hours early for an international flight and at least one hour early for a flight in-country, or you might be out of luck.” MARK MCPHERSON/The Battalion For some, planning ahead means giving a large sum of money to a package tour, but tours are not without their risks. “Those places thrive on Spring Break busi ness, and to make money, they have to deal in volume,” Paris said. “I remember two days be fore one of my groups was going to go on their trip, the hotel, which was overbooked by about 600 people, canceled all of our reservations. It might seem on the poster that a student gets a great deal, but they should remember that when they are traveling, they get what they pay for. ” Students visiting a foreign country must take into account how far away from home they are and try to remember they are guests in a for- eign land. , V 1 “in the Bahamas, three or four girls I knew were partying with the locals,” Paris said. “One got so drunk she found herself lying on a pier with no purse and no ID, passport or anything. “I always keep my ID in my front pocket and other valuables in a safety deposit box. If you get in trouble with no ID, nobody knows who you are, and it can be a nightmare trying to get help.” Start You Future WORK PART-TIME NOW... APPLY FOR A FULL-TIME OPPORTUNITY WHEN YOU graduate! JCS is continuing expansion into College Station. Our new acility in the College Station Business Center is spectacular! ^e are currently hiring for part-time positions in these depart- nents: Client Service • Building Maintenance • Clerical Equipment Repair • PC Software • Inventory Control UCS offers Competitive salary and flexible shifts Excellent work experience, Career opportunities after graduation Paid weekly Opportunity to work with other A&M students and alumni To apply, call (409) 862-5155 or stop by our hospitality room at Rudder Tower room 502 from 9-4 p.m., March 23 & 24 to pick up an application. WWW.UNIVERSALCOMPUTERSYS.COM Sfer) fri® S>tfV