From the Bronx to the Bahamas

Last week I was lucky enough to escape the dirt, grime and cold of the Bronx. Don't get my wrong, I love the Bronx (obviously) but everyone needs a vacation. Fourteen of my best friends and I embarked on the ultimate spring break trip to Freeport, Bahamas. I've never been to the Bahamas, or even the Caribbean (my parents always preferred summer vacations to cold places like Maine), so I wasn't sure what to expect. In my head the Bahamas was all peace, calm and tranquility sprinkled with fruity drinks and tropical music. While the fruity drinks prediction was dead on, we did not encounter much peace, calm or tranquility. We chose to plan our trip through a company called Student City which boasts 'the best spring break trips in the world." We figured everything would be easy and planned out for us, which did not turn out to be true. Without turning this post into a long complaint, let me just warn all readers to never under any circumstances book a trip with Student City.

We didn't let that ruin our trip though, and still had a great time soaking up the sun and enjoying the aforementioned drinks. Some of our fellow spring breakers who hailed from the Southern states had other ideas in mind which included bikini contests and body shots. While we chose not to participate, simply being around these creatures was pretty exhausting and I often found my cynical New York side come out as I wondered how they would fare in the Bronx. This isn't to say that I consider myself particularly tough and/or streetwise, but at least I could haggle with a street vendor and not stick out like a drunken, American idiot after a drink or two.

I've always thought of Fordham as a pretty college-y college (green space and lots of beer drinking) but after being blinded by sorority letters and deafened by school chants I can definitely say Fordham is a bit more sophisticated than I thought. Sure we hang out in bars named Mugz and pretend to be interested on the rare occasion that our sports teams do well, but we can also carry on a conversation about current events as we drink our beers in Mugz. I'm not trying to bash the south, I know plenty of smart, funny and cool people who hail from south of the Mason Dixon line. Unfortunately, they were not present on this trip.

After a bumpy shuttle ride, a cruise from the Bahamas to Florida, another bumpy shuttle ride, a 5 hour sleepover in the airport, a 5AM flight and a final taxi ride to Arthur Avenue, stepping over a pile of dog excrement and fumbling with the broken lock on my front door, I was proud and happy to say, "Home Sweet Home." I had a great time in the Bahamas, but sometimes a bagel from Simon's is all you need for a perfect day of relaxation.