Wooo-hooo! Spring break!

By this time next week I will officially be on spring break in Panama City, Fla. after what is sure to be an epic 13 1/2 hour drive (starting at 6 a.m., ew). As someone who has recently been having cash-flow problems -- mainly, I don't have any money -- I started thinking about the economics of spring break.

Spring break can get really expensive, as my roommates and I figured out while trying to figure out where to go. You have to worry about housing, transportation, food/alcohol, and incidental costs. Personally, I will have to spend a lot of money on sunscreen because my skin seems to reject sunlight and a high SPF is really expensive. Do they want me to burn?

However, I digress. We basically decided to go for the bargain spring break, which means cheap hotel (with a kitchen), location that was within driving distance, and -- on a personal level -- plenty of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

When we were booking things, I realized that however annoying our extremely late spring break can be occasionally, it does save us money. First, W&L students don't have to go to Mexico, the Caribbean, or somewhere in the deep south to find a warm beach. Second, our break is so off of "SPRIIIIING BREEEEAAAAK!" season but still before summer that we get cheaper hotel rates. (In fact, our hotel was a full 40 bucks more per night during the peak of the season.) W&L's weird schedule saved me a significant amount of money.

Also, we will have the entire beach to ourselves, which I prefer (more room for sandcastles). So anyone in Panama for spring break come and find us. The trick to finding me on the beach is to follow the sounds of "Panama" by Van Halen and to look for the blinding beacon of my paleness. Oh, how I wish parasols were still in style.

--Michelle Hirschfeld