BY ARVIN ABRAHAM
Although I missed out on going home and eating kosher-curried turkey with my weird quasi-Jewish/Sri Lankan family (don’t ask), I nevertheless managed to have a great break. Why? Well simply because for the first time since I started at HLS, I left campus for a period of time longer than I spent at the last bar review. Awesome! The 12 weeks that I’ve spent thus far in Cambridge have been great, but cabin fever, claustrophobia, and whatever phobia involves books and laptops were starting to set in. I needed a break; it was time for a…ROAD TRIP!
So I packed up my bags-which, when my mom’s not around, consists of throwing a bunch of stuff (unfolded) into a suitcase-and headed off to NYC. Being from California, I never realized how much I’d miss having a car, but I was desperate; I had to get out. A desperate man resorts to desperate measures. Fung Wah bus here I come! I got to the bus station not knowing what to expect. I’d heard rumors of ultra-sketchiness associated with this bus company. I feared the worst. Initially my suspicions seemed to be confirmed, the guy checking IDs actually grabbed my entire wallet from my hand instead of just looking at my license. Fearing more shadiness, I boarded the bus. I was pleasantly surprised; the bus was clean and the seats were comfortable.
One 6-hour bus ride later-when you buy a $15 bus ticket you get what you pay for-I’m in NYC. Heaven. Life is good. Never mind that I have a persuasive memo and a 200 page Torts packet waiting for me back at school. Never mind that I don’t really know what a persuasive memo is. I was resolute. I was going to have an uninterrupted 4 days of fun and R & R. Nothing would get in my way.
I get to my cousins’ place in NYC. I see a McDonald’s and a Starbucks right down the street. I realize that I haven’t had a McDonald’s BigMac and fries since I left California. I realize that I have a huge BigMac craving. Delicious. (As an aside, I want to add that I don’t favor holding McDonalds strictly liable for making people overweight. During undergrad McDonalds and Jack-In-the Box were my staple foods and yes, I had access to a grocery store right down the street, so I wasn’t compelled by situational pressure to go to the McDonalds. I realize that this is an odd digression and if you’re not a 1L in Section 6 you probably won’t get it. Oh well.)
A normal bedroom, a living room, a non-Gropius bathroom-Dean Kagan if you’re reading this the men’s bathroom on the 3rd floor of Story Hall needs to be cleaned more often-all the comforts of home, a much much better locale. It was time to forget school and enjoy a well-earned break.
Now I’m sitting on a bus-Greyhound this time instead of Fung Wah-writing this article. I feel refreshed. I’ve been given a new perspective on life. I have seen the light. Finals are around the corner. Wait, don’t I have a three-week break before I actually have to take them? Yup, I think I do. Life is good. Cambridge is cold and it ain’t California or NYC, but I still like it here. Deep breath. No more stress. Last three weeks of the semester, here I come.
(The author of this article would like to thank the kind people at the Fung Wah bus company for getting him to New York in one piece and the staff at the McDonald’s on 70th and Amsterdam in Manhattan for providing him with lunch and dinner for two nights in a row.)
Arvin Abraham is a 1L from Fresno, CA.