Spring

Illustration by Sugandha Shukla

NYUAD Students Share Spring Break Expectations

Find out where NYUAD students plan to spend their much awaited spring break.

Mar 5, 2017

Spring break is hastily approaching and NYU Abu Dhabi students, true to their reputation as infamous travellers, are planning their next adventures. Here are their hopes and fears for the upcoming break.
######Simran Motiani, Class of 2020 Where will you be during spring break? I will be in Jaipur, India.
Why are you going there? I’m going to visit my extended family. I was born and raised in Jamaica, but my family is originally from Jaipur. My dad migrated to Jamaica first for business about 30 years ago and my mom migrated about 25 years ago after marrying my dad. So although my immediate family is in Jamaica, the majority of my family is in India. The last time I went to India was eight years ago when I was in eighth grade.
What do you expect to do, see and experience? I’m going to be staying with my grandparents and my father will be coming with me. It won’t be a normal tourist experience where I’ll be going to monuments and stuff, because I already saw those when I was a kid. It’s more about me experiencing how it is to be around my extended family again. In Jamaica there’s a family culture, so people spend a lot of time with their cousins or grandparents. I didn’t really get that experience when I was growing up.
What is the one thing you look forward to the most? This is difficult. I don’t know. Seeing my family, but also seeing India again because even though I grew up in Jamaica, India is still important to me. And the culture and the faces there are still something I hold on to a lot, especially because of my parents. Even though I don’t get to visit there often, India is always in my memory, so reliving those memories is something I look forward to.
What is one thing you are nervous about? I don’t want to be corny, but I want them to just be proud to call me their granddaughter. I hope I meet their expectations and don’t disappoint them, which is kind of hard. Being raised in a different society, it’s kinda hard to know what their expectations of a 20 year-old would be.
#####Hanh Nguyen, Class of 2020 Where will you be during spring break? Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Why are you staying here? I feel like I haven’t explored the city that much so I would like to take this opportunity to learn more about Abu Dhabi. And I’m low-key broke.
What is the one thing you look forward to the most? I’m looking forward to ... having a small dinner party among ourselves. Me and my friends are cooking and learning different cuisines together.
What is one thing you are nervous about? I think the thing that will make me feel really jealous is seeing my friends’ Snapchats from all over the world. Jokes. It’s actually really cool to receive a bunch of postcards later.
#####Ethan David Lee, Class of 2019 Where will you be during spring break? I will be in Turkey and Greece.
Why are you going there? Neither my aunt nor I ... have been [to Istanbul]. And I haven’t seen her properly for about two years. We’re going to have a week to hang out and catch up.
What do you expect to do, see and experience? I don’t really travel like that. I’ll research something the day before and just kind of turn up, walk into the city the first day and see what happens. But I mean, it’s Istanbul, so it’s the crossroads between Europe and Asia. We’re staying in Taksim, which is the nightlife area of Istanbul, and there’s the historical district, which is a little bit south of there. So mosques, churches the Hagia Sophia. It’s one of the wonders of the world.
What is the one thing you look forward to the most? Seeing somewhere I haven’t seen before and being able to keep that memory as a memory with my aunt, whom I don’t get to see very often. It’s kind of special to share a new experience with somebody who is special in your life. Then Athens is going to be nice because it’s four days of me of my own. I can just let the city take me.
What is one thing you are nervous about? This is the first time I’ve ever used Airbnb. The first time I used it it got cut off last minute because the guy was a little shady. But I believe it will be okay.
Jakob Plaschke is News Editor. Email him at feedback@thegazelle.org.
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