by Ricardo Ramirez Garcia Rojas ’13
December 2009 Issue

“So, what are you going to do for J-term?”

Between the Fall and Spring Semesters falls the all too dynamic January Term, or as Harvard students have abbreviated it – “J-Term.” Essentially, students have to opportunity to go home to celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Louis Pasteur’s birthday or simply the fact that they are together with their family. Some students take up internships. Some students work jobs. However, there are a select group of students that go a little against the grain when it comes to “J-term” plans.

Road Trips

With a car, company, a “twenty-hour play list,” and a good route, Will Rafey ’13 and Sophie Angelis ’13 plan to go on a “chill” 700 mile road trip from San Jose, California to Seattle, Washington.

Here is what Will Rafey had to say about his trip:

After a “low-key” Christmas, a journey “up the [west] coast” begins.

“Sophie is going to be in Southern California, so she is going to come up to the bay area. Then, we are going to drive all the way up Highway 1, which is the coastal highway that goes all the way from L.A. up to Washington.”

Starting in San Jose, which is the bottom of the Bay Area, Rafey and Angelis plan to wind up to San Francisco to “chill or probably spend an afternoon and maybe get lunch or whatever.” Next, they are going to voyage up to Point Reyes – “an amazing national park” – to “hill on the beach and go on a hike.”

After experiencing nature, they will experience Rafey’s green 1994 Acura Integra for quite a while for the next chapter is to “hop in the car [and] drive for however long until it gets dark.” But, if the driving becomes overbearing, the two will “stop off at another national park slash beaches slash whatever.”

Overall, the excursion will “probably gonna take two or three…or maybe even four days to get to all the way up to Seattle” where the two will post up with some of Angelis’ family.

There, Rafey is “not sure what [they are] going to do, but probably just going to hang out. It’s gonna be super low-key…[He] know [he is] going to bring some books to read.” However, Rafey acknowledges the freedom that a 1994 Integra gives them: “Really we can do anything since we have a car. We also might go up to Vancouver, so we can chill in Canada. The key is spontaneity. We don’t really know what were doing. We have good music, good company and a car so its all good.”

After watching Alabama Crimson Tide crush the Florida Gators in Thayer basement, Megan Miles ’13 also plans to “hopefully take a twenty-two hour road-trip…with a couple of friends.” She plans to embark on an odyssey from Gadsen, Alabama to Pasadena, California to “watch the Alabama beat Texas in the national [football] championship.” (Ironic that I am wearing a UT shirt as I was writing that very line – not going to happen Megan).

However, her big plans for “J-term” are spending some time with her grandmother…on a cruise…in the Caribbean. Essentially, Miles plans to “get a tan to replace this horrible Boston color which [she has] acquired,” “get drunk with [her] grandmother,” and relax while island hopping amidst a winter which consists of 80 degree, sunny weather.

However, all good things come at a cost. Since she will be spending the last part of her break in the Caribbean, Miles plans to fly from sunny, tropical Puerto Rico at 10 a.m. and arrive at the frozen hell that is Boston at 10 p.m., only to start classes two days later.

High football hopes and a Caribbean adventure with grandma – sure does make that travel mayhem seem worth it, no?