Classes are ending soon and within weeks we will all be free to binge watch Netflix. Until then, it’s the dreaded “Reading Period.” We all know that reading period is a time we should be pulling all-nighters three nights in a row, drugged up with caffeine and left over steam but there’s always a part of us that just wants to leave. We want to leave campus for a bit and just let loose. What is a better way to let go of finals than to travel to the greatest city ever? Here are six reasons to go to New York City during reading period. Trust me, you won’t regret it.
1. $0.99 Pizza Slices
You heard me right. In the great city of thin crusted pizza over-saturated with fatty cheese with enough oil to make your paper plate useless, pizza slices are only a dollar. With your college student budget and final week stress, this is definitely the place you need to be for your cravings.
2. The "street" performers
From the mariachi on the 7 train to the dancers on the N, you don’t need to pay for entertainment here. If it’s Friday and you’re feeling down because your final is in two days, head to Union Square and you can make GIGANTIC bubbles with other adults. If it’s not then you can just head down to Washington Square Park and watch the skaters ollie their way through the crowd. If you’re observant, you might even find another college student avoiding their responsibilities while you’re there.
3. Bagels, Bagels, and BAGELS!
By now you’ve been surviving breakfast (if you still even go to breakfast) with stale dining hall bagels with weirdly chunky cream cheese. No fear my dear, New York bagels will save your palate. Nothing compares to the taste of a good cream cheese and lox bagel that just lifts a semester’s worth of dining hall trauma out of your system. Bonus: You can stock up and bring some back to campus.
So this one is a secret shame of mine, but let’s just go with it. Why should you sit in a stiff wooden chair in a crowded library drinking bad coffee when you could be drinking an Americano with quiet jazz music in the background? Going to New York doesn’t have to be an extravagant ordeal, it could just be a change in scenery. If you’re going to fill up on caffeine to survive, it might as well be a damn good cup.
From Brooklyn Bridge to Harlem, New York is filled with hundreds of different geofilters you can use to make your roommate jealous. She’ll check her phone every time you send a selfie and be jealous of your adventures
6. It's cheaper than you think.
With sites like Airbnb and megabus, going away for a weekend has never been cheaper! Say goodbye to spending hundreds of dollars trying to find a hotel room on your student budget and say hello to basically free lodging. Do yourself a favor and leave campus for a few days. If money can buy you happiness during Reading Period, a trip to New York is what it is for. You can study on the bus to and from the city, but you can’t relax and unwind in a dimly lit library. Take a break, you deserve it!
