Creative planning for Reading Week creates authentic-feeling holidays

Reading Week is almost here. Not going to a fancy resort? Plans fell through for the mountain getaway? Too broke to visit your family? No problem. Here are some creative ways to make your week at home feel like a real vacation.

Day 1- Turn your house into a tropical paradise. Crank the heat, turn on the fan and every 10 minutes or so mist yourself with a spray bottle. Buy a bag of tiny paper umbrellas and put them into everything you drink.

Day 2- Hit the slopes. Ride that GT Snow Racer until your cheeks are rosy and your muscles are aching. Then go home, make hot chocolate and snuggle up to the fire – or fireplace DVD.

Day 3- Look through your closet to find something shiny, pleather or covered in fringe. It’s time for a Vegas-style vacation. Go to the casino when it opens and don’t leave until someone says you have to. Breathe in the recycled air, drink something slushy and gamble away all your laundry money.

Day 4- Anyone who has spent time backpacking knows one thing for sure – you’re going to run into some Australians. So buy the cheapest wine you can find and watch Crocodile Dundee. Sleep on a cot, wearing all your clothes and using your jacket as a pillow.

Day 5- Organize a Skype date with your family. Get some unsolicited advice from your mom, talk to your dad about your grades, pick a fight with your sister, have a staring contest with your brother and pet the cat. That should get you through until summer.

Day 6- Turn off your phone, clear your mind and spend a day in total silence. If the silence is unbearable, play a CD of Tibetan Monk chants. Practise your sun salutations and try to reach a new plane of enlightenment.

Day 7- To complete your at-home vacation, return to school looking your most worn-out chic. Pull an all-nighter, rumple up your clothes, wear your largest sunglasses and practise walking into class mumbling something about “jet lag.”