On Wednesday, Yale was hit with two feet of snow. When I woke up for my morning classes and headed to the dining hall for breakfast, the outdoor chairs and tables were covered in a comically large layer of snow. The branches of trees were hanging heavy with the weight of the snowfall, and it looked more like Yale was located in the tundra than in Connecticut.
Yale staff was already hard at work making sure the sidewalks were clear enough for students to get to class. Troops of shovelers traveled in packs and cleared the snow as best they could, and spread salt wherever necessary. The dining hall was opened in a limited capacity and was using paper plates instead of the usual silverware. Two of the dining hall staff members actually slept overnight in anticipation of the storm so that they could open the dining hall in the morning.
But it wasn’t all bad news. Two of my afternoon classes were cancelled because the professors could not get past their driveways, and other students found themselves enjoying a “snow day” as well. To take advantage of their new found free time, a few kids from my floor spent the whole day constructing an eight foot tall igloo outside of Rosenfeld Hall. (It’s surprisingly warm in there.)
And finally, a picture that tops it all: one of my friends actually caught a snapshot of an ambitious Yalie cross country skiing to class. I hope the rest of you had the chance to enjoy a snow day as well, and if you didn’t, too bad: the rest of us had a lot of fun.