This past Tuesday, the University cancelled all classes due to extremely low temperatures—an action last taken in 1978. While university health officials encouraged students to remain indoors and use the day to catch up on schoolwork, many couldn’t help but enjoy the magic of the sparkling winter snow. It was, as it were, a day granted—a second chance to finish assignments, create an adventure, and enjoy the warm company of friends.
“I remember exactly where I was Monday night when classes were cancelled,” reminisced a rosy-cheeked Erin Reinhardt, an LSA sophomore. “I had just finished my homework and poured myself a nice glass of wine when my roommates ran in jumping and screaming, ‘no school! no school!’ We were all so excited.”
“I’m not really sure what happened after that because I proceeded to drink the entire bottle and blacked out almost immediately. I spent the actual snow day in bed hungover checking Facebook.”
Reinhardt updated her Facebook status accordingly for the impromptu celebration: “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!” She then closed her blinds so as to eliminate the glare on her computer screen as she was watching The Other Woman on Netflix.
Senior Paul Banks also remained comfortably indoors, staying cozy and warm in his bed. “I put out a request on the Umich Crushes twitter page, and a pretty decent girl replied. She wanted me to come pick her up from her dorm, but I didn’t want to clear the snow off my car. So I promised her that if she walked, I’d heat her back up.”
Sarah Nyren, harking back to traditions of her childhood, spent the day baking brownies and cookies for her roommates—serving the desserts with a cup of steaming hot cocoa.
“We got super fucked up,” smiled Nyren, visibly lost in nostalgia. “I put way too much weed in the brownies and then probably spiked the hot chocolate with a little bit more Bailey’s than I should have.”
The trio of roommates spent the day cuddling under blankets playing games.
“Katie kept losing. We made her drink so much that she threw up all over the carpet and we spent a while cleaning that up.”
Other students spent the day enjoying the enchanting winter landscape. A group of Californian freshman took to the powdery hills of Nichols Arboretum, trudging through the snow equipped with makeshift sleds and a gleam in their eye.
“Coming from Long Beach, I had never seen so much snow or been in such cold weather before!” laughed Mark Venit from his bed in the UM Hospital ICU, as he was being treated for severe frostbite on his extremities.
“I felt like a regular Midwesterner! This is what a winter wonderland is like, right?”
Originally published Feb 2014.
