Los Angeles native Megan Buchanan sprinted through the halls of Anderson 4 on Jan. 23 and screamed in excitement, while Caroline Moore of Haiti ran outside dressed in a tank top, peacoat and sweatpants. Hawaiian Makanani Bell watched the sky, marveling at the phenomenon she had not seen since age 12: snow.
For students like these, the 1 1/2 inches of snow that dusted D.C. during the first snowfall of the semester was the most they had ever seen.
“I started jumping around and squealing and I promptly alerted the masses by running around and telling everyone who was awake,” said Buchanan, a freshman in the School of International Service.
However, Buchanan’s roommate, Leah Doolittle, a freshman in the School of International Service from Massachusetts, said the snow was inconvenient and insignificant.
“I may be a cynical New Englander when it comes to snow, but I love watching [Megan] flip out about it,” Doolittle later tweeted.
Moore, a freshman in the Kogod School of Business who lived in Haiti until she was 11 years old, said she lived too close to the equator and sea level for snow to fall.
“[D.C. had] like half a centimeter of snow,” Moore said. “We just started drawing on the snow … I thought it would be heavier.”
Moore said she still prefers the warmer climates of Florida but likes having different seasons and hopes to see more snow this year. However, the last time D.C. received 2 inches or more of snow was 743 days ago, when 5 inches fell on Jan. 26, 2011, according to The Washington Post.
Bell, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences from Oahu, Hawaii, echoed Buchanan’s celebration. Bell said that the last time she saw snow was seven years ago, while vacationing in Colorado.
“I opened all the blinds in my room and my roommate groaned because she hates the snow,” Bell said.
Bell said she was still happy D.C. had received any snow at all and spent the morning of Jan. 24 watching it fall from her window.
“I was sad it went away so quickly,” Bell said. “It would have been fun to have a little more, so we could go have a snowball fight or make a snowman.”
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