It’s been a rough winter in Bryn Mawr. Even as a New Englander, I’m impressed with the amount of snow that we’ve gotten. We’ve had several snow days, but one of the worst weather days was on Wednesday. Early Wednesday morning, a half inch of ice covered the 8 inches of snow that were already on the ground. This caused all sorts of mayhem around campus; slippery roads an paths, falling tree limbs, and perhaps the most devastating, several headless snowmen.

Classes were cancelled, and around 12:30 almost all of campus was gathered in the dining hall for lunch. I was microwaving my hot chocolate when the microwave sputtered and died. The lights went out. It was as if eight people had dropped dishes at once. There was the customary beat of silence, and then everyone started talking excitedly. There were even a few shrieks. Luckily, the backup generator came on soon afterward, powering a third of the dorm and keeping the heat and emergency lights on in the rest of the dorm.

I didn’t have lights in my room, but at least I had heat. Unfortunately, when I turned on my computer, I was presented with this notification:

While the dinosaur is cute, I was not impressed. It turns out, a snow day without Wi-Fi is super boring. Even more so when it’s a blackout and you can’t read past 5:30. The upside was that Erdman, which is usually the least social dorm, turned into one of the most social dorms, as everyone huddled around the one hallway outlet that was still working. Later in the night, we found out that there were about 10 square feet of Wi-Fi right in the doorway of the dorm, and though it was a drafty place to be, we all agreed that the access to humanity was worth it. It turns out that an ice apocalypse brings out the best in Mawrtyrs.

Luckily, movie-watching is something that is supposed to be done in the dark, and I had just enough charge left in my laptop for a Mulan viewing before we went to bed, hoping we would wake up without the roar of the generator.

The Erdman residents did not wake with power, although a few lucky dorms did. I was only a little bitter. After breakfast and brushing my teeth by lantern-light one last time, the power came back on just in time for me to check my Facebook before heading to class.

Hopefully, the next snowstorm/ice-apocalypse (scheduled for Monday) will not bring as many difficulties as the last one.