Penn's campus cloaked in snowflakes

Like she does every Monday, College sophomore Stephanie Hertz hiked down to the Museum of Anthropology and Archeology for class. But yesterday, Hertz found one significant difference: several inches of snow and slush littering the sidewalks -- and a cancelled class. "It was good because my class was cancelled," Hertz said. "But it was bad because just by walking all the way down there, my feet got wet." A massive storm hit Pennsylvania yesterday, dumping several unexpected inches of rain, sleet and snow on the Penn campus. Despite the treacherous roads and walkways, the wintry mix started too late in the day for the University to officially cancel classes. But Wharton and Engineering sophomore Rushabh Kapashi wished it had started much earlier. Kapashi trekked through the weather all the way to David Rittenhouse Laboratory for his afternoon class. Needless to say, he was not pleased. "It caused a lot of inconvenience," Kapashi said. "I'm certainly not going out tonight." Kapashi was one of many forced to leap over puddles and dodge slush on Locust Walk, which, by the end of the day, was almost completely flooded. "I felt like I was walking in a Slurpee," Wharton sophomore Jonathan Barzideh said. Barzideh had been dreading the hike from Hamilton College House to his Russian Film class. However, his fate was spared by the snow. "The only good thing was that I had a class cancelled," he said. Many professors left campus early or chose not to make the drive to Penn at all, leaving Barzideh and others to celebrate a day off. In addition, the University cancelled all classes scheduled for Monday night. Outside Hamilton Village, few dared to risk the conditions. As dark approached, the fields remained neatly coated with several inches of snow. "It's too wet for football," Kapashi explained. But some Quad residents braved the wintry conditions to take the opportunity to frolic in the snow. Just before the sun went down, a snowball showdown overtook the center of the Upper Quad, with some students ducking behind statues for protection. "The snow tends to create situations such as these -- college students playing in the snow as if they were kids," College freshman Brooks Baskin said. "Nothing could help the learning process more," he joked. Baskin raced outside at the first glimpse of snow sticking to the ground. It didn't seem to bother him one bit that he was only sporting a light jacket and shorts at the time. "I'm from California," Baskin said. "I have to represent." Baskin was one of many students to skip classes yesterday, and most blamed their mischievous nature on the weather. "It was the snow's fault," College freshman Peter Lamb said, who darted outside in a short-sleeve T-shirt. "The snow made me do it." "I skipped a couple of classes today," Baskin added. "I couldn't make it to class. It was too cold."