Experiencing flurries for the first time

College freshman Michael Tomback ran outside as soon as he saw it.

He spun in circles. He took photos.

It was finally snowing.

For Tomback and many other freshmen from warm climates, last week's snowfall was not only the first of the season - but the first of their lives.

"I kept on making a very giddy, loud, girlish laugh," said Tomback, a south Florida native. "I was just so happy."

College freshman Carolyn Lee, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is usually wearing shorts and a tank top this time of year.

"It was so cold!" Lee said of last week's weather, laughing uncontrollably. "I didn't expect it to be so wet. Like when it melts, I didn't even really think about it."

When asked if she had been looking forward to the snow, Lee didn't even get the chance to respond.

"YES!" shouted two of her friends, who were hanging out in a Hill dorm room.

Lee's friends couldn't help mimicking the questions Lee had been asking them all semester: "When's it going to snow? Is it going to snow before Thanksgiving or after? When do people have to wear mittens?"

Tomback said he also has been anxiously awaiting the snow. In fact, part of the reason he chose Penn was because he knew it would be cold enough to snow.

"My roommate said he was more excited to see my reaction to the snow than the snow itself," Tomback said.

Wharton freshman Jason Vigushin, who grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, said his friends were also shocked to discover he had never seen snow. But then again, Vigushin joked, his friends didn't realize that he had had electricity in Africa, either.

Vigushin took photos of the snow to send home, and his friends threw snowballs at him.

Tomback also made snowballs, but for him, just touching the snow was thrilling enough.

"I literally sat outside for 20 minutes before my class just letting it fall on me," Tomback said.

He was late for class.

But for others, touching the snow did not satisfy their curiosity.

"I did taste it," Lee laughed. "It tasted like ice."

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