So it’s been cold lately. And when I mean cold, I mean like our-room-whose-temperature-usually-hovers-somewhere-between-the-sixth-and-seventh-circles-of-hell-on-a-good-day-was-even-cold type of cold.

But seriously, I’m from Michigan, so Boston cold is still no big deal. To be honest, if it starts getting cold you will probably see a noticeable change in my personal enthusiasm levels inversely proportional to the temperature, though this kind of breaks down once it gets below 0, because I kind of like to pretend that temperatures like that don’t exist.

Anyways.

The point of all this is that when it’s cold, it snows, which is pretty much the best. So while heading to Chinatown last weekend with my friends Sumi and Steph,

we were walking by the moat of the MIT chapel, which is just an empty concrete pit filled with snow during the winter. Like this.

So we’re just joking around and whatnot, and I’m all “hey, wouldn’t it be awesome to make a drowning snowman in the moat?” And we laugh, agree that it would probably one of the more epic things we’d done in a while, and proceed to gorge ourselves in Chinatown and forget about it.

This isn’t over, though. I was legitimately serious about the snowman thing, because, you know, I like snow. And my friend Steph is from California and clearly needed to be taught how to make a snowman, which I feel is some essential life skill.

So first we tried packing the snow, which failed because it was too cold.

But clearly, this was way too good of an idea to abandon, so we went ice chunk hunting and let Steph use her newly-found PE Taekwondo mad kicking skillz to cut them down into manageable sizes.

… though we still had trouble actually lifting them.

After some creative lifting though (mainly, me just lifting it and making the two of them feel bad), we managed to get the chunks into the moat, grabbed a few branches from the surrounding bushes, stole a few buttons from the McCormick sewing room and voila, we had a snowman doing backstroke.

This was clearly not enough, though. So we run back to McCormick, print off a NO SWIMMING sign, run around mine and Sumi's sorority looking for clear packing tape for lamination purposes, and run back to the moat to put it up.

Throw in a chunk of ice for a shark fin, snow angels, and you have yourself one of the most impressive things I’ve done in a while. :)

Coolest moment of IAP: sitting in the student center and hearing someone remark as they walked by, “hey, did you see that snowman in the moat? Isn’t that hilarious?”

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

1. We win.
2. I just lost the game.
3. FIRST HAHAHA.
(just kidding. NOT. For the bashers, Shannon told me to, I promise)

Posted by: Steph on January 25, 2009

That is one sexy snowman!

Posted by: 0 on January 25, 2009

AHHH you guys had an adventure without me??? I'm so hosed and have mono otherwise I would totally have been in on that!

Posted by: Wu-gue '12 on January 25, 2009

this is amazing shannon. hahaha.

Posted by: Jarey on January 25, 2009

wow, i just got beat by steph and judy... i give up.

Posted by: Jarey on January 25, 2009

"...hey, did you see that snowman in the moat? Isn’t that hilarious?”

Aw, that's so cool!

Posted by: Ngozi '13 on January 25, 2009

ahaha I loved the moat snowman!

Posted by: 0 on January 25, 2009

Oh so it was you guys who made it >.Oh so it was you guys who made it >.<

Mad props

Posted by: Judy Hao '12 on January 25, 2009

Awesome snowman! =D

Posted by: Lyddie on January 25, 2009

Stop starting sentences with 'so'. Probably one of the most vexing things about MIT.

It's useless and annoying as hell. And it makes you sound like a valley girl.

Posted by: 0 on January 25, 2009

@if its annoying you are not suppose to read it.

Posted by: sepidehtje on January 25, 2009

The other most annoying thing about MIT? Self-righteous engineers under the false assumption that they know grammar rules. Lay-off shannon, philistine.

Posted by: Shannon's Unapologetic Friend on January 25, 2009

Ha...I was wondering who did that.

Posted by: 0 on January 25, 2009

I like cake

Posted by: Fouad on January 25, 2009

Love the snowman. Reminded me of the Calvin & Hobbes snowmen.

If you're ever in need for inspiration for more winter escapades, try this:

http://www.angelfire.com/wa/zzaran/calvin.html

Posted by: Kevin S. L. on January 25, 2009

Hi Shannon! Snow seems to be pretty fun! (when you are well suited to play with it) I have never seen snow, mainly because I live in a city (or more like town) where only 2 seasons exist: Non-rainy season and rainy season =/. Maybe one day I'll be able to see snow for the first time (I hope it's at MIT :D).

And I also have a question. Is the MIT campus and personal active during Easter break? Because I plan on visiting the campus (for the 1st time! ) during said days.

Thank you and keep having fun with snow! (while it remains in a solid state)

-Julio ('14?)

Posted by: Julio ('14?) on January 25, 2009

Wait, the rooms get really warm??!! Awesome, since I'm from Memphis and spend my summers in triple digit temperatures with humidity to boot.

And I'm a little disappointed that no one else has said this:

@Steph and her 2nd statement
GAAAAAHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: Matt A. on January 25, 2009

haha, Shannon I am envious of your lifting skills ... and Steph's TKD chopping skills ...

Cumquat?

Posted by: Sumi S on January 26, 2009

omg that was you guys? i was wondering who made it!!! mad props tho!

Posted by: debbie 11 on January 27, 2009

I would like to defenestrate whoever just made an attack on the way Shannon tells stories.

Posted by: Jarey on January 27, 2009

As a guy from Notre Dame 55 years ago, I never knew that my grandaughter had such a great sense of humor. Perhaps, if she keeps it up, I will get over my disappointment that she is freezing in Boston instead of South Bend. Papa.

Posted by: Jud on January 31, 2009

ha, c'est un joli,joli,récit,felécitation,

Posted by: ali on February 1, 2009

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