Winter Carnival 2013

 

After a long, eventful weekend, the 16s have officially experienced their first Winter Carnival. The festivities kicked off on Wednesday country style with the Florida Georgia Line concert at the Hop. Most of us are country music fanatics and the Southern music gave us a little taste of home (well not exactly home for Katie). We had an awesome time dancing and singing to covers of country and pop favorites as well as Florida Georgia Line's own hits. Paige and Alli even got to meet the leader guitarist of the band later on that night. We're now their biggest fans!


 When Carnival started, there was barely any snow around. Even the annual snow sculpture contest was cancelled because of the lack of snow! Much to our south westerners' delight, blizzard Nemo hit just in time for the weekend. The snowstorm on Friday and Saturday wasn't quite as bad as expected (or as Katie expected since she's used to blizzards in Cleveland), but there was just enough powder to still play in the snow and cover campus entirely.

On Friday, Paige, the only brave soul in the bunch, successfully completed the Polar Bear Plunge! Holly and Katie cheered her on while she swam acrossOccom Pond in freezing temperature. Holly and Katie were freezing just waiting in line and watching Paige jump in the water…can't even imagine how cold it was! Major props Paige!! (Especially given the fact that you're a Texan and not used to the cold.)

The rest of the week was spent avoiding homework, watching movies, and ice skating! The ice skating was a true test of who was from the cold climate, except for Kaira who was shockingly an amazing ice skater. We’re not really sure where Kaira’s abilities stem from but years of skating back home in Ohio were evident with Katie. Maybe Irish dancing helps? (That is until she wiped out trying to skate backwards.) All we know is that Kayden and Alli “rode the struggle bus” as we call it, but got better with time. The trouble they had was masked by Kaira’s epic fall.


Even with the blizzard, the Carnival fun continued with various themed parties and special guest DJs at the frats all weekend. The annual beach party offered us a glimpse of summer during the storm on Friday night, and we got to rock our 90s style again on Saturday night (even if we may have looked a little too 80s, well Kayden anyway). Excessive amounts of hot cocoa also kept us feeling warm throughout the weekend. Another highlight of Carnival was getting to see Scud and Rose since they came to visit for the weekend!

Exhausted from all the activities, Sunday we were back in the library all day since we of course decided not to do work all weekend. It was great for us to get to take part in the old traditions of Carnival, especially since we were traveling the weekend of Homecoming in the fall. This Winter Carnival was definitely one for the books!

-Katie and Alli

Check out more Winter Carnival photos here