1. Maple syrup candy:
Throw out that Aunt Jemima’s you degrade your pancakes with and go buy some real, locally-made maple syrup. Heat it up to a boil in a saucepan, and after a slow-ticking minute of cooling, run outside and pour it onto a patch of (preferably not yellow) snow. It hardens into a taffy-like instant candy — eat it before it melts for a mouthful of wintry deliciousness. Or just eat plain snow. That’s good too.
2. Extreme sledding:
Equipment required: helmets, body pads, warm gloves, questionable decision-making skills, and various potential sledding implements. These may or may not include: dining hall trays, large textbooks, Saran Wrap, cardboard boxes, snowboards, skateboards, suitcases, chairs, and actual sleds. Not for young children.
3. Make a freezer for your cold beverages and frozen goods:
Take advantage of Mother Nature and save some electricity by designing a personal snow-fridge. Located just outside your dorm, it will hold all the contents of your current conventional fridge. Designs can vary, depending on desired capacity and aesthetic preference.
4. Pond skating and pond wandering:
You haven’t ever truly experienced a New England winter if you haven’t a) gone pond skating and consequently, at some point b) fallen through the ice. Speaking from my experience as an 8-year-old, I now know to avoid beaver dams, large masses of debris, and tree trunks protruding from spots in the ice. Beyond just skating, I also highly recommend pond hockey — an absurd amount of fun, trust me.
5. Take pictures of snowflakes:
If you can get a black background and a high-quality camera, you’ll be fascinated by the images you can capture, just like Snowflake Bentley. This will actually require significantly more than your handheld digital camera’s 10 times optimal zoom; you’ll need to assemble an entire apparatus involving lenses and microscopes and mounting post clamps. So maybe not. But be sure to check out close-ups of these distinct crystalline structures.
6. Interpretive snow sculptures:
As we’ve seen displayed across campus, snow can serve as a unique medium and public forum for expressing ideas. An initial sculpture not only undergoes the alterations brought on by changing weather conditions but also continual modifications of other artists in the community. What begins as a shapeless mound morphs into a totem pole, and then an abstract statue with a disembodied leg topped by a Super Bowl trophy, and a few days later, emerges as an enormous winged dragon.
7. Barefoot races:
Whip off your shoes, tug off your socks, and race a friend through the freshly fallen snow. It would be worthwhile to confirm in advance the availability of a shower into which you can jump upon returning inside.
8. Ski or snowshoe to class:
Spice up your route to lecture with a pair of freshly-waxed cross-country skis or superlight all-terrain maximum traction snowshoes. You might shave off a few minutes with the smooth glide of the skis and avoid the sidewalk swarms by trekking in snowshoes across the areas where no one else dares venture, Legolas style.
9. Make a snow cave and sleep in it overnight:
Make a snow pile, allow it to harden, and hollow it out. Pack more snow into sleeping platforms inside so that cold air will sink below you and add some insulating pads for good measure. A small hole in the roof is a key precaution to provide sufficient ventilation. A bit of company is also a welcome addition.
10. Release pent-up anger and tension:
Nothing helps de-stress like hitting people you don’t like with snowballs, or better yet, ramming them with a good tackle into a pile of snow …