Occidental College
Campus Conversations
Catching up: Santa Ana winds, Southern California's version of a "snow day" and the end of the semester
This has definitely been an interesting week for weather here at Oxy. The Santa Ana winds definitely took me by surprise, as I am rarely prepared for Los Angeles to have any type of weather that is not warm and sunny. On Wednesday, I heard people talking about the possibility of a wind storm coming. I didn't think much of it until a little after midnight when, after deciding to settle in for a rare early night, I noticed the power go out and heard several people screaming in the hall. Shortly after, my roommate and I both went out into the hall, where people were mentioning a fire going on nearby campus (more pictures, video footage, and information about the fire here) and spreading the word that we were all supposed to evacuate the building and go to the gym, where we stayed for a somewhat uneventful hour before being told it was safe to go back to our dorm. Thursday was a Los Angeles equivalent of a "snow day." Well, if snow days involved weather too warm for hot chocolate, power outages, and the entire campus looking as though the apocalypse had hit it (okay, this may be a slight dramatization. But there were large tree branches and other debris everywhere.) Classes were cancelled and the library and most food services were closed due to lack of electricity. However, things were mostly back to normal by late afternoon and classes resumed today (much to the disappointment of several students.) Now that the minor natural disaster has passed, it is time to focus and get ready for the end of the semester and finals. This semester has gone by surprisingly quickly, but I am looking forward to the end of the semester because I am definitely ready for winter break, and am already excited for next semester's classes (Animal Ethics: Moral Status and Non-Human Animals, Methods in Psychological Science, Physical Geology, and Aesthetics of the Cinema.) Happy Weekend!