On Wednesday, February 10, 2010, New York found itself amidst a snowstorm. Fears of an impending storm, which did not reach the East Coast until late Tuesday night, caused reactions nationwide. The White House cancelled Wednes-day’s press briefing, giving as a reason a single word: “snowpocalypse.” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued an order Tuesday, even before any snow had fallen, closing all New York schools on Wednesday. People were urged to use public transportation, many offices were closed and several airlines cancelled flights. Following this lead, the snowpocalypse hysteria was rampant at Cardozo throughout the day on Tuesday, especially as word of other law school closings spread. Lindsay Bass, 3L, recalls thinking to herself, “a snow day would be awesome. I’m definitely going to get my work done so I can have a fun, relaxed day.”
Students awoke early Wednes-day morning to see an email from Cardozo that read, “All Law School Classes are Canceled.” Surely, some students believed they were still dreaming when they saw this message, but at least on this occasion, it was a dream come true. “After I read my email that school was cancelled, I obviously went back to bed for an hour,” said Skyler Sourifman, 1L.
Cardozo students spent the day partaking in many different endeavors, but most will agree that whatever they were doing, it was better than being in class. “It was the best day of the semester so far,” said Martha Nimmer, 2L, who slept late and then baked bread. “Why?” she asked herself rhetorically, “because I could.” Unfortunately, her husband ate all of the bread.
For Mike Izrailev, 2L, the snow day presented a battle with the cold indoors as well as outside. “I broke my refrigerator,” he explained. “I tried to defrost my fridge, then went and bought a new fridge. Then I negotiated with my landlord so he would pay for it. He did.” But Izrailev said he did not mind walking around outside. “I really like the snow,” he explained. In fact, Izrailev also took the opportunity to go to a Lower East Side grocery store to purchase fresh fish for a feast he made later in the day. “It was pretty fun. I bundled up, had my boots on. The Lower East Side was beautiful,” he added.
Many students, however, decided to hide from the snow as much as possible. “I was going to go outside, but then I saw my neighbor fall, so I decided not too,” said Nimmer. Sourifman was slightly braver. “I walked to Grey Dog’s to get a cup of hot chocolate. But other than that, I took advantage of not having to go to class by staying in my apartment all day,” she said.
Other students had a less enjoyable snow day. “I was in school preparing for the Jessup Moot Court Competition with [Professor] Vijay Padmanabhan. It was my first snow day in my life, because I’m from Texas, and I had to go to school,” said Debbie Silberman, 3L. And, to make things worse, “I wore the wrong boots and had to do the mooting session in soaking wet socks,” she added.
Of course, there were also skeptics of the snowpocalpyse. “I went to Cornell, which is in Ithaca, New York, and it snows there from October until the end of April, so I am used to a lot of snow. I would categorize this as a minor storm, a total wimp of a blizzard compared to what I had to deal with there,” said Sourifman. However, Sourifman scaled back her initial judgment: “I wasn’t outside for long, but I can tell you that my apartment was nice and warm.”
No matter how Cardozo students spent the day, the general sentiment was that it was nice to have a day off in the middle of the week. “I was happy to be able to not go to school and catch up with work,” said Henri Vinet, 1L.
What will Cardozo students do if given another snow day? “Play in Central Park with all of the people who have real lives,” answered Silberman. We don’t know when the next snow day will be, but it’s never too soon to plan.