Put away your coloring books, or--gasp!--text books. Duke students have come up with some new rainy-day activities.
A stroll across West Campus Thursday found teams of students playing football and Ultimate Frisbee, soaked to the bone and reveling in the stormy weather. In Craven Quadrangle, several students took the opportunity to clean up their act--they had lathered up with Suave shampoo and were getting back in touch with Mother Nature.
"We're taking showers, the natural way," senior Tom Burney said. When asked why, he responded, "Because we can. We already played some stickball, we've got that good sports sweat going on, so we came out to get clean."
Down in the West-Edens Link, revelers had found yet another rainy-day activity: a makeshift slip-and-slide on a tarp--and then later, without a tarp. Some were shirtless or had stripped down to their sports bras, but sophomore Megan Heuther was decked out in a unitard and goggles.
"We're out mudsliding in the hurricane, making it memorable," she said. "A lot of people left after the tarp left, but we're kind of hard-core. We don't give up."
Blue Devils might be 'hard-core' about dangerous weather, but those braving the wind and rain of Hurricane Isabel to head to class sounded considerably less enthusiastic.
While sophomore Xander Chen escaped unscathed, like many others he saw the strength of Isabel's temper.
"I was walking back from BME lecture to Main West, and a tree branch fell just behind me, right where I had walked, a few seconds [earlier]," he said. "[It was] pretty hazardous. They should put up some yellow tape barring people from walking in that area."
A frolic in the rain was also less than appealing for most staff. Employees were concerned about traveling in the storm and what they would find when they finally arrived home.
"I think that they should have closed the Great Hall today and we shouldn't have had to come to work," said Anissa Degraffenreidt, who was manning the counter at Subway. "I don't want to drive home in this mess."
Jacquelyn Sanford, an employee at Alpine Bagels and veteran of North Carolina hurricane seasons, said she was particularly concerned about losing power during Isabel.
"Someone who lives near me said we don't have any power," she said. "I went through [Hurricane] Fran and was out of power for 10 days."
Although power loss was not a concern for students who live on campus, for some, just making it through the day yielded frustration.
Umbrellas were put to the test across campus, with many people discovering the do's and don'ts of hurricane protocol the hard way. While most students sported models of varying colors and designs, many of their umbrellas ended up in the same shape: a concave mess of metal and fabric.
Sophomore Taylor Regis struggled with an umbrella on the Bryan Center walkway.
"I don't even know why I bothered bringing it out here," she said.
Even if an umbrella might have been helpful, by mid-afternoon students in search of those and other hurricane necessities were out of luck. Once the University decided to implement the Severe Weather Policy, the bookstore in the Bryan Center had no choice but to close.
"We were going to close at 3. We decided to wait until 3:30 to give students a little more time to get in there and shop," said Tom Craig, general manager of retail stores, who added that he had seen an increase in umbrella sales, but nothing out of the ordinary. "Anytime it rains, we sell a lot of umbrellas.
Flashlights, batteries, things like that, have sold well all week with people preparing for the storm."
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