Digital Diaries: Frigid temperatures create a community on campus

Ingrid Smith, Assistant Audio Editor

January 23, 2025

The Daily Northwestern · Digital Diaries: Frigid temperatures create a community on campus

Students share their experiences adjusting to Evanston winter weather, from seeing snowmen to feasting with friends.

EVAN HOSTETLER: I just got back from walking outside, and my face feels so horrible. It’s definitely not pleasant, but you can enjoy it because every time you take a deep breath, the air is dry and it’s refreshing, and it almost feels like taking a sip of water.

INGRID SMITH: That was SESP freshman Evan Hostetler after walking to his dorm after class in negative temperatures.

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INGRID SMITH: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Ingrid Smith. This is Digital Diaries, a podcast capturing people’s lives in their own words.

On Tuesday, temperatures ranged between 2 to -8 degrees Fahrenheit. While Evanston/Skokie School District 65 and Evanston Township High School District 202 moved all classes online, NU classes remained in person. Frostbite shuttles operated throughout the day.

After living in Nashville, Hostetler said adjusting to Evanston winters has been a months-long process.

EVAN HOSTETLER: I bought two coats, and so now I have coats to wear in every type of weather, so I won’t ever be too hot or ever too cold. And then I bought snow boots too, and that was before I moved in. But then once it started getting colder, I’m like, ‘Oh, shoot, I need scarves, I need a hat and I need gloves,’ so I got that over Christmas.

INGRID SMITH: Like Hostetler, Weinberg freshman Amanda Huang said moving from the Bay Area to Evanston forced her to adjust her wardrobe and learn the art of layering. But when the wind isn’t too strong, she said she doesn’t mind the weather.

AMANDA HUANG: I actually do like the cold. I feel like it’s nice to experience different seasons instead of it being mostly warm all the time. I definitely like the snow a lot. I think it’s very exciting. I will say, I do not like the wind though. It’s pretty icy, and I don’t like how it’s sunny when it’s really cold, but I do like when it’s more overcast and snowy.

INGRID SMITH: After the first snow in November, Huang said the weather was a big deal for warm-weather natives.

AMANDA HUANG: I feel like it was really magical because both me and my roommate are not from places where it’s super cold or it snows a lot. It was fun because we went on a walk, and we went and took pictures in the snow, so that was really fun.

INGRID SMITH: For Hostetler, the snow creates a sense of community throughout campus.

EVAN HOSTETLER: I really enjoyed whenever it snowed for the first time. It was fun to see the campus kind of unite over their love of snow and the joy of snow. People were building snowmen outside of Deering, and I thought that was really cool. And there were snowmen all over the sorority quads and everything. That was really fun to see people come together and make snow angels and everything like that.

INGRID SMITH: Weinberg sophomore Mackenzie Ivancic grew up in Illinois but moved to Tampa, Florida, so the snow gives her nostalgia from her childhood.

MACKENZIE IVANCIC: I can already tell sometimes when I’m waking up based on the glow of my window that snow’s just fallen, and it’s so exciting. It’s my favorite thing to wake up and open my window and look out and see fresh snow or to see people built snowmen or just any of that. I think it’s so cute, and it just makes the start of my day a little happier.

INGRID SMITH: Ivancic said students suffer through frigid temperatures together and that snow provides moments of respite.

MACKENZIE IVANCIC: Find things to look forward to even when things really suck, because, it’s not fun going to class when it’s -5 degrees outside and more with wind chill, but to find the little joy in seeing the snow, or throwing snowballs at friends just kind of makes it all a little bit more worth it.

INGRID SMITH: Weinberg freshman Audrey Lam said the frosty weather also allows students to spend more time together indoors.

AUDREY LAM: We do a lot of stuff inside now. We do a lot of food stuff, and we bake. And that’s really nice to get together with the people in our dorm or our friends and just sit and talk and eat, cause we can’t really go out. So it’s cozy.

INGRID SMITH: Lam grew up in Chicago, so she has accepted harsh winters as a fact of life.

AUDREY LAM: It’s just something that I’ve gotten used to because the weather here is so volatile. You just learn to buy the right gear. Obviously, it’s a love-hate cause it’s really horrible when it gets below zero, but you kind of just learn to deal with it because you can’t really go anywhere else.

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INGRID SMITH: From The Daily Northwestern, I’m Ingrid Smith. Thanks for listening to another episode of Digital Diaries. This episode was reported and produced by me, Ingrid Smith.

The audio editor is Anavi Prakash. The multimedia managing editors are Kelley Lu and Jillian Moore. The editor in chief is Lily Ogburn.

Our theme music is “Falaal” by Blue Dot Sessions used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License and provided by the Free Music Archive.

Email: [email protected]

X: @ingrid_smith28