The UCLA Student's Essential Guide to Rain

The Comprehensive and {Somewhat} Complete Guide to Dealing with UCLA When It Rains.

by one who's lived it and has survived to tell the tale.

1. Don't step on the metal grates.

No lie, these things are death traps to the unsuspecting.

When it rains, the metal grates along Bruinwalk become almost frictionless, so putting your full weight on them can lead to flight and, subsequently, a very hard landing.

Or at least a few missed heartbeats before you catch yourself.

2. Bring an umbrella from home.

You quickly learn once you've survived a rain season here that owning and using a UCLA umbrella is no bueno. Those whom you see employing the infamous blue-and-yellow umbrella are those who forgot their own at home and were, at some point, caught unprepared when it started to pour.

What can be seen as a status symbol at home {you have an awesome UCLA umbrella!} is seen here as a sign that you were one of those poor saps who had to shell out eight bucks in Ackerman at the sight of rain {freshman. *shakes head*}.

Use a normal umbrella. Or a rain jacket.

3. Give yourself ten extra minutes to get to class.

At least.

Not only is the walk to class more dangerous because of rushing rivers, slippery grates, and ginormous puddles, but people walk somuchslower when it's wet outside.

This is for two main reasons. One, they don't want to fall anymore than you do, so they're being super cautious, but also two, since everyone's got their umbrellas out, they take up three-to-four times the amount of space than they normally do. It doesn't help that umbrellas have spokes {spines?} that try to take your eye out when you're walking past, so you have to be wary of those, too.

4. People get fashion-senseless when there's water outside.

As in, sweatpants tucked into Uggs, shortshorts and flipflops, etc.

I don't know what it is, but something about rainy weather affects people's clothing choices in a very, very bad way. I know they're either trying to (a) stay warm {hence the Uggs and sweatpants} or (b) stay somewhat dry {if there's no clothing to get wet, you'll dry off faster? hence the shortshorts and flipflops}, but geez, guys. Now my eyes are watering, too.

*shudder*

Oh. I guess my point would be, please don't. Be kind and think of others.

5. Check the weather report the night before. Every. Single. Day.

Contrary to popular belief, Los Angeles has some crayzay weather up in here. It rained today, right? Plus, it was biting cold. Two days from now, the weather report says highs of 79 degrees. That's one degree away from 80. What the heck.

So. To give yourself less grief and make sure you never have to buy a UCLA umbrella from Ackerman when you don't have to, do yourself a favor and just check the weather the night before. It's not always correct, I know, but it'll give you a general ballpark area of what you can expect. Here. I'll even give you the link. There. No excuses for no jacket on cold days or wearing too many layers on hot ones.

You're welcome.

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Now, this is by no means all I've learned in my last two and a half years here about how to survive rain in Los Angeles, but these are, I think, the most important things to remember.

So next time it rains, you'll hopefully be a little more prepared and better equipped to tough it out there in the precipitation.

Good luck!

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Part Two can be found here.