Beyond Evanston

Today we climbed a pyramid. On top of a mountain.


I am tired. At the top, there were these weird ferret creatures that tried to eat us.

We have two new roommates, one from Columbia and one from nearby in Mexico, bringing us to six: me, Sharla, Kim (Northwestern), Amy (Nova Scotia), Armando y Davíd. It's getting a little crazy. Our rooms are all interconnected and we share a bathroom. Amy (in the little room on the roof) has to leave her room, go OUTSIDE, walk across the room to Sharla's room, climb the iron staircase into our room, and then pass through Armando and Davíd's room to get to the rest of the house.

On Wednesday night we were all at home and there was a huge hailstorm. Hail! So weird. All that day had been unusually hot; I was sweating that morning on the Metro in my lab coat. Then toward evening it started to cool and it was storming by 8:30. By 9, there were huge pellets of hail. Our house has a lot of glass windows and skylights (our host dad owns a mirror and glass business) so we could see, and hear, really well.

Until of course the power went out, after which we complained about how bored we were for approximately ten seconds and then went to bed.

In the morning, the streets looked like the aftermath of a terrible accident at the Frostee Freeze factory. So bizarre, walking through Mexico City and seeing huge piles of ice. The leaves of the trees lay shredded on the ground making the streets smell like fancy tea.

There are currently huge demonstrations going on in the central square of Mexico City right now... the supporters of the candidate that lost are demanding a recount. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5236884.stm

It's like a combination streetfair/campout. I went downtown yesterday and encountered a) free popcorn for Lopez Obrador supporters; b) man in yellow spandex costume yelling "Voto por voto, casillo por casillo" [vote by vote, polling booth by polling booth I think]; c) parade of people holding up ginormous Mexican flag.

While all this goes on... our power is back but now all the water that comes out of the faucets is brown.

Going to go sleep now.