Mid-contest highs and lows

Thursday

Last night a bunch of us set off in search of a pub. Not just any pub of course, but the one that Marliess' assistant works at. He wasn't there, so we marched off to a place Edwin likes to go. It was a cool crisp half moon night, and I was so happy to be walking through the plazas and past buildings hundreds of years old. That is an experience I cannot replicate anywhere close to home....

Walking make through the Plaza Mayor (site of the contest), I couldn't help but notice that there was nary a security guard in site, leaving all the sculptures vulnerable to a multitude of unhappy fates. Sure enough, this morning there were signs of vandalism on three sculptures. One was mine, but it was relatively minor and repaired within an hour. Iryna (my roommate) was not so lucky. The face she had spent the whole day carving (La Infante from Velasquez' Los Mininos) was completely gone. I felt bad for her.