The Last of Lima/Basquetbol

I woke up the next morning, relaxed in my hostel, and went over to the airport to fly back to Lima. After my one hour flight, I went to the ATM to take out a few more dollars. Once again, being me, I left my debit card in the machine. THE SECOND TIME THIS TRIP. Total lack of awareness. Luckily this time, a woman found it, gave it to airport security, and they tracked my down while I was waiting in the airport for my ride. I signed a few papers and got my card back. Lesson learned (again).

Alexandra's Aunt picked me up, and we went back to the grandma's house for lunch. They continued to impress. I was pretty sleepy after a few nights of 3:30am wakeup, so I took a little nap in my prepared bed. I woke up and hung out with the cousins for my remaining time. Check out the pics/vid. I went to the airport veeeery early, still paranoid from my previous close call, and waited in my gate for 2.5 hours before we boarded at 1am for the red eye (like father like son!).

I was so excited for my personal TV screen, but we had another type of plane without the TVs, so my buzz was quickly killed and I dozed in and out of cat naps the whole way home. I arrived in Santiago in zombie mode at 5:45am, and caught a bus back home, I got my money's worth on the adventure!

Sidenote: the rest of this entry is only basketball stuff, so those of you who are only into my travel adventures should stop here to avoid disappointment!

I have been in Santiago for a few days now, but I quickly hopped back into my daily grind. We had a basketball game Tuesday night (loss), and Wednesday night. We needed to win the Wednesday night game to get to the playoffs, but things didn't go according to plan. With about 5 minutes left in the game, a player on our team fouled another player, which resulted in a pushing and shoving match between two players. We all hopped off our bench and ran over. A few kids got into some wrestling/pushing/shoving, and I was standing guard helping up one of my teammates that fell down, practicing my new Spanish curse words. Both benches were cleared and kids were flying around in every direction. We were ALL promptly expelled from the game. Only 4 players from our team, and 3 players from the other team were not expelled.

We continued the game 4 vs 3, but in a very physical game, two more of our players fouled out, leaving us with 2 vs. 3 for the last few minutes. We lost by a good chunk of points, and everyone is suspended for the first game of the next semester. Not what we had in mind!

The official season is done for la Universidad Alberto Hurtado, but I still have my other league "Winnipeg". We also had the biggest game of our season on Saturday night. Winnipeg used to be one large team, but we had too many players, so we split into two teams. The team we played on Saturday was the other half of our original team, so the competition was fierce.

Our big man, la mano, didn't show up for the game. He is about 6'5'', and a very good defender. In his absence, I had to play as our Center for the game. Luckily, we were playing this game in Chile, and at 6ft, I was still the tallest person on the court. I won the tip off and the game started. I had played HORRIBLY in our two losses at my University, so I was eager to make up for it, and I played pretty well. I made the first basket, with a foul, and our team got pretty siked up for a good game. It was a great game, and we went into the half completely tied.

Our Winnipeg team has no coach, we just have a team captain, Marcelo. Everyone on the team is Marcelo's friend, but some people are better than others. It makes for a sticky situation when it comes to winning/keeping friends. Our starting 5 players were playing really well, and we stayed in the entire first half. At half time, I offered to bench myself to give the other players a chance. I took a seat, with our second tallest player as well, leaving us with four players under 5'9'' on the court, bad news. Our defense could not hold up, because we had very little height, and we quickly got down 8 points. At the start of the fourth quarter, Marcelo told the two new players to take the bench again, so the original starting 5 could play...drama!

We put the drama behind us and focused on the task at hand, winning the basketball game. We started strong in the fourth quarter, all of us hitting clutch shots. I would get the ball underneath the basket, and when the double-team arrived, I would dish it out to one of our players for a three pointer, CA$H MONEYYY. The players on Winnipeg are better than our University team, and its fun to play with a bunch of talented guys. We played strong offense and defense, and with 30 seconds left, the game was tied.

The other team brought the ball down, looking to take the final shot. I was playing defense against their tallest player at the time (this guy was actually taller than me). They passed the ball to him down low, he started backing me up, using his power against me. I did a VERY risky move, and as he was backing into me, I fell down to draw a foul. It worked! Hooray! The other team started complaining, my team was congratulating me, and with 15 seconds left, I went to the foul line for a "1 and 1".

1 and 1 means: you take a foul shot, if you make it, you get another. For some reason, I was very calm and collected, and despite the jeering/distractions from the crowd and other team, made my first shot, earning me another. I sunk my second shot as well, putting us up two points with 15 seconds left, we were in good shape.

The other team in-bounded the ball, but we intercepted it right away! The fouled us instantly, and our player went to the foul line with 10 seconds left for two shots. We were already up two points, with two more foul shots...GAME OVER (maybe). He missed his first shot, but made his second. We were up three points when the other team brought the ball down with 9 seconds remaining. 8, 7, 6, 5...I was playing light defense on my big man to avoid a foul (they needed a three anyway). Someone launched a three pointer with 4 seconds left-MISS. There was a long rebound, recovered by the other team, a quick pass out to another player, and with 1 second left, he launched a three pointer, ball cocked over his shoulder like a shot-put. The ball was in the air, the buzzer sounded, and it rattled in the hoop. Everyone went crazy. Overtime.

The other team rode their momentum, our team forced too many three point shots, and we lost by 4 points in overtime. It was a heartbreaking loss, but an amazing game nonetheless.

Sunday I woke up early with my Chilean mom and our neighbor, we went to mass then to lunch at a friends house at the base of the Andes mountains (picture). Everyone was so nice, we had empanadas, rice, ribs...it was delicioso! I am getting ready to start another normal week, and actually work on SCHOOL WORK for the first time this semester, so don't expect anything too interesting for a little bit. Thanks for your support I'll be home to see all of you in two months!

Vale la pena

I woke up on time the next morning at 3:45am so I could meet my friends outside. I sat down to breakfast with some other motivated hostel stayers and chatted for a while. I figured that a group of three college girls and a guy would not actually be ready at exactly 4:15am so I waltzed out at around 4:18am but they had already left...they meant business. I made my way down to the bus station. The line to board the buses was already about 40 people long at 4:20am. I saw my friends in line for the buses, but I still had to buy my ticket so I went over to the other line. I was about 10th in line for bus tickets. I waited, waited, and waited.

I watched the line for the buses get longer and longer, and around 4:45am (15 minutes before bus tickets went on sale) I estimated about 200 people in line. I felt so powerless! If I had been able to buy my ticket the night before I would be in great shape, about 50th in line, but when the tickets went on sale at 5:00am, I knew there were at least 300 people in line, and there was no hope of me being able to do the climb.

Once tickets went on sale, a bunch of people started squeezing in the line in front of me with their "friends" that were "holding their spot". I was getting frustrated. Then a scalper came around selling one-way tickets for exactly half the price so I took the opportunity, bought the ticket from him, and made my way over to the boarding line.

I felt really bad about myself, but I had to do something because I wouldn't have made the cut to do the hike. The line was on the sidewalk next to some little stores. I entered a store, bought a little cookie, took about 10 minutes to eat it at a little table, and morphed into the line of people waiting in front of the store, surpassing about 200 people in the process.

The whole time I was thinking of the VMI values "will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do" (shout out to Fr. Butera, Jake) and realized I was violating most of those values...but tried to calm my conscience with my new slogan "You gotta do whatchu gotta do to do Machu Picchu".

Needless to say I made the cut for the first 200 people to climb at 7am (number 138 i think). I met my crew, and started our hike up to the lookout at 7am. It wasn't easy, but compared to the Torres del Paine hike we did earlier in the semester, it was a piece of cake.

After about an hour hike (almost straight up) we made it to the top with a great view of the ruins. There were also some ruins at the top of this lookout as well. We spent a lot of time up there, enjoying the fruits of our early rising/hiking. Once again, I will not even try to describe it with words, go there yourself!

Our little group split up into two. Ruth and Katie did not want to do extra hiking on this mountain, but Brett, Amanda, and I wanted to check out the "gran caverna" about an hour away. We set off on the hike after a little snack on the peak. It was really cool taking the Incan stairways and imagining the runners taking the same path (without the safety tourist handrails).

We arrived at the not-so-gran caverna, but the hike was fun anyway. We made our way back another 2 hours back to the ruins. We got back around 1pm (when I normally wake up) so we still had a lot of daylight left. We took a little break in the shade before we set off for another lookout. Llamas crowded the paths (Brett was pretty scared of them and made me go first) but they couldn't care less about us tourists as they munched on their grass.

I had a real nice day with my new acquaintances and we went back into town after a VERY full day of hiking everything Machu Picchu had to offer. I went to the bus station to "bathe" myself in their sinks, and met everyone for dinner. We went to a cheap place since we were all counting coins at this point. I got a soup with chicken and potatoes, a drink, and an entree of a lo mein type chicken dish...all for $2.50...viva Peru!

I relaxed on the train ride back to Cuzco, and we were all pretty sleepy when we got a cab back into center city, but I couldn't relax yet because I had no idea where my hostel was. I walked my friends over to their hostel, then started asking around for my hostel "Pariwana". I had to repeatedly clarify "no no no...I am looking for Pariwana, with a P". One lady said she knew where it was, told me to "go three blocks over, then one block to the right (pointing left)". Spanish is hard enough for me without people mixing up their directions!

On my way over I saw two young men (drunk). I kept my eye on them. There were a few wild dogs playing by a large fountain, and the guy walked over to the dogs, they started whimpering at the sight of him coming. He came up to one, and kicked it as hard as he could in the belly. The dog let out a scream and ran away, all his friends by his side. The group of police stood by the corner nonchalantly and said nothing. The culture is much different down here.

I decided against confronting the guys, not afraid of them but of Peruvian jail. I asked a few more people until finally I found my hostel. After hiking all day, and being awake for almost 24 hours straight, I passed out in my nice hostel bed!

The First Sighting of the Bunnysquirrel

My plane landed in Cuzco, Peru on time at 7am. I was in a hurry to catch my train, so I didn't have a chance to shop around for a taxi, and got hustled with a ride to the airport for $7. I later found out a ride to the airport costs $1, but I learned my lesson. I got to the train station in time to "shower" in their bathroom sink since I had not bathed myself in quite some time. It was a little depressing being by myself, but I also liked the alone time to enjoy the train ride.

The only company that runs a transport service (other than going by foot) to Machu Picchu is Perurail. They make a fair profit on the monopoly by charging around $100 round trip, but the train ride was great. The views were amazing, the mountains were truly awesome. We stopped in a small town for a connecting train, and I met some people my age at the station. Brett, Amanda, Ruth, and Katie. We chatted for a while and got back on the connecting train. When I arrived in Aguas Calientes (the closest populated area to Machu Picchu), I pumped gas over to the ticket station. I got my entrance ticket for the student price of $31, and hustled over to the buses that take you up to Machu Picchu. I was very excited to see the Citadel and to meet the girls up there and tour it with them. The bus ticket was $15 round trip.

I got up to Machu Picchu at 1pm...after a plane ride, a taxi trip, train ride, bus trip, and a hike up there, I somehow met the girls within two minutes at the top of the lookout onto Machu Picchu at 1:15pm, pretty good time. I am not going to even attempt to describe Machu Picchu because I will just be disrespecting it. The pictures can't even begin to describe the feeling of being up there, literally above the clouds. You can see the clouds in one of the pictures, at our eye level. After going to this World Wonder, I sincerely hope that every human gets the opportunity to do the trip. It blew my mind!

We walked around the ruins, chasing some wild llamas, pretending to be part of organized tours, and relaxing on the grass, gazing down 8000 feet into the valleys below. I won't write any more except a petition for everyone to try and make the trip! We came back down into town so the girls could catch their bus, and leave me once again.

We stopped in a little restaurant for dinner. A refreshment, nachos, and entree for $5, booyah. I ordered a traditional peruvian dish of papas rellenas. It was potatoes filled with heaven. I also had some Alpaca (llama meat) on the side. Delicioso! We got hustled when our check came with a $5 "local tax". We negotiated the price down from $7 a person to $5 a person before we ate, but they just add a tax at the end to make up for it...lesson learned. We split the bill and the girls got their stuff ready to do back to the train station.

I was tempted to go back with them, switch my bus ticket, and go back to Cuzco for an extra day. I went all the way to the train station with them, but when we got to the train station, we found some other people from our exchange program...small world!

The girls from our program said they did the Huayna Picchu hike that morning, and it was amazing. The HP hike is a hike up the mountain next to Machu Picchu, with an even better view of the ruins and surrounding nature. It is in high demand, and the government only allows 200 people to hike it at 7am, and 200 more at 10am per day. The girls woke up at 3am to get in line for the buses to do the hike. They said it was worth the effort, so I was contemplating my options.

I decided against being lazy and wasting a day in Cuzco when I had the opportunity to see more of a World Wonder, so I stayed behind, even if that meant being alone. I gave a farewell to the girls, and made my way through town trying to find my hostel for the night. I got to the street of my hostel, glanced over to my left, and Brett, Amanda, Ruth, and Katie were in a restaurant eating dinner. Cray-zay. I talked with them, and they were doing the hike the next morning as well, so we decided to meet in front of their hostel at 4:15am, dealio yo.

I went to buy ANOTHER entrance fee, and a bus ticket. The bus ticket stand doesn't open until 5am, so everyone buys their ticket the day before so they can wait in front of the actual buses instead of wasting time at the stand. However, it was late at night so I did not get the chance to buy my ticket. I went back to my hostel ($10) for an early night's sleep, with my plan in place to wake up, meet my friends, buy my bus ticket, get in line, and be one of the first 200 to enter in Huayna Picchu. Didn't work out exaaaaactly like I expected.

Abuelita de Lima

We (Me, Dana, Kristin, Tara, Cynthia, Alexandra) had a GREAT flight to Lima on May 19th. They served a hot meal of meat ravioli, free drinks, and each seat had a personal screen to watch movies or play games. I watched "El libro de los secretos" with Denzel Washington. Known in the states as "The Book of Eli". We landed around 11pm in Lima. We were immediately met at the airport by Alexandra's aunt, uncle, and cousin. The people in Peru were just great. The culture in Peru is very warm and inviting to everyone. They drove us back to the apartment for a little meal and a few drinks. After a nice evening with the family we all had a bed ready for us to deposit a little in the sleep bank before the adventures started the next day.

I woke up to the smell of breakfast, rolled out of bed, and did a zombie walk out to the table. We were served some great Peruvian food. We had a pork sandwich, some juice, coffee, bread, and some kind of ham spread. I will not hesitate to say that Peruvian food is the greatest food I have ever had. I am not a food connoisseur in any sense, but there was something about the food that was very unique and flavorful. I ate until the ham spread was practically squirting out of my ears and plopped back on my bed for a few minutes to digest a little so I could function.

I really wanted to go swimming with the sea lions off the coast of Lima. It was something I found online and really tried to sell to the girls. I pushed the idea on them really hard, did all the research on price, location, times, even water temperature...but shopping won the popular vote. I moped around for a while, with some passive aggressive and sarcastic remarks, but decided not to let it ruin my day so I got ready to go out with them.

We went to a little string of stores with "hand made" Peruvian crafts. It seemed to me that 95% of the stuff was cranked out in an assembly line considering every store had matching inventory. I bought a few little gifts (VERY little...don't get your hopes up). I really liked bartering with the store owners, and I was amused by the games they would play with me.

I started browsing through a pile of shirts and I asked "how much are the shirts" and the owner responded "$5 each". After a nice search, I found a shirt that I wanted to buy, so I pulled it out of the pile. The shop keeper said "That shirt is $9, that is not part of our regular selection". I smiled to myself, amused with her techniques. We went back and forth for a while and I ended up getting the shirt for $3. I was happy that I proved to myself I could successfully barter, but later decided that these shopkeepers really needed the money more than I did, so I tuned down the bartering and bought things at a fair price.

After shopping we went to a Peruvian buffet. I was not at all hungry, still stuffed from breakfast a few hours back, but with Peruvian food there is no stopping. All the food was amazing...my stomach kept saying "no" but my taste buds kept saying "more". Very sleepy from my food coma, we got in the car and went over to Alexandra's grandma's house. Alexandra's cousins were there too. A girl about 13 years old, a boy about 8 years old, and a little 3 year old girl. Once again everyone was so kind and generous. We hung out with the family there for a few hours until we were picked up for our city tour.

We went around the city in a little bus, and stopped at the Plaza de Armas. It was really beautiful. There are some pics of the plaza, and Alexandra with her aunt as well. We went back to the house to get some sleep because the girls had to wake up at 3:00am to catch their flight in the morning. I was on a later flight so I slept until about 6:30am, and got up to hang out with Angie.

Sidenote: I chose different flights than the girls to save money ($250). I also thought that Cynthia and Tara were going to be staying in Lima, so I would be able to hang out with them and not be alone, but they changed their minds and decided to go to Machu Picchu with the girls leaving me in Lima.

Anyway, I went to Angie's house with her to meet her family. They offered me lunch with some kind of pepper filled with meat and onion and heaven...it was great as usual, I had multiple servings. Angie had class at 3pm so her uncle picked me up and took me over to his house where I would spend the night. Right when I got there she rushed me into the prepared room to "rest". She was overly hospitable. I called the cousins in the room and hung out with them and watched TV. We talked for hours. We went to the shore to hang out, met some other family members for tea, came back to some dinner, went out to some stores, a very full day. I went to bed around 10pm because I knew I had to get up at 3:30am for my flight!

My flight was at 5:45am so I was ready to go at 4:00am, assuming my taxi would get there at his scheduled time of 4:15am. I waited, and waited, and waited. It was 4:45am and he still wasn't there. I started to panic a little bit, my flight was scheduled to arrive at 7am in Cuzco, just in time to catch catch a taxi to the train station for my 8am train to Machu Picchu...everything would be ruined if I missed my flight. More minutes ticked off, until FINALLY he pulled up nonchalantly at 5:00am. I rushed into the cab, and we got to the airport at 5:15am. I ran through the airport, and got to my gate while we were boarding...great success!

yo tambien te (ll)amo

Well nothing too crazy has been going on. We won our first basketball game by 26 points (1-2), our team is getting better with every practice. I hung out in a social setting with the team and we had a lot of fun. I still have a hard time understanding them, especially if I get sidetracked and try to rejoin a conversation. It's kind of frustrating not to be able to speak/understand everything, but it takes a while to fully learn a language and I still have two more months so we'll see.

I started my community service at a highschool about a half hour away. The kids are great, a lot different than I was as a highschool freshman. My freshman year was full of cliques, "being cool", fitting in, expensive clothing, and doing anything to be accepted by my peers. In Chile, the solidarity is much more evident in the classroom. Kids came up in front of the class to sing songs in English, embarrass themselves, and then all laugh together. They are genuinely good kids and I look forward to every week. I have gone three times, all of the kids know my name, and they reach out to me inside and outside of the classroom. We have been learning a song "That's what friends are for" and also the significance of "can" and "can't". I came up with a side activity where I drew a crude map of the USA, had the students call out cities/states that they knew from the states, marked them on the map, and taught them nicknames for all the cities (brotherly love, big apple, windy city...surprisingly almost every city has a nickname when you think about it)

I have been busy with my daily activities, and on weekends I have been getting together with friends and practicing my Spanish. My camera broke just in time for me to leave for Peru tomorrow, so I will have to figure something out for that in the next few hours. The camera won't focus by itself anymore, and I have to manually assist it with my fingers, so the pictures that I listed are some random ones as I was practicing my finger zooming. One is the view from my bedroom window, one is the street I walk down to get home, and the other is the school where I do community service.

I promise to update with some actual interesting stuff in a week when I get back from Peru!

Chao!

Pacos Culiaos!

Ok pretty crazy week. I'll start with the less interesting stuff. Our basketball team lost our second game dropping us to 0-2...yikes. We got down early by about 15 points and it wasn't looking good. I would bet the other team shot literally 80% including three pointers...they just wouldn't miss, they were a good team. We fought back and were actually up 2 points with about 2 minutes left, but fell apart again and lost. I played the first half, but got very tired and started playing badly so coach pulled me out of the game. I need to work on my conditioning, but the air here is really bad and doesn't help at all. It was a heart breaker. As for my other team, the Winnipeg Weons, we lost our first game on Saturday night leaving us with a solid 3-1 record. Basketball has been fun and I look forward to every practice and game. We also got really cool warm-up gear and jerseys...its legit.

In other news...there was a riot at my University on Wednesday...crazy stuff. I will start by saying I didn't have my camera during my riot so I have no pictures of the absolute chaos but I will try my best to explain it. Two of the pictures I've included I got off the internet (the picture of a different riot at my school in 2008 and the picture of the two Chilean riot trucks), the other two I took about two hours after the riot with the lingering effects of the tear gas and the patrolling riot trucks, but it is nothing compared to the actual experience.

Well I wasn't supposed to be at the university in the first place Wednesday morning, but my Chilean friend Cecy asked if I would come to her English presentation that morning. I went to her presentation, everyone did really well, and we hung out at the University's patio for a little. I got a little hungry around 11am, so I said goodbye to Cecy and went out onto the street to walk home. The entrance to the University is on a side street, about 30 meters from the main street of Santiago (Alameda). I stepped outside, glanced over to the right (Alameda) and saw a group of about 40 students standing in the street. They were jumping and whistling and yelling various things, so I wanted to check it out.

I walked over, and it turned out it was a protest. I found a few of my friends from the U in the crowd and asked them what we were protesting but they didn't know. Oh well, the energy was really fun so I hung out in the crowd. They were blocking the main street of Santiago, and men were leaning out their car window yelling stuff at the students, but the students stood firm in the street. No sign of cops, so the yelling and whistling and jumping continued non-violently. I was in the middle of the street enjoying the aura of the protest around me. It was full of energy, but peaceful....until BOOM!

The cops threw/launched a tear gas grenade into the group of students about 2 meters away from me. It was loud, and there was a little panic in the crowd as the students started running/tripping/climbing over each other to get back to our side street away from the burning gas. I had a little smirk on my face as I was pushing, being pushed, and running away from the bomb. It was a unique experience. Everyone settled down onto the sidewalks of our side street and the road was cleared (except for lingering tear gas). People were rubbing their eyes, sneezing, and crying from the gas, but we were out of immediate harms way safe on the sidewalks in front of our school.

A few brave students were trying to make their way back to the main street. But then a huge riot police truck peeked around the corner on the main street and started shooting its water cannon to keep us back. I have a picture of the big green truck with the water cannon. It parked in front of our side street, cannon blasting, keeping everyone at a distance from Alameda. I was out of reach from the water, so I stood on the sidewalk catching my breath. At this point there were about 100-150 students total. We were quieted from the tear gas, people hunched over spitting, sniffling and crying trying to regain their senses, but it wasn't over yet.

Another smaller truck appeared (also in one of the pictures provided). It came screaming down our street, with tear gas cannons on full blast shooting each sidewalk. I saw it coming about 50 meters away, but there was no running from it. People were panicking at this point, trying to pry their way into the university to escape the searing gas. The truck got to me, and the gas filled my lungs, I took a few quick steps to the right, turned around, went to the left for a little, then my instincts took over telling me how to escape from this horrible thing happening to my body!

I found an entrance into the University, crowded with everyone else trying to escape the fumes. I went deep into the University, and found Cecy doing the same thing. We hung out in the "bunker" for a while, the gas had poured into the school (but not as strong as outside), and everyone was in bad shape. Girls were sobbing, eyes were swollen, and the protesters were getting riled up.

I waited about 15 minutes in the University, and decided I had my fair share of chemical warfare, so I made for the exit to try and walk home. I went outside, but at this point it was just me and about 40 of our bravest protesters out on the street. I glanced over to the right (Alameda) and now they had a line of about 10 Carabineros (cops) on horseback guarding the main road. The big riot truck was out of sight. The a few rebels used this to their advantage, and a few started hurling rocks in the direction of the cops on horseback. Uh oh.

More tear gas bombs started exploding from the direction of the horseback riders, and everyone started running in the opposite direction. Out of the frying pan into the fire. The big riot truck had flanked us! It was approaching from behind, with about 15 cops marching on foot (gas masks on) beside it. The big riot truck turned on its tear gas cannon (this thing could launch like 30 meters) and we were in a cloud of tear gas, sandwiched by cops in both directions.

Since there were only about 40 students, I knew I was going to get arrested. They started screaming "HANDS UP HANDS UP" to all the students. We were crammed together in a group, pushing, stepping on each other, scrambling for clean air that didn't exist. I had my hands straight up, trying to find an escape rout...but this was the first time in the event that I was truly scared. I thought they were going to start shooting bean bag guns, or at least arrest all of us.

Adrenaline took over, and I spotted a brave old man across the street standing in the midst of the tear gas. He had opened a gate for the students and was waving us over. I made a break for it across the open street. I had my hands straight up the whole time, running like an Orangutan for the cracked gate, chin tucked into my chest ready to take a bean bag from the police at any second. Everyone followed doing the same thing, and the police were hot on our tail.

Everyone poured into the gate like a bunch of 12 year old girls getting into a Jonas Brothers concert. The police were trying to do the same thing, so we had to close the gate before everyone was in. I made a break for the farthest corner I could find of the complex to get away from the gas. We closed the gate, and some unlucky students didn't make it in. I heard at least 6 were arrested and got taken into the station.

I will give props to the students, and that old man, because they were very brave and blunt with the police. Standing proud in the tear gas screaming curse words with their scratchy throats at the police from the locked gate, telling them they can't enter. And if they tried, the students would be ready. They had stockpiled desks and chairs in the hallway as ammunition if the police tried to get in.

Kids were hunched over in the back patio of this refuge. Spitting, coughing, sneezing, muttering curse words under their breath, and things quickly settled down in the streets. After about 15 minutes, I decided (for the 2nd time) that I was finally done with the tear gas, and I went back to the gate. The old man was standing proud guarding it, and the rebels were standing guard ready to launch some classroom equipment at the police. I peeked my face out through the gate (tear gas still very present) and decided I could make a break for my house. I told the man I was ready to leave, and he cracked the gate open so I could slip out. I ran like Forrest Gump until I was clear of the warzone. I went back to my house to recover from the day's activities.

When I went to class about 2.5 hours later, I finally figured out why they were rioting. The government was imposing a 10 peso ($.02) increase in the price for students to ride the subway.

2 cents??? Not on our watch!