Burning Aggies, Green Chiles and Off-Campus Adventures: A fun weekend

It's the start of the college football season, and everyone on campus has been gearing up for this weekend's Rio Grande Rivalry game between UNM and NM State. The Lobos won, which I'm told is a very rare occurrence. The Thursday before the game, just as the sun finishes setting, the UNM drum line and elements of the marching band take to Johnson Field, and kick off the famous Red Rally. Hundreds of students crowd around for a giant night pep rally, including a stage with MCs and lots of dance music, and it all culminates in the burning of a 20-foot tall paper-mache Aggie (NM State's mascot) that has been constructed during the week. The cheer is apparently "Everyone's a Lobo! Woof woof woof!". I prefer UConn's.

That same evening, a few of us from my apartment bloc decided to get together and have a celebratory New Mexican food dinner. One of the guys in my apartment is Navajo and knows how to prepare and grill pretty much everything (he's told us stories about trapping and grilling prairie dog over a fire before, in the traditional Navajo way). This time though, we settled for ribs, steak, potatoes, salad and of course green chiles. Apparently you don't slice up the chiles, you grill them whole, and then eat them whole, either that same day or throughout the week as a snack. These green chiles were big, over 6 inches long, but apparently you can get ones much bigger than that. I didn't think to take pictures of the food until I had almost finished the last chile, but here it is!

Later that weekend, I ventured way off-campus for the first time, since I was invited to hang out with one of my friends from one of my linguistics classes (who happened to be from right next door in Rhode Island!). Here's some shots of the trip over. Walking around I was surprised how empty the streets were, and how town-like this part of the city felt, seeming a lot farther from my on-campus apartment than just about 2 miles.

I suppose it could've just been because it was around 5 on a Saturday evening, but still, I wondered where everyone was. I wasn't able to get a good shot, but the street my friend was on sloped downwards, so you could see the entirety of the city that was in the lowlands clustered around the Rio Grande. Also, most houses' yards just had red dirt and some cactus and/or sage. A few yards laid down astro turf though. I didn't see any real grass at all!

It was a very fun evening of hanging out, and even better, I didn't even have to worry about food at all (which in this case was a hearty New England-y stew, paired with rice).

That was because, next in the line of amazing coincidences, not only is my friend a fellow New Englander, but she also has Celiac Disease! And, seeing as I had just gotten some gluten free chocolate pizzelle from home that day, I brought over the ones that had survived transit whole. Everyone enjoyed them, and my friend was especially glad to be able to enjoy something from home (there is Italian food out here in ABQ, but for the most part it's nothing like from CT or RI). Plus these were homemade!

All in all, a fun High Desert weekend, even if it is still in the high 80s every single day here. I will admit I did miss being able to go to the Big E this year, but as you can see, there's still plenty of fun new things around here to explore and experience!

A rainy day rarity in ABQ

I had been wondering what I would post about next. Then, it came to me: while everyone's used to rain and cooler weather back home, it's pretty rare that it happens out here. We had a 2-day streak of thunderstorms and temperatures below 80 last week (they reached 68 during the day on Friday) and I knew I had to blog about that somehow. It was kind of funny, hours before the rain started, with the temperature hovering around 70, people were walking around campus in hoodies, fully zipped-up jackets and jeans. I was the only one I saw wearing a t-shirt while walking along the busy routes from class to class. I guess they really aren't that used to damp coolness (not quite cold) out here!

These first few photos are from in the morning when I walked over to North Campus to go visit the lock shop and get my special keys made for all the grad student things in the Linguistics Department (grad library, language lab, etc). It only rains in the evening here, so you could see the clouds looming and gathering strength all day. Normally, the skies are completely clear!

I tried my best to get some shots of the downpour that happened later that evening, but nothing was coming out very well. However, I managed to grab a shot of a very big rainbow that popped up as the thunderstorm ended and things started to switch over to regular rain. Sadly, I couldn't get a good enough angle to take a photo of the wonderful sight of this rainbow near the Sandias, and had to settle for this. Still looks pretty neat though!

Another thing about evening rains is that the sky clears very quickly afterward, and the clear skies are night are wonderful for taking pictures. Here are some shots of the Sandias overlooking Johnson Field (you may recognize the place from earlier posts). I tried various picture-taking settings to see what would look best in the low light.

  

And of course, I had to take some shots from the landing right in front of my third-floor apartment, facing the west. You can just see the sunset going down, and the sky turning its usual cloudless deep blue, especially in the last photo, facing the east.
 

 

I wish now that the Sandias were in the west so that I could get some sunset photos with them! However, come the Balloon Fiesta (about 3.5 weeks away!), I'll be up before 5:30 at least one day to catch the Dawn Patrol and see the lighted hot air balloons, as well as take some pictures of the sun rising over the Sandias. Still, don't wait til then to come back here, and be sure to check out next week's post too!

The Art of UNM

Hey everyone! Continuing the on-campus theme, I figured I'd show some of the artsy/scenic points of Central Campus, now that you've had the basic tour of where things are. Once again, sit back and enjoy the minimal text and maximal amounts of photos!

First, I'll start with the University House, right near Dane Smith Hall. I think the president of the university lives there, and it's the focal point of something called The Hanging of the Greens, which happens on campus every holiday season. I'll have to check it out further! What's notable is that it's on the National Register of Historic Places, and as far as non-descript beige boxes in the Pueblo Revival style go, it doesn't look that bad.

Quickly, a brief shot of the west side of the library. Many more cacti!

Circling around the Duck Pond and moving to the center of the campus, here's the first sculpture of the day. Not entire sure what it is, but those long two flexible ends of it were moving up and down in the wind and looked pretty neat.

Halfway between Ortega and Mitchell Halls is this, a walk-around-inside-able metal structure sculpture. Once again, not sure what it represents, but it looks cool with the (constantly-shining) sun gleaming off of it.

A blue sky shot from the interior, since the top is open to the air. Once again, pretty neat looking.

Now on the south side of the library, the first of many water-related sculptures shows itself inside a small pine tree-laden courtyard facing the plaza near the Humanities Building and SUB. I'll have to remember this location, looks like a good place to just be, for a bit.

Across the plaza and heading up the steps to the SUB's east side, a giant bell sculpture appears. This one appears to be the least abstract of everything so far. I'll have to find out if there's a story behind it, since it's right in the middle of campus, and everything else that you're about to see that's in the middle of campus does.

Up the steps and right behind the bell is a giant fountain, with blue colored water coming out of it. A popular hang out spot during the week, I've picked up on the fact that almost everyone who walks by laughs at the fact that the university felt the need to color the water out here.

 Now, we come to the most elaborate and most baffling sculpture on campus yet. Everyone also talks about this and no one knows what it means. It's basically a bunch of people pointing and looking surprised/confused about this big metal cylindrical-shape thing. The expressions on the people are very well done but still, I can't figure out what it all is about.

Just a few feet away is what's known by many on campus as "The Ogres", although I've included its real name below. It's definitely the most colorful of all the sculptures on campus, featuring a range of tones other than just the standard beige, metal or blue.

And finally, though not technically man-made art, here's a bunch of shots of the clouds and sky this morning, as well as the mountains. I'm beginning to think I can't have a post without either of these elements, since they're always so beautiful and so different than things back home.

Not sure what I'll have ready for the next post, but it'll continue to be something good as always! For now I'm keeping my eyes peeled for the 3 most difficult things to photograph around here: the little lizards, the hummingbirds and any sort of precipitation!