I got out of class today and found some sort of commotion in the courtyard outside my dorm. There were people milling about on strange white couches that just didn’t look like they should be outside and there were workers setting up a tent. I went in to grab my camera and came back to find a truck full of snow getting dumped out assembly-line style. By that time a lot of props—tables and a mini-cooper—with the Red Bull logo had also arrived.

I snapped a few shots and went back in. About half an hour later Judith and I had to close our window because their US imported music was too loud for us to concentrate. If it had been good music maybe we could have endured it, but it was the kind of thing with lyrics that would have been too explicit for public broadcast had this been in an English speaking country.

When I stepped out to get some groceries later, they had “transformed” the courtyard so that all attention was directed to a very very small slope of snow off of which people snow boarded. But trust me, it didn’t look like it would even have been fun to sled down that mound and I think everything looks fun to sled down.

They had cleaned everything up within an hour our two. Now we have a little wall of snow in front of our dorm. It looks very odd when everywhere else in the city surfaces are snow-free. It’s almost like that little bit of April snow in the corners of parking lots.

Some pictures from this event are in my December photo album.