Devastation

First of all, thank you all for the wonderful comments in the original garden post. I appreciate them.

Second, remember how mentioned I would keep you updated on said garden? Well, this may be the last post in that thread.

So, I mentioned that it was raining and we were having thunderstorms, right? Well, I awoke this morning to a co-worker who also has a plot near us: 'The rain gods are fickle.' I know he's trying to plant his plot, so I thought there was too much water still and he was sad.

I was so wrong.

When I walked down to the garden plot, I noticed an unusually large number of cars coming through the complex. Then, as I got close to the plot, I saw this:

You're looking at a soccer field. And that's water. A lot of water. More water than there should be. Like, say, a flood.

And this is where our garden plot is/was/should be:
There is a river that runs a couple hundred feet to the south of our plot, and apparently it crested overnight (I heard someone say it crested 5 feet, which sounds really bad):
Now the river is like 10 times as wide as it was before. And flowing really fast.

And if it looks deep, it is. See these basketball hoops, they're 10 feet tall. Keep in mind that the original height of the river was at least 5 feet BELOW our garden plot.
There's also a golf course across the street, which is along the river. Guess what happened to that:
I think that hole now has a water hazard.

It's supposed to thunderstorm pretty much non-stop until next Wednesday, so I think the water might continue to rise. We're fairly high up, so I think we'll be ok, but I think the units down near the filed are in trouble.

I don't know what happened to the fence and plantings at our plot, but I'm going to go ahead and assume they're all gone, based on how fast the water was flowing.

Here's the schematic of our plot now:

I'm not sure what it will look like once the water falls, so I'm not sure if I'll replant. right now, I'm a little shocked.

Goodbye dear garden, we barely knew ye.

[More pictures of the devastation on Flickr]

¡Hola de Mexico!

Hi all! We arrived in Mexico last night after a long flight (with transfers) and then a 3 hr bus trip (unfortunately we arrived during rush hour). We got settled in and slept like the dead.

I'm here in Queretaro, Mexico with a classmate J and professor C. We're working at the Tech, one of the 15 universities in this city. J and I will be teaching a conversational English class for the Mexican Tech students, and also hosting a language exchange between them and the American exchange students.

Eleven years ago, I did my own study abroad in ths town, but at a different uni. A lot has changed. The city is even bigger (1.2 million now) and there's more traffic. But the centro is stll historic and the churches are amazing.

I'll ce keeping you all updated and hopefully will have pictures of exciting travels and local scenes. Mom is going to be joining me after school lets out and then Peter's coming after that. I'm sure that means that lots of adventures are in store!

I have regular access to emails, so send them along like normal. Thus far the weather is fine, warm but not hot and a slight amount of humidity. Apparently, there was a heat wave before we got here. Sounds like I'm bringing the cool weather with me wherever I go. It sounds like we might be headed to San Miguel de Allende this weekend for a little trip.

More news to follow....