G-20 End of Day Update

Things got exciting for a brief time this afternoon.  After my last update, one of the break-off groups of anarchist protesters headed to campus and I encountered them as I was trying to walk back to my office.  

A co-worker and I was walking through campus looking at some of the various art projects on display for the G-20, and noticed that the helicopters that had previously been following the protests in Lawrenceville were come closer and closer.  That's when we saw this crew:

After hearing all of the news about the problems they were creating in Lawrenceville, I was a little nervous that something would happen, but they were actually quite peaceful and just yelled things like "Come join us!"  Needless to say, I did not.

Protest group crossing the street to campus

Since we were campus monitors, we decided to follow the group across the street to see where they were going. We were stopped, however, after another - unrelated protest group - headed our way.

 

 I named them the "Fairy Protesters"

Oddly enough though, you can't really see the fairies in these pictures

Around this time, the helicopters really started hovering directly over campus, particularly over the lot where I park my vehicle.  Later on, I realized that they were actually following vehicles traveling to Phipp's for the state dinner.

Speaking of Phipp's and the dinner, we walked to the edge of campus nearest Schenley Park where they had erected the giant perimeter fence.  

The picture does not begin to do justice to describe how expansive this fence was

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there were quite a few art projects up around campus.  During my morning rounds, I had the opportunity to meet quite a few of the art professors who were supporting these student based projects, and it was fascinating to know that all of these "installations" were for academic classes.  Here are a few of those projects:

The shanty town

"Heads" of State

A giant "help wanted" sign

(you can see the N and T from wanted most clearly here)

A giant LED squid 
(I can't remember what this was supposed to mean or represent)

And finally, I'll end with a few photos of Phipp's Conservatory shortly before the State Dinner was scheduled to begin. 

Dignitaries arriving

 

Military police

Country flags of the G-20 representatives

All in all, the day ended up being far more interesting than I had anticipated.  There were a few moments there were I thought that things were going to get ugly, and I know that there was quite a bit of property damage in the Bloomfield/Shadyside/North Oakland area, but for some reason, by the time they got to us, it was completely peaceful.  I am thinking that tomorrow is going to be quieter, but only time will tell.  I have to go in at 7 a.m. tomorrow, which will be an interesting experiment in waking up early.  Until then....