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Published: August 6th 2007
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Prairie dog.
Usually loads are out, but I think it was too hot for them. This one popped up to say 'hi' though. This may verge on the incoherent - because of all the 3:30am bedtimes I’ve had this weekend. The pictures are entertaining though, so I’m writing anyway.
Mark drove us to Tucson on Friday afternoon, to show us his old uni (he graduated last year) and introduce us to his friends. Tucson’s smaller than Phoenix and everything feels closer and more accessiblel. On Friday afternoon (in 100+ degree heat) we walked around the campus. It’s a lovely uni - massive, and so fixated on the sports arenas (their teams are all called the Wildcats - apparently outstanding at Basketball and sub-standard at American Football). We went into a café Mark’s friend works at (he seemed to know everybody we saw) and got some free ice water, then went back to the car.
We had no idea what to expect from where we were staying - but it was a really lovely house with a really hospitable host (I definitely know what’s meant by Southern hospitality now). He was one of Mark’s Middle Eastern Studies lecturers’ and the house had all kinds of artwork hailing from Cairo (Egypt’s his favourite place - he was encouraging us to go there) and other
Shisha
This dog loves attention Eastern destinations. He’s also very fond of the hookah, which will feature in some of my pictures. He has a lovely dog called Shisha (not sure about the spelling of that, have written it phonetically though). I still love Harry and Boo immensely, but this trip is definitely making me a dog-lover too!
On Friday night we went to a bar called Mavericks. It reminded me of Bob’s Country Bunker in the Blues Brothers. They also had both kinds of music - Country and Western. There was also a vaguely Coyote Ugly feel to it with random barmaid dancing on the bar intervals. The dance floor was really busy, and everyone seemed to be having fun (some of Mark’s friends were dancing to every song) but I couldn’t bring myself to just go up there (they all seemed to know moves!). I was, however, eventually coerced by one of them, and I can now officially two-step! I also had a strange drink where you drop a whole shot glass of Jaegermeister (sp?) into Red Bull. Not the tastiest drink, but apparently very popular over here. Post-bar we went to a party for international students at the uni. It was
just how I imagined American uni parties to be, even down to those red plastic cups for beer. I met some really nice people, everyone’s always keen to hear about where we’re headed (and recommend good restaurants, even though we’ll never afford the ones they’re telling us about. We probably couldn’t even afford the tip over here). We left when a police helicopter started circling the garden and shining it’s beam right at us standing outside. No idea what they thought was going on, but we thought best to just leave. We then had post-night out food at a 24 hour Mexican place which is frequented by uni people. It was nice, but nowhere near as good as chips and beans for that tired/tipsy feeling!
The next day we (me, Aaron, Mark and his friend Cynthia) went to the Desert Museum. I’m not sure why it’s called a museum - it’s more like a zoo, but we saw some amazing things. There is actual desert terrain within the Museum where they’ve set up a trail so you can see javelina (a member of the peccary family that originates in South America. I thought they were ace, but everyone around
Cardinal
Not sure if the picture conveys it well enough, but this bird is so beautiful and vividly coloured. here seems to hate them because they’re vicious. I only saw them walking around and grunting like Angus though). We saw loads of incredible animals, like Mountain Lions, Red Cardinal birds (Arizona’s bird) prairie dogs and some beavers. Which are much bigger and more teddy-bear like than I’d previously assumed. It was so hot when we were there we went through the load of water that we took and stopped at every drinking fountain along the way.
Last night we stayed in and had an all-American cook out (though we didn’t eat until 11pm, and I couldn’t eat most of that was cooked). It was fun though, and there was hookah and beer and we learnt to play backgammon. This morning (well, afternoon) we went out to get breakfast. It’s Mother’s Day here today (no idea why it’s so long after ours) so Happy 2nd Mother’s Day to mum, nana and gran!
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Aaron Lowry
Aaron Lowry
You may laugh, but...
However comical it looks, we actually found a T-Rex skull!!!