Ok, so now I've had a bit of sleep, a summary of my trip to Arizona.
Flew over on Monday, met up with my friend Andrea and went out for dinner. In fact, having had breakfast, eaten twice on the plane and then going out for steak and then onto In-n-Out to see some of her friends, I spent most of Monday eating. Score. Films on the plane were good- Colateral, the Bourne Supremacy (seen both, but still good) and Alfie (which I quite liked)
Tuesday I went to see the wonderful Amanda and visited Sedona (pretty, arty town with beautiful red mountains/cliffs around it) and Jerome (old mining town) with her, then hung out with a couple of friends in the evening.
Wed we saw the Grand Canyon. Eventually. It was really misty when we got there and we couldn't see anything beyond the cliff we were standing on. Had lunch, walked back to the car and noticed it had cleared up- walked round the corner from the car park and it was absolutely stunning. That's about all I can say- it was just amazing. If you ever get the chance to go, take it. In fact, even if you're not presented with a chance, still consider going.
Made a curry for a bunch of people in the evening. Not very good by my standards, but everyone seemed to like it.
Thurs we went to a Psychology class. Was actually really easy and interesting too. Went shopping and bought myself some Dickies for about $30- way cheaper than I've ever seen them for in England. Felt smug for a bit.
Then everything went a bit tits-up. Turned out that this guy that Amanda has been messing around with recently was her "boyfriend". So I've spent the whole week being touchy-feely because I thought she was single and then I discover that she's actually serious about him. She rightly wasn't pleased that I'd been putting pressure on her all week and I felt gutted that I didn't know and had done that too her. I was pretty tired from jet-lag and running around like mad for a couple of days and this hit me pretty hard. I ended up telling her how I feel, even though I didn't want to start anything and she took that as more pressure, and it just ended up as one of those situations where anything you say just makes things worse.
The irony is that we went out to dinner in the evening and one of her friends said he knew her guy's room-mate and it transpired her guy believed in polygamy and various other things. So about 8 hours after I'd told her how I felt she split up with the guy anyway. Not that that opened any doors for me- it just meant that she thinks we're both toads. Kinda pissed on the whole trip really- it was still a great trip, but that all overshadowed it a bit.
Went back to Phoenix on Friday with Andrea (as planned- I wasn't banished from Amanda's place!), visited Fort Verde and Montezuma Castle on the way, and then watched a film called Chump Change projected on the side of something that looked like a loading bay in the evening. Was nice to sit outside in a hoodie at 10pm in February
Went to a friend's mum's 50th birthday and ran off a rendition of Wonderwall, trying to combine the Oasis and Ryan Adams versions. Think I did quite a good job. It helped that my audience were drunk and I wasn't.
Saturday we checked out some caves near Tucson and then headed down to Nogales on the border of Mexico. I couldn't believe the difference in the quality of life between the American and Mexican sides of the border- the American side is fairly normal Southern Arizona and the Mexican side is a complete shanty town- amazing. Stopped for dinner and a couple of drinks then drove back- not the kind of place you hang around for long, especially after dark.
Spent the rest of my time doing a few bits and pieces, generally killing time before I flew home on Monday night. Travelled for something like 24 hours and arrived back in Sweden to masses of powdery snow. First time I've seen powder, so it was quite cool but a bit of a shock to the system after having sat next to a cactus in 25 degree heat about a day before.
Need to get back to work. I have no motivation, esp as I want to be back in AZ. Even checked my options on transfering to NAU or ASU this morning. Discovered I can do all 3 of my languages in Phoenix, which actually satisfied me and calmed me down a bit.
Bought myself a little headset so I can ring people internationally for virtually nothing with Skype. Feeling smug again, but not entirely happy.
I really hope I can redeem myself with Amanda soon- I'm completely gutted by what happened between us. It's the worst feeling being stuck here and not being able to do much about it.
Flew over on Monday, met up with my friend Andrea and went out for dinner. In fact, having had breakfast, eaten twice on the plane and then going out for steak and then onto In-n-Out to see some of her friends, I spent most of Monday eating. Score. Films on the plane were good- Colateral, the Bourne Supremacy (seen both, but still good) and Alfie (which I quite liked)
Tuesday I went to see the wonderful Amanda and visited Sedona (pretty, arty town with beautiful red mountains/cliffs around it) and Jerome (old mining town) with her, then hung out with a couple of friends in the evening.
Wed we saw the Grand Canyon. Eventually. It was really misty when we got there and we couldn't see anything beyond the cliff we were standing on. Had lunch, walked back to the car and noticed it had cleared up- walked round the corner from the car park and it was absolutely stunning. That's about all I can say- it was just amazing. If you ever get the chance to go, take it. In fact, even if you're not presented with a chance, still consider going.
Made a curry for a bunch of people in the evening. Not very good by my standards, but everyone seemed to like it.
Thurs we went to a Psychology class. Was actually really easy and interesting too. Went shopping and bought myself some Dickies for about $30- way cheaper than I've ever seen them for in England. Felt smug for a bit.
Then everything went a bit tits-up. Turned out that this guy that Amanda has been messing around with recently was her "boyfriend". So I've spent the whole week being touchy-feely because I thought she was single and then I discover that she's actually serious about him. She rightly wasn't pleased that I'd been putting pressure on her all week and I felt gutted that I didn't know and had done that too her. I was pretty tired from jet-lag and running around like mad for a couple of days and this hit me pretty hard. I ended up telling her how I feel, even though I didn't want to start anything and she took that as more pressure, and it just ended up as one of those situations where anything you say just makes things worse.
The irony is that we went out to dinner in the evening and one of her friends said he knew her guy's room-mate and it transpired her guy believed in polygamy and various other things. So about 8 hours after I'd told her how I felt she split up with the guy anyway. Not that that opened any doors for me- it just meant that she thinks we're both toads. Kinda pissed on the whole trip really- it was still a great trip, but that all overshadowed it a bit.
Went back to Phoenix on Friday with Andrea (as planned- I wasn't banished from Amanda's place!), visited Fort Verde and Montezuma Castle on the way, and then watched a film called Chump Change projected on the side of something that looked like a loading bay in the evening. Was nice to sit outside in a hoodie at 10pm in February
Went to a friend's mum's 50th birthday and ran off a rendition of Wonderwall, trying to combine the Oasis and Ryan Adams versions. Think I did quite a good job. It helped that my audience were drunk and I wasn't.
Saturday we checked out some caves near Tucson and then headed down to Nogales on the border of Mexico. I couldn't believe the difference in the quality of life between the American and Mexican sides of the border- the American side is fairly normal Southern Arizona and the Mexican side is a complete shanty town- amazing. Stopped for dinner and a couple of drinks then drove back- not the kind of place you hang around for long, especially after dark.
Spent the rest of my time doing a few bits and pieces, generally killing time before I flew home on Monday night. Travelled for something like 24 hours and arrived back in Sweden to masses of powdery snow. First time I've seen powder, so it was quite cool but a bit of a shock to the system after having sat next to a cactus in 25 degree heat about a day before.
Need to get back to work. I have no motivation, esp as I want to be back in AZ. Even checked my options on transfering to NAU or ASU this morning. Discovered I can do all 3 of my languages in Phoenix, which actually satisfied me and calmed me down a bit.
Bought myself a little headset so I can ring people internationally for virtually nothing with Skype. Feeling smug again, but not entirely happy.
I really hope I can redeem myself with Amanda soon- I'm completely gutted by what happened between us. It's the worst feeling being stuck here and not being able to do much about it.
VIEW 4 of 4 COMMENTS
At least you enjoyed AZ!!
Seriously I hope things with this girl can at least clear up enough so you don't feel so bad about it. It sucks she didn't tell you right away she was taken, and then it sucks that she didn't see that her boyfriend was a jerk.
by the way, I'm still alive, so no Meningitis.