I love biking! It's quite warm, but the dry heat is awesome. I am definitely a dry heat person if it's going to be hot. Humidity is torturous. Strangely enough, I have a runny nose and sneeze often... I thought people moved TO Arizona to get rid of their allergies. It seems that I have moved to Arizona and GOT more allergies... so far I haven't been having too many pressure headaches, but it definitely hasn't been easy coughing and sneezing all the time.
We've done a lot of 'orienting' and getting to know one another. Sometimes it reminds me of the Real World, just a Tucson version. (Honestly, I've never actually seen the show, I have just heard about it.) Throw strangers into a house and then see how they interact with one another... ha ha. Our intentions are vastly contrast those of MTv though.
I feel like we’ve done so much and I could write for hours and hours… but I don’t have hours and hours to write. So, since they tell me a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll include a “picture of the day” for each day I’ve been in Arizona (and am hoping to continue this trend for the duration of my time here) and included a short story about it.
When we arrived on August 30 (Monday) we flew in and the sunset was gorgeous. It was pretty much the most awesome display of God's beauty and wonder that happens every day! I LOVE sunsets! (And sunrises for that matter.) The red sun was dropping low over the mountains (which I learned the names of the mountain ranges that surround Tucson: the Tucson mountains are to the west, Rincon to the east, Santa Catalina to the north and the Santa Rita are to the south. Mount Lemmon where I'll be running my Arizona Marathon is to the north in the Santa Catalina mountains, this will also be Nathan's first marathon).
Tuesday, August 31: Since we stayed at Brandon's community's house, we hadn't seen our house. We moved furniture and "moved in" officially to our house. If you'd like the address, let me know. I love mail! :) We set off to the bike shop at Ordinary Bikes and looked for bikes there. This is one of the old school bikes they can't sell (I did ask!), but looks cool right? I picked a hybrid bike since the road seemed so uneven, I wanted to be more comfortable than I would normally be on a road bike bumping over bumps 8 miles to work every day. I also wanted to roll around the mountains surrounding Tucson as often as possible and a commuter bike wouldn't allow for that since it only has three gears. The bike I chose was also a tad bit based on color... since I love blue. I'll put a picture up later when I get it! I'm excited! We should be getting them in about 2 hours!
Fast forward to Wednesday (September 1). So, I am thinking I'm good to go. Not only could I handle this dry heat, I thought cacti were quite unique and sweet looking I love riding my bike. Yes, I can admit that I was a little prideful. Maybe God was teaching me a lesson, haha. We all went to various banks to deposit our first stipend. I was excited because, unlike Virginia (the closest WaMu when I got there was in New Jersey or Philly and that didn't change when they got bought), Arizona has Chase banks. There was one across the street from the Arizona State Bank, a smaller, more local bank. I deposited my stipend and took out some money for food. Then I rolled over to the local bank where 4 others were opening accounts (Stevie, Meredith, Luke and Jacob - Ali has Bank of America/BofA so she went there). I was talking on the phone and trying to hold that, lift my bike over the rack and walk around it all at the same time and BAM! I stumbled into a sharp cactus. I recoiled instantly and looked down. I had puncture wounds in three places on my leg and deep, red blood began to trickle down my leg all the way to my ankle.
Thursday, September 2: We did a lot of flushing out what community means to each of us yesterday. We had a small break and then went to Farmer's Market! I was so excited, it was smaller than I expected since I'm used to the huge Farmer's in California that are also year round, but I was delighted nonetheless. I'm really looking forward to getting to know more farmers and local growers this year. I want to help out at Farmer's as often as I can and work on farms... as well as provide nutrition education to children and adults. I can't wait to start work on Wednesday.
Today: Friday, September 3 -What a BEAUTIFUL sunrise. I got up around 5:30AM and went running (I ran Thursday morning as well). I want to make it to the Tucson Mountains and back... which is about 5-6 miles out. Today I made it about 3.5-4 miles out and back. I turned around and looked out to the east, where the sun was peeking over the Rincon mountain range. It was a breath taking sight. The picture definitely does not do it justice. My phone camera is nice to have, but doesn't have enough megapixels to capture the essence of what was really there. We had some more talks about community and our family covenant and need to do some more refinement, but I really appreciated that everyone really listened to what each other had to say. Sometimes referred to as "insta-friends" (... just add sun and water!), one might not always expect those they are forced to live with to be respectful of each other, but I think we have been doing a great job attempting to really listen to each other and respect one another. We are on a short break now, so I am going to try to squeeze in some P90x before we go to get our bikes!More to come in days to follow... Thanks for the prayers, I still need them and will continue to need them throughout the year and life! God is good, I am praying for the next few days and for all of the people we will come in contact with.
- run for life
P.S. totally forgot to include my picture I drew of the scene I witnessed while running for the first time in Tucson:
I suppose I should include a little description. Basically I was running down N 4th Avenue toward a park and saw a police car driving across the grass... I wasn't sure what was going on until I saw a man running across the street and two cops chasing him. The man clambered loudly over a fence and one of the cops pursued. The second stayed on our side of the fence. This was all over 20 yards away mind you and I continued running down the street toward the house. A few other runners turned their heads to witness the escapade and it appeared to be a generally otherwise safe area because I saw a few women walking by themselves with ear buds in and everything. Later I mentioned this to Brandon and he said there was a lot of petty crime, but nothing really dangerous. Still, I thought it was an interesting sight for my first run in Tucson...
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