Being from Canada does not mean that I love the cold, or that I am immune to it, but I think I have built up a tolerance for it and I know how to deal with it. The heat however... I am not used to the heat. It was pretty much summer temperatures in April. Boiling all the time. The first night, when I laid down in bed, I couldn't move because as soon as I did I would heat up. So the next morning Alix and I decided to go to the airconditioned mall while Elisabeth was doing student teaching stuff.
Once she finished, she met us at the mall and we went to Sonic's for dinner. Once we had some delicious food in us, we tried to find the YSA Family Home Evening but the first building we went to was empty. We used our GPS to find another address and I am actually glad the first one didn't work because the one we ended up at was really fun. There was a boy there that kind of reminded me of Bumper from Pitch Perfect, and we played candy cab. It was like the show cash cab but you got candy for the answers you got right.
Afterwards we drove about an hour to get to Elisabeth's old roommates apartment. It was a really cute apartment with a walk in closet attached to the bathroom. That night we watched Amazing race and slept on air mattresses (Elisabeth fell asleep on the couch though so I got the big air mattress to myself!) Then we headed back to Mesa to go on the internet in the institute building.
We may have been feeling a teensy bit facebook deprived. The institute building is right across from Mesa Community College, so we went over to the campus and walked in the rose gardens. I was just about convinced to transfer there. They have palm trees and cactuses on the campus, cute boys everywhere, and it is never cold there. It is just so far away from Canada.
That night we went to Tau's families house. It was probably my favorite night. His family was so kind and hilarious. Everyone told me that polynesian families are incredible and I found out how true that is. We had dinner at his house and then went to QT to get slushies before driving around Mesa and talking. We stayed at his Grandparents house because they are serving a mission right now, and his aunt is watching their house. One of his other aunts brought fruit pizza cookies for us because she heard Tau had friends over.
We attempted to watch a movie but within five minutes everyone else was asleep. (I may have been asleep too but I woke up and watched more of the movie. Tau's sister came over at one point and her and I talked for a while before I went to bed.
In the morning Tau was feeding us breakfast and I asked if they had any rasin bread while Elisabeth asked if they had cinnamon bread, or monkey bread. He looked at us and asked who would have any of that before turning around and finding all three of our requests.
Before we left Arizona we had to take pictures with palm trees and cactuses so we went in one of the neighbours yards and snuck some pictures.
Once we left Mesa we headed on to California with a few adventures along that path. We traveled on a path that took us right by the Mexican Border and it seems a lot scarier than the Canadian border. There was a giant black fence running across the entire thing. At one point we had to stop at a patrol point on the highway and the guard there seemed like he was just waving us on so Alix kept driving but then he yelled at us to stop. He asked for Alix's license and then told us to go park beside the car that was being searched by a dog.
When we parked they asked what country we were citizens of and while Alix and Elisabeth said America, from the backseat I chirped Canada!
He asked to see my Visa and Passport and luckily I packed them but unluckily Elisabeth thought we had somehow ended up at the Border and that we were crossing into Mexico. She doesn't have a passport so she panicked and yelled "OH NO!" she will deny how panicked she was but she was. Trust me though.
I had to get out and dig through my bag to find it and I may have pulled out all of my clothes in front of the guard but I found it and explained the situation to him. When he found out we only had one day to spend on the Californian beach he said that sucked and sent us on our way.
(Dirt devils kept flying across the road and knocking the car around, when I first saw it from a distance I thought it was smoke from a wildfire)
We made it to the beach about an hour before the sun set and had the second longest night ever. But that must wait for part three, "Beaches and Sardines".
