Here are two pictures of the Chiricahuas I took over spring break with Miguel...
At first, I was a bit hesitant to go, thinking "hmmm, am I crazy to go camping for two days with nearly complete strangers?" I mean camping for two days with anyone is difficult when you're used to -- and one might even say prefer -- sleeping in hotel rooms, but then I thought about how much fun I had with Anna the other night and figured she must have cool friends... so I committed. Along for the ride with Anna and me are Keri (one of Anna's best friends), Keri's ex-boyfriend (now friend) Mike, his allegedly talkative Asian friend Dave (who apparently is an expert rice cooker), Anna's current romantic flame Alex, and a lady named Linda, who I met tonight and seems pretty cool.
Believe it or not, I do have a tent, sleeping bag, tarps, camping chairs, and lantern that I hauled out here from DC specifically for this kind of weekend -- and now I will finally put it all to use! I also have a large inflatable air mattress that I intend to use in my tent so I went to Target tonight to buy a battery-operated pump to blow it up in the wilderness tomorrow (on second thought, that last sentence sounds a bit tawdry, does it not?). So if it rains -- which it might -- I will be riding high and dry on my little pocket of sweet air.
My plan is to sleep like this for the next two nights...
(BTW, holy crap, this is not a dead baby, as I feared it was. It's not a real baby either. It's actually from a doll website with the scariest, most realistic looking doll parts I've ever seen. Check the freaky site out here.)
We're planning to hike around the rock spires, and some of the campers are bringing their bikes, but I am a fairly wimpy mountain biker (ie: if it's not paved, I'm not riding on it) so I think I'll hang at camp, drink beer, and play solitaire or read a book. I have also purchased the full array of s'mores ingredients so I will have plenty to snack on. From what I understand, Linda is a bit of an East Coast city dweller -- she currently works for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra -- and has only been camping once before so I will have a partner in creature comfort crime.
I especially love camping in Europe -- ie: this is in the Netherlands -- because the Europeans truly understand the meaning of camping in comfort... table, chairs, umbrella, awning, and probably a mini-fridge for the beer inside.
Not much else going on -- had an Arabic test this morning, then hung out with Lindsey at the pool for a few hours, took a nap, and ended my day by hitting an outdoor Happy Hour tonight at "No Anchovies! Pizza" with Anna & Ingrid and a few others.
And I must remind myself next week to talk about my very bizarre and rather interesting week interacting with the new Iraqi Fulbright scholar in my graduate department who just got here from Baghdad last Sunday... the poor little muppet. The term "culture shock" is putting it mildly. For example, the guy tried to go to the Campus Rec Center Pool with me on Wednesday and planned to swim in nothing but his underwear because "this is how I swim in the Euphrates"!!
It appears to be true... Iraqis do indeed swim in the river.
May I recommend that you go back and read this interesting swimming pool entry from a year ago --- a definite sense of deja vu!
More on the Iraqi saga later... and camping stories...
Let's hope I don't get caught in any flash floods!
No comments:
Post a Comment