Still in Phoenix

After looking at the map, I realized that it's really not that far from mom's house in South Phoenix to Mom's old house in the Ahwatukee foothills. There's a bit of a barrier in the way called the South Mountain Range, part of the largest urban park in the US. So I decided to race public transportation. Which would be a faster way to? To take public transportation around the mountains, or, (dramatic pause) to walk over it.

The street route runs about 12 miles. The mountain crossing route is about 6.5 miles.
I took three busses to the trailhead on the far side of the mountains. It took a little over two hours and cost me $4. The busses were uncrowded and air conditioned.

Crossing the mountain had 4 distinct parts. The first part was crossing the expanse of relatively flat rising lands in the foothills. The second part was an ascent which relentlessly switch-backed up the mountain. Amazing views back south though. You feel like you're a fly on the walls of the valley, the mountains just shoot up from the desert floor. The mountains are actually two distinct ridges with a small valley between them. The third part is the valley- a shallow descent and then a traverse along a sandy arroyo (riverbed) at the bottom of the valley, and then back up to the second ridge. There is a road there, the end of the road which begins at the bottom of the mountain on central ave, and from there, the fourth part, a fast 40 minute descent into the valley of the sun. I was out of the mountains in a little over two hours, but it took me an additional twenty minutes to walk back to mom's house from where the trail dumps you in the Heard Pueblo Scout camp. All told, taking the bus saved me 30 minutes of travel time. It was a lovely time to climb though with the sun going down and casting everything in beautiful orange and then pink light.

Mom was hungry when we got back, so I changed my filthy shirt and dusty shoes and we drove straight to Oregano's for deep dish pizza. Good stuff. I also got my new Warby-Parker glasses and they got the prescription right. They look good.

Today I finally got to Skype with Saori again and show her my glasses and some of my other purchases. She loved the combination of my sweater and the glasses. She said I looked like I'd walked out of a Norwegian forest. She liked the coat, but she said that it looked very much like Taylor's style and I had to admit that Tay was my chief fashion consultant this trip.

She also recommended that I wait to find work before coming over to Germany. The cramped room, the expense of Europe, the aggravation of her flatmates. So I'm here in the US for at least a month. I will not miss Christmas with her but that is a few months off.

For now, I guess, wait, learn German, and apply apply apply like it means a ticket out of Phoenix.

Today I also fixed the bathroom door so that it wouldn't swing open anymore. It was a simple trick of removing the top hinge pin, putting a slight bend in it, and tapping it back into place. Surprisingly, it worked.

Also found out that DWL isn't hiring for short term, so I'm a little disappointed. More time to work on my book I guess.