Pretty much since we landed in the U.S., we have been working in Arizona teaching 8-week contracts at the university. One of my Indonesian students used the word "hurly-burly" to describe her first week in the U.S. I had forgotten about that word, but I find it quite handy to describe our last 4 months of living/teaching here. Moving our life from Argentina, finding a place to live, buying a car, and at the same timeworking in a very demanding program has left us with our tongues hanging out. And now that the Phoenix summer is creeping up on us (for those of you who don't know, temperatures have already reached 106F which is 40+C), we are heading out with my VW Jetta packed with our worldly belongings: staplers, binders, books, clothes, hole-punch, markers, and our creative ideas . . . . 
We don't want it to seem like we don't love the desert . . . we do! Our Arab students (of which we had many on government-sponsored scholarships) do too as it reminds them of home. In fact, we have been living in a guesthouse in a very exclusive part of town. Our front porch looks out upon unbelievable desert flora and fauna. By the way, the pictures were taken by my $15 Leica camera (selling for $600 on Ebay) that I got at a secondhand store . . . secondhand shopping being one of my favortie U.S. hobbies :)
Although we will miss our little prairie dog friends, ground squirrels, bunnies, quail, and cacti, it's time to move on. They said, "Californy is the place you oughtta be . . ." so we loaded up the car and move to . . . San Diego. More news soon . . .
