The Adventures of Jimbob

I have under a week left here now. Where'd the other four go??

Internet café today. The homepage is World of Warcraft, which says a lot about the kinds of people they expect to have in here...

I have also acquired a fan club who are conspiring to intercept my return to England. One's gonna burn my passport, one's going to call homeland security and tell them I'm a terrorist and one's going to camp out in front of the plane if all else fails. I've also recieved some marriage proposals. I lurrrve this country.....

Have done so much amazing stuff since last post, I couldn't even try to remember it all. Oh, and camping's better without a tent.

Jo's truck bit me. It's all ow 'n' stuff.

Last night I made major progress on the 'I suck at talking to people' front and it has boosted my confidence sooo much just to know I've changed.

I have tan lines. Which means I have a tan. Wooooooop! We went to the lake today and there was a huuuge sandstorm and lots of disgruntled French people. I'm not gonna put up any more photos until I get back to England because it makes my camera do a weird when I don't save them first.

Tomorrow I'm teaching American-types how to make scones. I feel special :]

May or may not do another post before my return.
See y'all soon!

I'm sat in a coffee shop called Beans. I liiiike. And I've found a type of coffee I like! Boo-ya. Why a coffee shop? Because there are some internet issues at Jo's house and she wanted to post a few thousand photos of us on MySpace. Everyone in this country is on MySpace. All you Englanders should get it so I don't look like quite such a larry with my 6 friends.

Went to the Whitehouse yesterday at sunset. My new favourite place (: Soooooo beautiful!

Got some postcards today, then realised I don't know anyones address except Claire's. So I'll probably just bring them back with me as souvenirs or something.....

There are drive-thru mailboxes here. I love this country.

Got back from Phoenix last night about 10:30, and had just given up on doing anything last night when Bri came in at 1am and asked if I was going out. Hahahaha no. It's remarkable how tired you can get from sitting still all day in a car.....

We met Jolene's beard (she calls him her boyfriend) and he's cool. He gave her some pepper spray. How romantic.

Got annoyed with my hair so I attacked it with a pair of incredibly small scissors. Took a while! It's not that different, but I put some new layers in it and it's all fluffy and whatnot now. Me gusta mucho Oh, and Jo has blue hair now. Bluuuueee!

All the kids here go back to school tomorrow so some sort of routine shall be restored, so we are more likely to be up at a reasonable hour and can do stuff during the day! Going kyaking tomorrow (weather permitting) on the lake, which should be good for my as yet failing tan.

Meeting people at night has its drawbacks. I don't have a clue what anyone looks like, so I don't know who I'm meant to remember. And I'm still proving utterly pants at remembering names. Thankfully no one seems to care!

We're off to Phoenix for the weekend! Wooooop. My phone works there! Hahaha!

I'm having a very good hair day. Just thought I'd let y'all know.

Must get some more photos (Yes, from outside the truck). Might get some of the locals. Wow I sound like such a tourist.

You can get canned bread over here. And canned cake. You just un-can it and shove it in the oven, and instant food. Jo doesn't get how weird that is. Tastes good, though :]

People don't have cars here, they have trucks. Mainly Ford, as that's the only thing they sell here. Beginning to notice a pattern in the automobiles; the smaller the person, the bigger the truck. It's as though they actually like to look very small. Kinda funny. :]

Is that how you type a German accent?? If it's not just use your imagination....

Apparently dogs like mouldy fruit. Or at least they like spreading it out everywhere for us humans to tidy up.

Had deep-fried squash for dinner. Never again. We all agree.

Almost went to the Grand Canyon today, but there was a storm goin' on and we didn't really feel like falling in the thing so we're going when the weather clears up a bit. Nasty windy night. Incredibly strong, just as loud. Felt a bit like the house was going to fly off. I'm grumpy with my brain now for not wanting to sleep ALL NIGHT and then finally deciding to be tired when my alarm went off. Grrrr.......

Read somewhere today that someone stayed awake for 446 hours because they were in a rocking-chair-athon. Just why?

This place is so beautiful at night. A load of people went up to the golf course a few days ago just to 'hang out' as they call it, or chillax, depending who you ask. But I thought only really old people said that? Anywho. I was introduced to a game a bit like bowls but all the balls were all bright colours and flashy so we could see them in the dark. Follows the really old theme a little... The view from up there was lurrrvely. Didn't even bother trying to gat a picture because it would not have done it justice at all. We could see the lake with all the house boats on with loads of little tiny flashy lights, and the sky was all clear and starry.... Could honestly have stayed up there forever!

Went to a different part of the lake today with a marina. We jumped off the back of a boat. Then went down a slide off the back of the boat. And I may finally be getting a tan! It's about time!  Bri has a sunburned nose. She looked a little on the Rudolph side earlier, but it's fading now.

Saw a film called August Rush a few days ago and it's rather wonderful! It's about music, and it's very happy indeed.

Haven't yet managed to wipe the smell of beer from the house, but it's being masked by pizza now. There's a reeeally good pizza place on the next street from here. Jolene had to go to Flagstaff to visit a beard so we've had more pizza than you can shake a stick at. I love this town..........

Had another party last night, and I've finally been accepted! I managed to talk to people! PLURAL! And now I feel incredibly saaaaaaad for thinking of that as an achievement. It was fun. Apparently my accent is more interesting to drunk people because they kept asking me to say stuff. I went to bed at about 4am and everyone else either didn't sleep at all and are still drunk or have nasty hangovers. Sobriety wins again people!

They taught me how to play beer-pong. Then everyone started cheering 'cause I won the first game I ever played. Wooop! (I still don't know quite how I managed to win... Something about a death cup...)

The whole house now smells like beer and a substance known only as 'Captain'. And there are coins everywhere. And I think someone stole one of my socks. Or maybe it was one of the dogs?

We're off to visit the dude who told me the story about Germany when Bri sobers up a bit. He's grounded for a few years for getting so incredibly drunk.

Baaa.

Oh, and does anyone know where Holland is?

We did manage to get to the lake today! The part we went to was just over the Arizona/Utah border, so the time zone changed. There is a different time zone a mile from here. That's weeeeeird. The weather wasn't nice enough to hold off the storms all day. It was all lurrrvely and warm and sunny, and then suddenly lightning appeared over the cliffs. I think they're cliffs anyway... They're a bit too rocky to be hills but not big enough to be mountains. The lake is sooo warm! And it's a resevoir kinda thing so it's not all salty and yuck.

Bri & co. turned the golf course here into a water slide. Everyone smells very nice now cos they covered the thing in soap to slippery-ify it.

We've almost managed to go a whole day on only one thunderstorm! (not counting the one at stupid o'clock this morning). Went to see Harry Potter again with Jolene last night, then we proved ourselves as the world's worst storm-chasers as we tried to get a good video of lightning at about 1am. Failed miserably, but it was fun

Getting better at talking now. Still have yet to find anything in common with anyone vaguely my age... Oh well. Still got a month to find something!

Okay, the curse of the English is getting a little out of hand now. It's been all rainey-stormy every day. But it's not all that bad because not only does everyone here love the rain (!) but the thunderstorms are wonderful! Back in the land of Eng w get a bang, then maybe a flash and that's it, but here they go on for hours and the lightening is completely beautiful and flashey 'n all that.

Jolene says she's never letting me go home because I like cleaning so much. Everyone else just thinks it's weird. I don't mind. I really like it here!!

I attended a party a few days ago! I also found out that 'partying' is teenager language for drinking copious amounts of alcohol. Anywho, I met all Brianna's friends and discovered they're all far cooler than me. One of said frends told me a nice story about Germany which lasted two hours because he kept stopping to apologise for his level of intoxication (so drunk that he forgot what France was). Also, I got asked by several people what language we speak in England. They all wondered why I laughed at them.

If you ask peeps what they do in this town, everyone just says 'Hang out'. It's difficult to find anything to talk about with a bunch of people who just 'hang out'. Have yet to find anyone with any real interests. Jolene's friends are way easier to talk to because they are capable of forming a scentence without saying 'like' every other word, and also Brianna's gang know a lot of people and feel the need to include EVERYONE in every scentence.

People here go nocturnal in the summer. It's just too hot to do anything during the day. This does lead to a lot of late night "partying".

Going to the lake tomorrow if the rain holds off for long enough. Hope so!

There's a lotta country music here. Jo just took refuge in the bathroom to try and escape the weird country-type yodelling (?) that's drifting through the house. I kinda like it, but I've been assured I'll get bored of it soon enough.

Note to the parents: At the previously mentioned wild parties I was the sober one. This resulted in getting my face stroked. And you were right; people like it when I talk. Though only a few people have asked me to say stuff...

Note to the JJ: Since when do you say trendy?? Haha! And I'm not sure how hot it is... Weather forcast is all in farenheight. But it says about 95-100°F.

The Amy has landed!
Flight was a bit pants. Spent eleven hours cornered in by a large ginger child who snored the whole way here. But on the up side I watched the Hannah Montana film and enjoyed it so much I'm actually a bit worried. After that I was in customs for about a year, and after looking at my forms every officer in the place said something along the lines of "What the hell're you goin' there for?" (with the slightly cowboy-ish accent, of course). When I asked what they meant most just said "You'll see when you get there", but one said something about dinosaur footprints and trailer parks. Not as bad as they made it out to be, though!

It's 11 pm here. In England it's 7am tomorrow. No jet-lag yet though! Yesterday I went to sleep at 7am. Had to stay awake until midnight local time 'cause I wanted to be up for 24 hours, and I succeeded! In your face, brain.

There are crickets here at night. Really loud ones. Oh, and cacti. Lots of cacti. But thery're here during the day, too.

Met lots of new people (and dogs) since I arrived, and have as yet been incapable of making conversation with anyone except Jolene and Brianna (auntie and cousin, for those who don't know). Claire would be so jealous. They have a husky. He's a lurrrvely woofer. And a mutt, too. Both "accidentally inherited" so Jo says.
I realised why peeps over here drive everywhere; it's waaay too hot to be outside for long enough to walk anywhere! It's really weird leaving a nice, cool building or car or something and suddenly being hit by hot air. It really does hit hard when you're not expecting it.

Oh, and the curse of the English struck - a few hours after my arrival it rained. In a desert.