Lost in Tucson

Hello again! Saturday my aunt and I flew into Tucson, Arizona! It is super nice to have a break from the cold and unpredictable Michigan winter (supposedly spring... I think not). Michigan State was in the Final Four, and my aunt being the MSU fan that she is desired to watch the game. My take on the situation: ARIZONA! Who cares about sports? And so, the decision was made that I would be dropped off on the University of Arizona campus for the couple of hours while my aunt watched the game. I was excited to have a few hours to aimlessly wander and explore!

What an adventure those few hours turned out to be! I started out walking around the student union and then out into the surrounding area of Tucson. We had just driven through an area with many cool attractions, so I was attempting to get back to where we had been driving. Apparently I'm not as good with directions as I thought, because I missed a street somewhere and ended up walking approximately 14 blocks out of my way in the hot Arizona sun.

I eventually arrived back on the University of Arizona campus hot, miserable, and completely exhausted. I decided I needed a plan. I went to the information booth, where "friendly brochure guy" as he became known gave me a campus map (his name is extremely sarcastic - he acted like I was the biggest pain in the world for asking him to hand me a map from the pile directly next to him). I was hot, so what combats heat? Ice cream or a smoothie! I plugged "Tucson ice cream shops" into Google Maps and found a gelato place that seemed not too far away, so off I went!

Places look a lot closer on Google Maps than they are in real life. Several miles later as I was walking through a very sketchy part of town, I decided that gelato wasn't worth risking my life and I should turn around. The crowds of college students were long gone, and the only people surrounding me were men smoking and drinking, and a Spanish song blared from a nearby store. I could only understand one word that the song kept repeating; it translates to "penis" (either that or it was a super interesting song about a comb...). This was not a good area, and though I had my pepper spray, I still felt very alone and unsafe. I walked past a Dairy Queen and settled for an Oreo Blizzard, then quickly walked back to campus.

You'd think that a person would smile back if I smiled at them. You'd think that if I was within two feet behind a person, he would make sure the door didn't slam in my face. You'd think that if I was on a footbridge and there were three people walking shoulder to shoulder coming towards me and taking up the entire width of the bridge, someone would move over to make room for me. But no... No to all of the above. I was genuinely trying to smile and look friendly; maybe I had a sour look on my face from being hot, but I don't think so! Everyone was being so unfriendly. One guy even stopped and said to me, "Yeah, just be excited!" and walked away laughing with his friend. Really??

I finally arrived back on campus, exhausted and ready for the MSU game to be over already. Then I saw it. Right next to campus was a Jamba Juice, my favorite smoothie place in the universe with a grand total of zero locations in Michigan. And I walked all that way through a sketchy area for a Dairy Queen.... Life sometimes.

Well, that was my Tucson adventure! I do love the architecture here and how the culture is truly a mix of Mexican and American. Diversity is cool!