False- definitely false. Although I'm pretty sure John marked true for all three true/false questions, including the buttless Levi question, don't believe what anyone tells you. People around here wear normal Levis just like everyone else.

So welcome to our blog! Besides our many "new teacher" orientation/training sessions that doubtlessly will enable us to become fabulous teachers, we have been out and about exploring the lovely Arizona/New Mexico area. We visited gorgeous Canyon De Chelly (pronounced "shay"... i know, very not-phonetic) on Saturday and if not for some light rain (can't go a day without some form of rain out here), some yellow water, and for the knowledge of G-string wearing ancients, it was all-in-all a lovely day. A nice mile and a half trek down the side of the canyon brought us right to the ruins, which unfortunately we could only see from afar. The mile and a half up got us nice and sweaty and ready for the car ride home and as you can see, it tired out the boys quite nicely. I was just glad that Mitch wasn't driving so that I wouldn't be carsick from all of his sudden brake-slams.



We have also been able to explore more locally and have visited ruins rather closer to home. A 45 minute walk down a dirt road and some muddy, rocky valleys brings us to a single and fragile looking rope that we are supposed to climb. Once you make it up the 10 foot cliff side, hoping the rope doesn't give and plunge you onto the rocks below, there is a nice little cliff overhang that seems to have been inhabited at one point or another. Pretty neat. After we begin to head back, it has a tendency to start raining which also means that we won't see John for awhile, as he has taken off running. He claims he isn't afraid of rain, only lightning, but when he has a crazy imagination that comes up with names like "Mr. Hand" when really the man's name was "Mr. Per" (Pear?), who knows what is really going on in his mind.

So we are mostly enjoying our time out here, attending our first ever Navajo mass in which much of the singing is in Navajo. Trying to follow along by reading the apostrophied letters that are projected behind the altar was a struggle, but I have faith we'll be pros by the end of the year. Well... maybe I'll be... listening to John and Mitch trying to say in Navajo that the horses were grazing randomly in a circle makes me cringe a bit, but maybe they'll get it one day.

So thanks for reading! I suppose I'll end with a question as well. What kind of person do you think of when they've been named "The Joker"?

More to come soon!! Miss everyone at home.