To broaden my understanding of the US beyond the northeast, I'm doing a summer internship in Phoenix, Arizona. The city (if you can call it that) has a sort of dual personality. In some ways, it wants to be the cheaper California, with huge malls, health shops and Hummers galore. But the liberalism of California won't make it here.
Phoenix's problem on the 4th of July: trigger-happy celebrants shooting in the air.
Later to come: Drowning lawns for West Nile virus.