A'dam to PHX

I had the opportunity to visit my home town of Phoenix, Arizona, before attending a conference in San Diego. “Town” may be a bit of a misnomer, though, since over four million now live in the metropolitan area. After eight months in Amsterdam, where streets are narrow, the landscape is flat, and buildings and moisture obscure long views, I was startled by how different the vastness of Phoenix seemed compared to what I’ve become accustomed. Phoenix swelled outwards when oil and land were cheap, and most of the city is constructed based on this reality. To accommodate the distribution of homes and necessity for driving long distances, the cities, counties, and states funded massive highways with four wide lanes running in each direction and speed limits often 75 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour). Some of these highways are sunken beneath the streets that run parallel, and are framed by humungous gravel slopes. Others simply cut through the vast desert landscape.

Between time spent with friends and family, I reflected on the landscape that I grew up in, but that now looks somewhat alien. Compared to the perpetually green grass in the parks of Amsterdam and the water in canals and rivers, the desert landscape is desolately beautiful. Small mountains higher than anything around North or South Holland pepper the desert floor, which is littered with cacti, boulders, and desert shrubs. The properties around my mother’s in Casa Grande contain large barking dogs, cattle, and horses. The houses themselves are a mix of manufactured single- and double-wides and custom-made McMansions.

Something as simple as a short trip to the grocery store highlights differences between my current and past homes. Parking lots like that outside of Fry’s in Casa Grande do not exist in Amsterdam, since space is at a premium. I have not seen fast food drive-throughs in Amsterdam like those that dot the U.S. Although I have not thoroughly investigated the frozen food section of Albert Heijn, I have not seen products similar to honey crunch corndogs and sausages wrapped in a pancake on a stick.

This visit has been fantastic for many reasons, most of which concern seeing loved ones and old friends. But Amsterdam can’t compete with Phoenix in one dimension, which has been one of the highlights of the visit: the Arizona skies at dusk.