Land Ho!

So I'm in Utah.




Finally.




Anyway, today is the first day in a long time this has felt like an adventure. Flying over Utah today I couldn't help but get excited. The American West is an exhilarating place. What with the mountains, and flying over the Grand Canyon and all, I just wanted to jump out of the plane right then and there, I didn't care where I landed. That's the first time I've ever felt so excited to get off a plane. Between the huge mountains and the beautiful lakes and the hot sun and the two crazy European men sitting on either side of me, I was totally freaking out to get here.

Now that I'm here, I'm not quite sure what to think. Utah feels very different from home. The city kind of peters out in weird ways. One second you're in the middle of downtown, and the next you're in this kind of vacant looking wasteland with myriad buildings and broken down looking train tracks, and the next second you're in a pleasant suburb. The funny thing is that it doesn't feel like encroaching poverty, it really just sort of feels unfinished. Like someone forgot to keep going with the city.

Another odd thing is that there are construction sites EVERYWHERE downtown. I thought the recession was supposed to be affecting the southwest more so than anywhere else, but it seems that Utah is in the midst of building skyscrapers and fancy looking buildings downtown. The construction is active, too. There are men in hard hats working, and those enormous multi-story cranes moving around in ninety something degree heat.

I'm not sure what to think of the downtown area. It really feels unfinished somehow, unlived. Not like Pittsburgh, which feels past its prime and dead somehow.

I loved the temple, though. I went on a tour with two very cute little missionaries, a girl from Mexico and a girl from Taiwan. Sisters Rodriguez and Lee. They were earnest, sweet, dedicated to what they were saying, and a little overly enthusiastic about my project, which is funny, because I wouldn't say my project is striving for evangelism, or even striving to be particularly pro-Mormon.

I'm trying not to really worry about my project for these first few days, though. I'm really just cruising around in my rental car, taking tons of pictures and trying to find places to live, and to learn my way around. I think I'm going to try to abandon the car tomorrow, though. I want to learn the EXTENSIVE public transportation really well.

The hostel I'm staying in is very cute indeed, but I think the walls are paper thin, so I'm going to have to keep the old headphones on at all times. I'm not sure how best to utilize it. I think I'm going to have to be a good deal more friendly than I have been recently. Isn't it funny to hear me say that? I am like the friendlyness QUEEN.

I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. I think I really need some time to internalize it all. And make lists. I need to make some really bitchin' lists.

-Rachael