Last Day in Salt Lake

Well, I survived Monday night with Keith, the crazy one...literally. I did sleep with one eye open though. It really wasn't that bad, the next morning he was pretty normal and said the VA was going to put him up for a month. I wished him all the best, and he was on his way. This was one of my first reinforcements on the lesson of not judging someone else.

I woke up yesterday feeling good, the beds really aren't that bad. I got up and went for a run, the hills here are a killer. I ended my run at the grocery store a few blocks up the hill. I did some shopping and walked back and fixed some breakfast. I wanted to golf and then go to the baseball game, but I couldn't pull all of that off in the same day. I went golfing at 3:00 (twilight rate) at Mountain Dell Canyon Course, they have a Lake Course too. This place is incredible, very well maintained. These people must actually fix ball marks on greens, they were exceptional. Since I was a single, I got paired up with Cho. Cho has been in Utah for 6 years and he came from Korea. Very nice guy, and a very good golfer. He tells me he is going back to Korea to be on the Korean golf tour. He's good, he might be able to. It was a very enjoyable round. What's that? How did I shoot? Well, it started off pretty good, I shot a 44 on the front and I was really pleased with that. The back...I can't remember what I shot :) Hey Littie, that 44 SHOULDA been a 41, I lipped 3 puts.

By the time I got back from golfing, it was too late to catch the baseball game. I just came back to the hostel and made me some dinner and played on the internet. Again, a very diverse crowd in the living room. I figured I had better at least meet some of these people while I'm here, so I introduced myself. The first one I met was Tatyana from Bulgaria. Nice girl, she speaks pretty good English. I asked her what she was doing here and she told me she was here to work for 4 months and then she had to go back to Bulgaria. I didn't want to pry to much, she was chatting in some other language with her friends. I can only imagine what they were saying about me. Needless to say, my imagination is running wild. Why in the world would these girls come here to work for 4 months and then go back? I figured maybe they were going to be prostitutes or put in some strip club for awhile...very cute girls. Anyway, that was the extent of my conversation.

Late in the evening, I was relaxing enjoying the weather out on the patio when another Eastern European comes out for a smoke. Here's where my second reinforcement of not judging comes in. I introduce myself and so does she. Her name is Tonya from ??? Russia, somewhere south of Moscow. She speaks very good English, better than many Americans. Come to find out, all these girls and a few guys are here on some type of work/study program. They are all from Russia, Bulgaria, and Romania. They're here to work at the airport at the different restaurants and shops. She said they all had a choice between Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania or Salt Lake and they chose here because this is where they held the Winter Olympics. I told her they made the right choice. She starts today at Quizno's and has no idea what type of place Quizno's is.

In Russia, she is studying to be a linguistics teacher, specializing in English. She said they start teaching English at 7 years old, knowing English in Russia is very common. That explains how all of these people can speak the language. This is just more reinforcement as to how far behind the US is compared to many other countries in regards to education. Heck, she stumped me for a minute. She asked what is plural for fox, fox or foxes? I had to think about it. It is just fox...right? This is all their first time in the US. I hate that this is the first thing they see here, they are probably telling people back home how strange us Americans are. I would too if this is what I knew about the US.

Before crashing, I check my email at the row of computers. Sitting next to me is this black guy, probably early 20's. He's going "what, what, oh man, what!" He turns to me and says, "Hey, you know anything about WWE?". Of course I said, "Sure, a little". He was on the WWE website and they had Vince McMahons limo blowing up right after he supposedly got in. I told him it was all show and to check a reputable news source...it was. Anyway, I asked him where he was from and he says "St. Louis". No kidding, this guy is from STL. He came out here with baby mama, and now he's got baby mama drama and he's been staying in the hostel since Feb. It is a small world.

Got my run in today and haven't done much else. I uploaded all of my pics to Snapfish.com and put links on my blog. Now you all can see my pics from the trip. My header pic was one I took last night from up on top this hill. When I got back and put it on the computer, I thought I had something on my screen. Upon further review, I noticed that it's the moon. I thought this turned out to be a pretty cool pic.

Well, I better go do something fun. Think I'm gonna go drive and actually see the Great Salt Lake, going to the game tonight. Hope everyone's doing well.

Cheers,
Dough