This is downtown Denver and the 16th street mall. The 16th Street mall is a walking mall which is over a mile long. There are free buses running up and down the mall because of the fear that making Americans walk the distance of the mall would be considered creul and unusual by the supreme court.
There is shopping, restaurants, movie theaters and even a bowling alley all on 16th street. Down one end of the mall you can see the Colorado capitol, and yes that is real gold on the dome.
Life continues...
Its Friday tomorrow, which is good, especially because i have a three day weekend for new years. I've pretty much cancelled my mexican trip (though i wouldn't rule it out at this late stage, should i feel like it after work tomorrow). Its just that the more time i spend in denver the more i feel like i have left to see, and i'm really enjoying just exploring this little (or not so little) nook of america. It will be time to hit the highway before long, but i don't think that time is now.
I took Cindy out to dinner last night to a restaurant called the 'Texas Roadhouse'. She would argue that infact she took me out, since she drove and picked the resturant, but we know better. It was a real roadhouse in the sense that it was just off the c470 freeway, about a half hours drive from here. Despite being pretty much in the middle of just about the biggest, most dull looking expanse of american suburbia i have ever seen, the restaurant was overflowing with patrons. I don't think i've ever been to a restaurant so busy in my life! The parking lot was full, and the line to get seated stretched well out the door. We had to wait for half an hour outside before they called us. They served steak, steak, and steak. I chose the 'small' (10oz) prime rib. Had I had a Texan apetite on me I would have had one of the larger options (12oz and 16oz), but as it happens i barely conquered half of my little 10oz steak. Had a great time there however, its become my favorite restaurant! Great atmosphere, spectacular conversation, roasting on an open fire...
At 4.45am this morning, after a night of nutting off in a very loud fashion, and then an hour of playing "lets hide from the cops and make them smash the door down" my neighbor was arrested for the third time this month.
I had a bad day at work yesterday, and a slightly better day today. I'm really not liking it, the work is so far different from where i want to be going. But i do have a good feeling that more opportunities will present themselves in the new year. I love america, i guess i'm just waiting for america to love me.
Next time, there will be photos! Goodnight, and thanks for reading!
Well well well, Christmas is over. I had a good time. It was supposed to be a quiet day, for months I had prepared to not have anything to do on christmas day and i wasn't really going to celebrate it. But just like thanksgiving, america turned it on for me again!
It was hard not being with the family for christmas, but i had a great time speaking to many of the family on the phone on what was christmas eve here, when they were all enjoying their christmas dinners. When it was christmas day here, i had a pretty quiet morning, got up, opened my presents, put some coffee on and played some festive music. It was a hot day here so I went for a walk down this nice track that runs along the south platte river, just a little ways from my apartment. It was sad not to have a white christmas, but felt a lot more like home having warm weather on christmas.
In the afternoon, Cindy's family was kind enough to have me around for christmas dinner. Cindy works at my work and asked me if I was doing anything christmas day, and if not would i like to come for dinner. I almost said no, the thought of intruding on someone's family christmas was unappealing, but i was so touched the offer and so happy to have something to do on chritmas so i went! And man was i glad i did! I had barely got through the door when i was being offered beer, wine and strawberry daqiris. Her mom cooked a really nice meal and afterwords I played a game of texas hold'em poker with her dad, brother, and her dad's friend who's a real life cowboy! I lost $5, but i had such a good time it didn't matter. Poker was the real winner on the day. I kept laughing to myself in amazement when i looked around at the movie scene i was in - playing poker with these characters wearing cowboy hats, cigar smoke rising from the table, with a big pile of cash in the middle.
I gave up on poker after that and watched 5 episodes of CSI in a row (thanks to somebody getting a DVD box set for christmas), still having that christmas feeling inside.
Was back at work today, still don't much like my job, but I'm home now, the music is on, and i'm so happy i'm dancing around my apartment between paragraphs. I know it will all work out, seems everything nearly always does.
Goodmorning and Merry Christmas!
I hope everybody has a fantastic day doing whatever it is they are doing. Most likely eating a lot and drinking a lot, correct?
I was going to take a photo at night of all the christmas lights around where i live, but i never got around to it and now its daylight and Christmas day in New Zealand and I left it too late! So i went out in search of a christmassy photo on my way to the laundromat today, but nothing looked particularly stunning, so we're stuck with this picture. Its kind of Christmassy!
Anyway, i hope you all have a great day and enjoy yourselves.
Last night I went out with some people from work and had just a fantastic time, got to know a few more people and really enjoyed it. First we went to Red and Jerrys which is a huge sports bar/restaurant in Littleton. Here bars don't like it much when you pay for drinks as you go up at the bar, they prefer to set up a tab and wait on you and then shock you with the bill at the end of the night. But we drank and we drank and we drank some more, i tried 3 new beers, and the total for the 4 of us was like $38, most reasonable! Then it was everybody back to my place, where we hung around for a little while before some friends of someone there called to invite us over to their apartment. So we all went over there and kept drinking (except for me who knows when to stop!). I was out until nearly 5am, the last 2 hours of that time I spent riding around in a car dropping people off in various parts of the city.
Then I was woken at around 9am by another disturbance next door. The guys friend was standing right outside my window calling the cops on him because evidently he was throwing knives around his room. After the ruccus was over, his mother came over to apologize for all the noise that eminates from there, and explained that her son has bi-polar disorder. This explains an awful lot. The cops showed up and kind of sneaked up the drive way, crouching behind cars etc. I watched the entire performance from behind my blinds, as a nosy neighbor should. They called on him to come outside and when he did three cops had their guns drawn and pointed right at him saying "Don't dare move!" as a fourth cop went up and handcuffed him. They didn't drag him off to jail this time, just talked to him for a while and said if it happened again he'd be spending christmas in jail.
Here are some pictures of my apartment:
And lastly, in the words of the bloody-red barron, Merry Christmas, my friend!
Harro
Last night Jorge and I went up to Boulder. We were going to go to some of the bars near the CU campus. Its supposed to be really cool, but as luck would have it university is on holiday right now and it was completely dead.
It was snowing and with all the snow on the ground, i must have subconciously been craving ice cream becasue when i walked past a dairy queen, there was a poster in the window advertizing a 'blizard'. A blizard is vanilla ice cream with little m&m's mixed all the way through it. At McDonalds they call it a McFlurry. Anyway, i just had to have one! Then, we got in the car and started heading back to Denver.
As we drove down the I25, it started to seem awfully dark outside, and we discovered that Jorge's headlights had carked it. Shortly afterwords a larger, but much less tasty blizard engulfed us. Visibility was very low, not helped by the lack of headlights, and snow kept accumulating on the windsheild. Choosing life, we decided to take the next exit, which landed us right in the parking lot of a movie theater. A movie theater with 24 screens! So we went to see King Kong. Its really good. It is really long though, so if you haven't been yet, prepare yourself for 3 hours plus trailers.
By the time the movie finished, the conditions outside were considerably better and I made it home to write about it. Have had very lazy day today, although did go out in search of a mall but was unsuccessful. I will have to study the bus routes in more detail and try again next weekend. Am going to Mexico for New Years weekend! Whipty doo! If I don't make it to Mexico, i'm at least going as far as New Mexico. Still investigating it.
I'm actually thinking about going via 'four-corners' where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet at the same place just so i can add to my 'state talley' and beat Sarah :P. I think i'd need to do more than that though since i've already been to two of the four states this trip and i've been to at least three of them in my lifetime. But she cheated! She went up to the north-east, where states are smaller than here!
Sorry about the lack of photos. Now that i've stopped feeling like a tourist i sometimes forget to take my camera with me. I'll try harder.
Well the gas is back on! Finally I again have hot water and am able to cook proper meals. Normally a welcome sin, being forced to eat at mcdonalds for lack of a working stove is no fun after eating out everyday for a month. There has been an army of gas company workers and a bulldozer in the driveway much of the week. They have finally cleared off and left a warm legacy of gas-fuelled heating in their wake. Bernard the landlord is not looking forward to the bill.
King Kong is out in cinemas. I haven't seen it yet but look forward to seeing it in the coming week when i rope someone in to seeing it with me. I always thought the impact of the Lord of the Rings on New Zealand's image was overstated, but I was wrong. Nine times out of ten the first thing people here say to you when they find out you're from New Zealand is about the movies. One cashier said "wow! all my favorite movies are filmed there!" Its actually good that they can talk about the movies because if they say anything else about New Zealand they usually sound stupid - like my all time favorite: "I've heard the seasons are the oposite down there... is that true? Why do they do that?"
The other night i went to the coolest bar in the world. It is called the church and is a huge complex combining a wine bar, sushi bar, coctail bar, 3 dance floors and a restaurant all in the gutted remains of a grand old cathedral. Kind of an abomination of what the building was originally for, but it sure is a cool place!
Work is easy. I look forward to finding something more challenging. And yet there is something quite comical about waking up here each morning, getting up and going to work. It feels much the same as it used to, only now when I wake up in the morning I find myself on the otherside of the world, with a whole new territory to prowl. The past five weeks that got me here really seem like a blur.
I still have a lot to learn about American customs and language. I still catch myself saying things like "eh" and "no worries" and no one knows what on earth i'm on about.
Last night i met a neighbor of mine. I found out he comes from Santa Barbara, California the town where my Mum and Dad lived when they first moved to America nearly 30 years ago.
As I finished work last night and headed towards another weekend of exploring, I felt on top of the world. This move has not been easy, but it has been a fantastic experience and I would not say its been difficult. I have plenty of work to do and more to see, but I am happy with how things are going.
The phone installer showed up this morning more than two weeks after I ordered a phone line, and 4 days after i cancelled the phone line. I told him since he's here now he might as well install the darn phoneline so i'm going to cancel my high speed cable internet scheduled for later in the week. I can't have everything! My phone number is +1 303 798 5372.
Ok because of the way this website keeps annoying me, i've had to do this in two seperate posts. If you want to keep things in chronological order, you should start at the next post down and then read this one.
I started my new job on Monday and have had a good week learning all about satellite television technology. I already knew a fair bit because of my one-time hobby of satellite television, but i have learned a lot more because i didn't have time to get fully into that hobby before i left for America.
This building used to be a shopping mall. Now it is totally taken up by my work.
Its about 3 minutes walk from my front door to the front door of Echostar, so it kind of lords over the neighborhood. I really like my new neighborhood. It is subburban, but close to all amenities and to work so i don't need a car yet. And its interesting. I was really sad to leave the community of East Colfax. Not. I just realized i haven't been asked for spare change, offered drugs or woken to the sound of gunshots since i left that neighborhood!
Sadly I was woken to the sound of my new neighbor bashing his wife at about 3.45am on Friday morning. I called the cops and watched from my window as they led him away in handcuffs. I haven't seen any sign of him since. That is a rarity though, my complex is really nice, my apartment is beautiful and my landlord is really nice. I really like it there! My landlord and his son want to see pictures of New Zealand, but i didn't bring anything like that with me. Maybe someone can email me some? Please? :)
From the light rail this morning. The snow is melting, not much of it left now. And i have the whole weekend ahead of me to explore the city and hang out with my new found friends! Yes i finally made some friends! Only a couple of friends, but i'm getting there :).
Goodmorning!
Sorry I have taken so long to update this. I was waiting until thursday when i was supposed to have a phoneline installed, but the technician sucked, as technicians do, so now i can't have it installed until next saturday. So i'm in another cafe having a bagel for breakfast and totally outstaying my welcome while i do my blog posts and emails :).
We begin last friday after my last blog post:
I had a rental car, some time to kill and some gas to burn so i thought i'd see some sights. I put 400 miles on the car in 2 days!
This is the Denver Tech Center, a seperate business hub about 20 minutes south-east of downtown Denver which sprung up in the nineties with the tech boom. It amazed me because i had heard about it, but stumbled accross it by accident and when i found it, i had thought for a minute i was back in downtown Denver - its huge!
Its hard to really show it in one photo, but there are really nice looking modernn office buildings surrounded by park like grounds and luxury apartment homes as well as restaurants and bars.
Then after getting word that my application had been accepted for my apartment (surprisingly the background check on my social seccurity number which had never been used turned up no dirt) i headed fot littleton.
This is downtown littleton. Its pretty quaint. If you need antiques, souviners or orniments, you are in luck. If you are in desperate need of a can opener or something practical, you're outta luck! Luckily i have since found a strip mall a few blocks in the other direction which has a supermarket and laundromat etc.
I had an evening assembling my new furniature...
And in the morning, woke up to this!
Well i decided to go with the job in the call center, the other job would have been nice because it didnt involve talking on the phone all day, but it seemed to have a big sales component, and i'm just not good at selling. Also it was getting too late, they didnt call me until like 2pm. Also the call center is for echostar which is a satellite tv company, so there might be opportunities to move up within a media company, which interests me.
I found an apartment in littleton and i'm moving in tonight. Its about one block from echostar and one block to the light rail station, from whence it is only a 25 minute train ride into downtown denver. Its a real nice place! I held on to the rental car one more day so i could go to target and buy some things. I bought so many things!
Well i'm currently hungry so i'm going to go and get some food. If I don't post for a few days its cause i'm trying to sort out an internet connection at my new place. Keep in touch - cjbeggs@hotmail.com, i'd love to hear from you. Also now that i have my own place any visitors would be welcome!! The couch is always free....
Well i decided to go with the job in the call center, the other job would have been nice because it didnt involve talking on the phone all day, but it seemed to have a big sales component, and i'm just not good at selling. Also it was getting too late, they didnt call me until like 2pm. Also the call center is for echostar which is a satellite tv company, so there might be opportunities to move up within a media company, which interests me.
I found an apartment in littleton and i'm moving in tonight. Its about one block from echostar and one block to the light rail station, from whence it is only a 25 minute train ride into downtown denver. Its a real nice place! I held on to the rental car one more day so i could go to target and buy some things. I bought so many things!
Well i'm currently hungry so i'm going to go and get some food. If I don't post for a few days its cause i'm trying to sort out an internet connection at my new place. Keep in touch - cjbeggs@hotmail.com, i'd love to hear from you. Also now that i have my own place any visitors would be welcome!! The couch is always free....
The interview for the call center job went really well, and in anticipation of getting the job I rented a car today with the intention of going down to south denver to see about a place to live near my new job.
Then the rental car company asked if i wanted a job. I said maybe and gave my details. Minutes later i was driving down the freeway when my cellphone rang. it was the HR lady from the rental car company. She wanted me to apply for a manager trainee position, and i was like OK! So i did. Then she said she'd call me tomorrow and set up an interview for monday.
Then my phone rang again. It was the call center job with the final offer. I accepted (i need a job, people!) and it starts on monday. Crap. Now i have my first day at one job and an interview for a possible better job on the same day. I can't do both.
I think i'm gonna explain the situation to the rental car company and try to setup an interview for tomorrow and hopefully find out before monday so i can ditch the call center before starting.
I can't believe i was worried about getting a job like 3 days ago!
Well having the rented car today has been fun, i've been lots of places, but mostly just soaking up the endless fun of driving on american highways. I've decided that America exists on the highway, if that makes sense.
Well I saw my first presidential motorcade today! This is what it looks like when the president decides to have a $1000 per head fundraising lunch at a hotel....
He's not a popular man here at the moment (or anywhere i think). That didn't stop one lone Bush supporter from provoking a heated and violent debate with these people who had gathered to boo the president. The guy was kind of funny, someone asked him why, if he liked the policies so much, was he not in the military. He replied "Because i have a wife and two kids and they would end up with a dead father". It actually got quite scary for a while, all i wanted was a pic of the motorcade!
They had been setting up for it all morning, blocking several streets off. These three guys are secret service agents. On some of the taller buildings around you could see snipers poking their heads over the edge every couple of minutes, and airforce helicopters flew overhead.
Then, after much waiting, the traffic dissappeared and the whaling of sirens began to come down the street. The crowd's booing got louder and louder...
This may have been the car the presidennt was in! There were three identiical limosines, alll with blacked out windows. Only one of them drove into the tent outside the hotel, then the curtains were closed and i assume Bush went in for a feast.
Following the limosines were a whole myriad of vehicles, buses, armored trucks, ambulances.
In other news, I scored a job interview today so i have that to do tomorrow morning. Its not a job i originally wanted that much, but i gotta earn a buck somehow so that i can keep seeing these wonderful sights. If they tell me i have the job in time i might go down to texas for a few days til i start. I also have applied for a couple of other jobs and am feeling really positive about where things are standing. Kind of feels like i'm slowly integrating into society, rather than just watching things happen around me.
Doh! I left my camera at home so i can't upload any new photos for this post. Actually i don't have many, was too busy freezing my behind off to take many today.
I did have one photo of a lone protester on a corner near the capitol. "Hillary Kills Folks" his plackard said, and i found out that he was refering to future president Hills Bills Clinton who was in Denver today. I'm not sure who he was talking about, or if he knew how many folks President Bush has killed lately.
Actually president Bush will be in denver tomorrow, word has it he's going to be at the Capitol, just down the street from my place. If I had a nicer place, i would invite him over for a coffee! I might still invite him over to watch the game and share a pretzel... hehe.
Well i spent today trying to apply for jobs. One was in littleton and after getting all the way there i realized i had forgotten my resume. Smart. I didn't really want the job anyway, it was a callcenter for a cable tv company and i thought maybe it would do til i found the dream tv news job that i moved to america for. Then when i started filling out the application form i decided i didn't want it. Then i remembered that they give you free cable. I might go back tomorrow to finish my application.
Then i went to apply for a job in Parker, Colorado which is way out in east Denver. I didn't know where it was when i got on the bus, but i also didnt realize that i had left it to late to get a bus back to the city! So i had to get a $50 taxi ride all the way back downtown, which took like an hour to wait for and then an hour in the car. But i did meet a cool taxi driver who had immigrated from Ethiopia. He was full of advise about where i can look for jobs. He thinks i should get on a bus first thing tomorrow to go out to DIA (i was like DIA?? i used to work there! - but here it stands for Denver International Airport) and apply for jobs at all the rental car companies. Thats what he did when he first moved here. He says they are always hiring and they dont pay too bad. Maybe i will do that, cause i really need a job, even if its not the job i really want, so i can establish myself and buy a car etc. Going to Parker and taking the taxi home really reminded me how much i need a car. This city is so hard without a car, even though the public transport in most subburbs isnt too bad, being in the taxi let me see how big this place is, and how you really only get to experience it with a car. Job, then car, then better place to live is the order of business.
Parker seems nice.. Kind of ugly infill housing developments as far as the eye could see, and after trying to walk to somewhere i could get back to denver from, i finally gave up when i found myslelf walking through the Canterbury Crossing Controlled Golfcourse Neighborhood. Sounds really nice if you're retiring or trying to bring up kids, but not when you want a taxi to drive past within the next few minutes.
It is only 20F here tonight, which is below freezing. Last night there was snow in parts of the city and high winds in eastern colorado. I saw on the news that after more than a dozen accidents including a 20-25 car pileup, they closed an interstate between metro denver all the way to the kansas border. When i got home last night there was a couple of banged up police cars down the end of the street, the remains of a car chase which had ended there. I really must get out of that neighborhood, but its quite fun really!
Well i'm gonna go now. Lots to do tomorrow! If i get time i will try and get some photos with, or of George, but something tells me he will be well hidden.
Hello! I am very pleased to report that i have found an even better place to steal wireless internet from, and it is a brewpub. This means that i can now sample the local brew while writing emails and updating the blog!
Ok. Yesterday I rode the light rail all the way south to Littleton. I have no excuses. I was looking for Columbine High School, scene of the infamous 1999 school shooting. While this is wrong on many levels, it is not the first time this vampire tourist has gone in search of blood. I also visited Aramoana a few years back, just to see the sight of that massacre. I can't explain why, its just interesting! Unfortunately, i was not able to get to Columbine High as i had no car and no map. I had a vague idea where it was, but after it took me nearly ten minutes to walk out of the car park at the train station, i decided it wasn't worth the walk. Instead i sampled the delights of Littleton, which really is very quaint. If nothing else, i valued an hour or two of not being asked for spare change, which makes a change from the my new neighborhood, which i hope to be leaving shortly. I went to probably the biggest stripmall known to man, had a mexican lunch and left, slightly dissappointed: not even any evidence of the once-previlent Trenchcoat Mafia.
Today I visited the illustrious Boulder, Colorado. Its really part of Denver, the urbaninity thins out on your way north but only for a short time before reaching Boulder. Its only about an hour north-westish of downtown Denver and has small town charm with big city hipness, possibly courtesy of the campus of Colorado University. I walked up the pedestrian mall that makes up much of what downtown Boulder has to offer, then walked towards the mountains, which is where i came accross this little critter.
Walking up a track just north of the town center, i found out why Boulder is called Boulder. This picture only shows part of the 'Boulder' the city is named after, and i'm going to take this opportunity to be honest and call it more of a mountain than a 'boulder'.
As if my fear of the Rocky Mountain rattle snake wasn't enough, after seeing this sign, i quickly descended back into the relative normalicy of downtown Boulder.
Then i came across this dude, who had attracted quite a crowd in the middle of the walking mall. He juggled those flaming jugglinig sticks while unicycling on a 6ft unicycle. I was impressed!
Storm clouds are a gathering around Denver. While it still feels comfortably warm, word on the street is that we may have snow in the city by tomorrow. Its already snowing in the mountains and you can feel the electricity in the air. If it does snow, or rain, it will be the first precipitation i've had since landing in America two weeks ago! Not bad!
Still no job, but it is thanksgiving weekend. I've given myself the weekend to continue to spend money unchecked an enjoy the holiday lifestyle. I'm out all the time. The more time i spend away from my new place, the less roaches i have to kill before sleeping, the better!
Not too much to add today, its the day after thanksgiving and things are still pretty quiet, but today is the day all the shops have their huge holiday sales and sell things at crazy prices.. Shame i don't have a job yet!
The following post i wrote last night but have only got to a starbucks today to upload it. I'm stealing free wireless internet from the Marriot across the road! Normally it costs me 10c a minute.
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Today was thanksgiving, and i had a rather lonely day. Sarah left for New York City this morning and i have been all alone... i moved into my room, which is in the Capital Hill neighborhood on the edge of downtown Denver. The building is in a weird area, the main street is called Colfax and strikes me as a 'dangerous' street, but all the side streets are full of nice historic apartment homes. This is with the exception of my building which is a bit of a crapheap. But i'm still quite pleased with it as its just rent by the week with no lease so i can leave once i get a job (assuming i get one) and know where exactly in this sprawl i want to live.
So anyway, back to lonliness, i was trying to kill time by getting out there and experiencing my new neighborhood, so i was out walking and i went around the block a few times. This woman who happened to be a rather butch lesbian woman (i'm just speculating, mind you) asked if i'd eaten and i just said yes and kept walking. This was not unusual as random people on the street talk to you here, some of them are a little odd, some of them a lot. Most of them are just after spare change. Anyhooo, on about my 3rd time past (i'm not sure i really knew i was walking around in circles) this woman said "How many more times am i gonna see ya'll walk past without coming in and getting some food?". She then proceeded to grab me by the arm and walk me in to the bar she was standing outside. I said, "i might come back, i don't have my wallet", then she said "thats not neccessary, the food is free today!" And with that my Thanksgiving took shape as i enjoyed a turkey dinner on the house and the company of strangers as i ate it. I even went back to my room to get my wallet and went back to have a beer with them. In one of the scariest streets i've ever been on, i found a great bar with fantastic hospitality and people who were ready to bring the spirit of thanksgiving to myself, and to people from all walks of life walking down that street tonight.
Well we came to Denver a few days ago. The bus ride was long! We came through Wyoming and it was snowing there. Great scenery though... so wide and empty. We we got to Denver we checked into our motel - a cheap dive with a housekeeping service that only seems to come once every two or three days.
This is the view from the motel parking lot.
This is me, in front of downtown Denver.
This is me infront of the Colorado state capital.
Me again. Exactly one mile above sea level!
Not me.
Well now i have to kind of face the music and get a job. Its not going to be easy! I've been looking for two days now and nothing has lannded in my lap. I'm also in need of a place to live before Sarah goes to New York tomorrow. Hmmm i'm not sure how i'm going to do that in time!
Today, marking the end of my first week in the United States, I spent my day doing very American activities.
Sarah and I went to Walmart and shopped til we dropped. I like Walmart, I am only slightly ashamed to say that I have visited 3 times since i've been in Salt Lake. This Walmart had heaps of cool stuff to look at, but we ended up in the supermarket section buying all this food that we didn't need. The goldfish crackers which we have loved since we were kids, Sarah got some of her favorite soup which you can only get here... It was really just a supermarket, but the shelves were full of so many possibilities! We decided on our cereal (its rare that Sarah and I agree on anything, so this must be good) - it was Reece's peanut butter and chocolate cereal! Just what you want to wake up to!
It is clear why America as a nation seems to strugle with its body weight. The food is so cheap and the portions so large. We have seen bottles of coke bigger than i ever imagined. Two 2 Liter Dr Pepper for $1.00. On top of this, the food tastes so good! Its liike every snack, every meal has been perfected, every time. Also, we have become aware of a 'super-ingredient' which seems to lurk in American food. I only need to eat once a day and it fills me up for the whole day. Sometimes we can have half a meal each and still both be completely full.
I have learnt one lesson in my first week in America. When at a McDonalds or similar restaurant, always, always, always have a 'small' combo. Small combo's here are the equivilent of larges in New Zealand. I accidently ordered a medium the other day and the size was just ridiculous.
Anyway, i have deviated. After Walmart, we went to a sports bar/pool hall with a guy from our hostel who had a membership (you have to be a member of a bar in Salt Lake if it serves anything harder than beer - membership costs about $4) . I had outregeous good fortune on the pool table, almost completely clearing the table in a couple of turns in my first game. Sarah sat there, jaw hanging there in amazement, "do you actually play this?" I don't, but i enjoyed winning. Then I sunk the white ball right behind the black ball and lost.
After that we went to the basketball. When we walked into the stadium, hawkers were selling tickets at huge prices on the street outside. It was so much fun i can hardly tell you what happened in the game - the off-court entertainment was just so good! We ate pretzels and nachos and enjoyed the mascot making a fool of himself. The mascot kept firing cannons into the crowd with prizes and just all kinds of things, people were singing and dancing in the aisles! I did get really into the game towards the end, when Utah was behind but looked like it was going to do a spectacular comeback. Unfortunately it was more like a craptacular comeback and Memphis won it. When we left the stadium there were people pouring out everywhere, preachers preaching loudly and holding bibles, homeless people asking for money and Salt Lake City seemed to really come alive.
Leaving for Denver early tomorrow. We'll talk later!
Good day from Salt Lake City!
This is the Grand America Hotel. I'm staying in the penthouse suite.
Just kidding. We're in a hostel down the street.
This is the Delta Center, an indoor multi-sports stadium in downtown SLC. At the recommendation of several Utahns, Sarah and I are going to a basketball game between the Utah Jazz and the Memphis somethings (i can't remember) tomorrow night. I'm not much of a sports fan, but I figured its a cultural experience i should do at least once! And tickets are only $10.
This is a 'Trax' light rail train. In the subburbs they work just like the TranzMetro trains in Wellington, and one of the lines goes quite far out into the 'burbs. When the trains reach the downtown area they become like trams, with the tracks in the middle of the street and stopping at traffic lights with all the other traffic.
The system works really well and the trains run every 5 - 10 minutes, so you're never waiting long. Need more tracks to go in more directions though, becuase this city is hard to explore on foot! And i have sore legs from walking so far!
The Union Pacific station. When I was walking miles away trying to find the Greyhound terminal (which took me 2 hours!) i saw a Union Pacific freight train. It was HUGE! It must have been about 10 city blocks long and double stacked with freight carriages.
Well only two more nights in SLC. Might go to a movie tonight, and have the basketball tomorrow. I was thinking about renting a car because my legs are so sore (i think i strained my knee! is that possible?) But it was gonna cost like $100 and i would have had to return it before 4pm tomorrow... Earlier in the Salt Lake City leg of the trip I had ideas to drive either to the Canyonlands National Park in south Utah, or to Las Vegas. Both of these ideas were shot down when i looked at a map and realized how big this country is, and how long it would take me to drive there (about 9 hours to Vegas) - i thought it was just down the road!
Email: cjbeggs@hotmail.com
The Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City's Capitol Hill district. It is being refurbished, which is why its covered in scaffolding.
Walking down from Capitol Hill looking at downtown Salt Lake City
Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Down the end you can see the temple of the mormon church.
This is just a park with a pond in it in SLC. When i took the photo yesterday morning, the top of the pond had frozen over.
