Christmas Day 2002 
Greetings and salutations my long lost friends and relatives (most of whom are not in Salt Lake City, Utah where it is snowing, yes, I repeat, snowing outside right now!).
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
I hope you have all had a lovely Christmas and holidays etcetera, I am, so you all should. I am staying with my friend Marianne (for those of you who do not remember Marianne, this is her: Here) and her family in Salt Lake. This place rocks! I don't quite know what to say but I'm now going to step backwards into the oblivion of time and tell you of long distant actions that have happened since we last chatted.
Post Seattle:
Well, not much happened...oh, hang on, yes, I handed in many assignments, in fact I got my first ever extension for an assignment (very bad Sarah). Then classes finished and exams started - you can tell this was an exciting time as I have so much to say about it all. My friend Liz went home to Ontario on the 5th December (ohhh...) and I sat four exams...the last one on my birthday!
On the 13th December I turned 21, thereby making me the oldest person on my floor...not so good...but now I'm legal just about everywhere! My lovely friends put balloons and tinsel and stars and notes all over my door to cheer me up after my exam (ON MY BIRTHDAY! Honestly, that's just cruel), and we went out that night (it was a combination of my farewell, my birthday, my friend James' farewell, and another guy's birthday). Had much fun, sculled my pint of guinness - impressed the Aussie bar guy at the pub on campus, danced, all good!
Whistler was brilliant! We arrived in Whistler village after dark on the Sunday, and had to make our way in the rain to the UBC Lodge (like a hostel for the UBC students, very cozy and lovely). We also managed to hire all our gear that night and everything, we were impressed with our smartness.
We skiied all day Monday and Tuesday - I had some very good looking Argentinian ski instructors, why is it that ski instructors tend to be so good looking all the time? Anyway, I'm sure you'll all be excited to hear that I went fast for the first time ever skiing, and my percentage fall rate has dropped incredibly! Next time I'm going snowboarding!
I couldn't get over how much snow there was! It was everywhere, burying trees and oh, amazing! My ski instructor just laughed at me when I told him, apparently Whistler usually has twice as much snow as I saw there, he said he was seeing rocks and trees this year he'd never known were there before.
Enough of Whistler, after we got back we did the geeky thing and went to the Lord of the Rings 2 premier on Wednesday the 18th (hehe - it opened here earlier!), and my friend Sarah and I mucked around for a few days, went and stayed with our friend Robin in White Rock (yay, much fun! ate real food, hung out with real family...for the first time in a long time...). Unfortunately, I left myself about 5 hours to pack up my entire room...which wasn't fun.
I finally departed Vancouver at 7.30am on the 23rd December (ohhh...farewell Canada, it's been great, you rock!).
After surviving US customs (ugh) and San Francisco airport - I don't recommend that one - I am now here, in the land of the Later Day Saints, the Mormon capital of the world! Utah. Actually, I haven't met all that many Mormons. I was standing in the airport looking at people suspiciously, trying to work out which ones were and which ones weren't - the only clear cut cases were the girls my age with three children, oh, and the elders returning from their missions.
Salt Lake is cool, it's so cute, and American - all the houses seem so...so..American! I can't explain it, but I like it here. I think though that I'll have to come back and explore Utah more, the outback here seems amazing - desert and mountains, very funky.
I have been adopted into the family, I even went through pie school..yes, I now know how to make pie - I can't promise it will be good, but when I get home I'm making cherry pie and apple pie, as taught to me by the woman with a phd in pie, Marianne Nolte. I am even allowed to call Marianne's grandparents Gram and Papa..they're Mormon by the way, but not much of the rest of the family still is.
I apologise for the time lapse between information pages - and for the lack of intelligent thought on this page..it's Christmas Day! Have some patience.
Take care!
Sarah
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