UEA: Not the United Arab Emirates

Wheee for UEA weekend! There's just nothing like having two consecutive days off school. So I decided to take advantage of it. Here's a little bit of what was going on:

Wednesday I stayed at school until 5:30 PM (a personal record) grading the 7th grade Utah Studies projects (on their first family members to move to Utah). When I finally finished I met up with Lisa and we drove to Logan! Wow... Every time I enter that valley again it feels like coming home. Anna was kind enough to put me up for the night, and in 24 hours I played it up, Utah State style - watching movies, midnight horchata run, Office night, going to class, Hazel's bread, Aggie ice cream, etc. We even went on a much-needed hike Thursday afternoon, in the unseasonably warm weather, to the Wind Caves (I've been there before, of course, but this time it didn't rain).


Aimee and Lisa with our friends Varuna and Lucas. I stole these pictures directly from Varuna's Facebook account - thanks Varuna!


Hey, don't knock the fuzzy camera phone zooms. Isn't an unfocused photo better than no photo at all? Here's Lucas, Lisa, me, and Aimee.



Friday night my brother Thomas, Kenneth, and my sister Anna and I paid fifteen dollars to wander around David Archuleta's face. Ewww! What I meant was, of course, we went to the corn maze at Thanksgiving Point that looks just like the kid. Here's a picture I stole from http://php.terra.com/english/gallery/music/gallery.php?gallery=10581 :


For Anna it was a chance to get inside David Archuleta's head; I just got lost in his eyes.



The pictures of my face inside a cow head, incidentally, are not included here. Though here is Thomas, for your viewing pleasure, looking pumpkin-faced and sheepish, respectively.



Take note: the following picture is slightly dark to see and vaguely scary anyway. It was this giant inflatable monster. You walked in his mouth, past the uvula, into the esophogus and all the way though the intestines, while people dressed up as, I don't know, red blood cells walked around jumping out at you.


We called it the Magic School Bus experience. Delicious.


We also enjoyed jumping on the giant pillow, which was really some weird kind of trampoline.

Here be Anna and Kenneth on the giant rocking chair.

A strange-faced Anna and I, stuck in the maze. I actually had a lot of fun! I would say it was overpriced, but since I really did enjoy myself, I'm going to go with Worth It.

Saturday, though, was even less expensive and even more worth it. Let me explain--- no, there is too much. Let me sum up: My favorite radio station 101.9 The End sponsored a concert of this new band Thriving Ivory, for only 5 bucks a ticket. I felt a slight ownership of this group because I heard them the first time Parker played the whole album on the air about a month ago, and I liked it so much I bought their album (online, used, for like 58 cents).

Now I've heard a lot of people don't enjoy the lead singer's voice, which is understandable--- it sounded a little different and weird to me too - at first. Now that I'm used to it, I really enjoy the unique sound. I'm so sick of bands sounding the same - Lifehouse, Daughtry, 3 Doors Down, etc, ugh. At least this is something new.

The concert was at the Murray Theater, and sold out. We still found a great spot, though. I loved being able to see over people's heads!


Of cousre the opening bands were local and unremarkable, but the main event was surprisingly entertaining. They were all very energetic, if a little emo. The crowd was supportive and welcoming (i.e. we screamed a lot. Especially Carol and her Xena call).



I don't have a really good shot - again, camera phones here, hello! - but I was really impressed with the lead guitarist. He was brilliant. Very talented, just grinning the whole time, and an exellent soloist.

It was Jenny's first concert. I think she liked it.

Finally, this morning a friend of mine who works at the temple downtown invited me to the annual Salt Lake Temple Devotional, an amazing and beautiful experience. It's such a sacred place that not everyone is always allowed in all parts of the building, but today was special permission to see the assembly room, in which I had never before been.

See those two rows of windows in the middle? Well, let me just say that I was on the other side. With the prophet, President Monson, and the president of the temple and his wife, Brother and Sister Walker (who, incidentally, happen to be in my home ward). Their messages were mostly of gratitude for the hours and hours of service of those who keep the temple working all day. President Monson also related a few stories (of course) of members of the church in then-Soviet Europe trying to get permission to come to the US or even to another European country just to visit the temple. But while the messages were great, my favorite part was just sitting in that room before the meeting started, and feeling the spirit that was present. If I could always remember that feeling, I know I'd do anything possible to always be looking for any excuse to get back to that building.

And now, lamentably, the weekend is nearing its close and I need to go over my lesson plans for the upcoming week. I hope that was enough info on my life to tide you over. I'll be back....soon.