Ten Days in Utah - Episode 2: The Mormons

Apparently Utah is the birthplace of the religious movement we call Mormonism. Their church is actually called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints (LDS Church). The word Mormon is a rather pejorative term, originally used to describe those who believed in the Book of Mormon (their sacred text). I've been warned about "The Mormons" by some of my well travelled friends, worried that I might be converted by one of their peculiar but alluring teachings: polygamy (this just proves what my friends think about me!). Now to be honest, I can hardly handle one woman so this "opportunity" didn't seem that appealing to me.
Actually, the polygamy story is just a myth or simple human ignorance, as the LDS Church dropped these ideas more than a hundred years ago. Of course, there are some "fundamentalists" still practising it. Illegally!
They do however have some weird beliefs that make any reasonably rational person at least smile. And in the beginning I couldn't quite understand how 15 million people or so go back to Joseph Smith's writings every day, looking for guidelines, answers and the absolute truth. Mass brainwashing? Childhood indoctrination? Lack of education? Maybe, but I think it's something else!
Mormons are nice people! I met one on my flight to Salt Lake City. An educated man (he had a PhD), with a lovely family. We had a great chat for a couple of hours and he didn't say a word about his life philosophy, but he managed to make me see that there was something special about him. I couldn't help it, so I asked "what was wrong with him"? He gave me The Book of Mormon (which I thought was quite long and boring, so I went to Wikipedia to get some facts). Later on I spoke to some chaps who had often encounters with them, and they all seemed to say the same thing: nice people, bizarre doctrine. So after a while it all came to me. People need something to help them get through the day. Not just saints and a philosophy, but something practical too. And this is exactly what the Mormons provide. They promote a moral (too moral :) ) lifestyle, uphold the family and encourage a charitable attitude of kindness and politeness. They offer the solution. Now, among so many good things, it's dead easy to hide some fairy tales: "Oh yes, and we also believe that the first Native Americans came from Jerusalem, but just don't worry about it for now."
I recently came across this episode from South Park (some strong language!) that summarises everything I've just said.
And one last thing. I guess one could find equally strange things in every religion from Catholicism to Hinduism. But if it "works for you" and you've managed to find a life balance, I say good for you. I'm not going to try to convince you otherwise. There is just one thing. If you're relying on someone else to think for you, one day you might be in trouble.

Ten Days in Utah - Episode 1: Skiing

In 2002 Salt Lake City organized the Winter Olympics, so when visiting the region in the winter, skiing is a must! The snow is absolutely amazing and as soon as you hit the slopes you feel that nothing can stop you and all of a sudden floating looks quite possible. Of course the first fall will cut short the magic and bring you back to reality: gravity works.

Utah claims they've got the best snow in the US. And they're probably right. For some reason, the mountains east of SLC, the Wasatch mountains, get an exceptional amount of snowfall. Actually it's not just "some reason". They call it the "lake effect". Winds carry the moisture from the Great Salt Lake towards the mountain where they meet a wall of cold air. The result is more than 12 meters (!) of snowfall per season in most SLC ski resorts. That's just astonishing.
We've spent two days in Solitude, skiing with our new (and old) friends. Most of them had much more experience than me and it was quite difficult to keep up with them at first, but they were patient enough. Here where I live we get about 1.5 cm of snow per year, so I had my excuses...
The most famous slope in Solitude is the Honeycomb Canyon which I didn't try because it was closed and probably too difficult for me. Of course that didn't stop my friends who lead by the beaver-hat man (he's from Alaska) managed to squeeze every drop of adrenaline from their bodies.
But above all, Georgi had the most fun. She's briefly tried to learn how to ski before but decided that this sport is not for her. So this was the first real ski she was doing, and she was terrified. But as soon as she saw the "Bunny Hill" a sense of hope, relief and joy could be seen on her face. Soon the "Bunny Hill" became way too easy for her and with a bit of help from virtually everyone she learned one of the great lessons of life: skiing is fun!!! The video below is taken by my friend Emil.



Later in the evening, while waiting for my ride back home I found a very interesting thing about Solitude. Apparently a Mr. Barrett in the 60s, while skiing in Alta, the main resort in the region, couldn't use the loo which was reserved for guests only. Annoyed and obviously suffering, the man decided to build his own resort (Americans!) where everyone could make use of the toilettes. He was rich enough to keep his promise and that's how Solitude was born. Thank you Mr. Barrett!



And when everyone went to bed and the time was past midnight, I did another thing to remember: spent some time in the hot tub. Maybe I should also mention that the hot tub was outside where the temperature was well below zero, and the tranquillity of the moment had to be every so often interrupted by brief runs in the snow. Crazy! Of course, Emil was there to enjoy this wild adventure. And in the heat of the moment I've realised one thing. Emil and I haven't changed a bit. Yes, we're 20 years older and we can talk about deep existential issues, but we can still sneak out in the middle of the night to eat an icicle and enjoy a snow fight. Just like we used to do.

Click here for more pictures.

Ten Days in Utah

We tend to spend our Christmas holiday with friends and family and I think in the last 20 years I've broken the tradition only once or twice and swore never to do it again. But to forget is human so this year (2008) we spent our Christmas in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Not the first place that comes to mind when you think of a holiday, so we were a bit sceptical about it. To be honest, I didn't even know where Salt Lake City was. However, we didn't have any choice, since my great friend Emil was getting married. I couldn't miss such a moment. Little did we know that the whole Utah experience would turn out to be our best holiday in the US so far, so I've decided to condense a long, interesting and sometimes spicy story in four episodes.

Episode 1: Skiing

Episode 2: The Mormons

Episode 3: The Wedding

Episode 4: Zion National Park

The Chinese Have Eaten Everything

Georgi's company threw a big party on Saturday night to celebrate 10 years of fantastic achievements. Since I had an important contribution to their success, offering support to one of their most attractive employees, obviously I was on the guest list.
I met quite a few people, some sober, others drunk, some stylish and eye-catching and others quite clever and sharp. Among them, a lady who's been travelling quite a bit for the last thirty odd years. She seemed to be in love with some places and just hate some others. Nothing unusual, I would say. However, I was surprised to hear that she would never go back to China. Why? Not because of the excessive state control, climate or pollution, but because "the Chinese have eaten everything."
"- Everything?"
"- Yes, everything. There's no wildlife left, no birds or foxes. Just empty forests."

I knew she was exaggerating, so I did a quick web search today. Apparently she was not. China's consumption of wildlife for food and medicine is rising every year with many once widespread species now being close to extinction. This is partly due to higher demand for food by a population now representing more than 20% of the World's total, but even more interesting due to their "slightly odd" dietary inclinations. China's proverbial appetite for reptiles and animals we use as pets is only the tip of the iceberg. If you're curious to see what else is on the menu in Beijing, have a look at this website. And if you're in town you might want to book a table at the Beijing's exclusive Penis Restaurant. Alternatively you could become a vegetarian and save a few owls...
"Chinese eat everything that flies, except aeroplanes, everything with four legs, except tables, and everything that swims, except submarines" says a modern Cantonese proverb. That might have to change soon to something like:
"The Chinese have eaten everything. Now they can only eat aeroplanes, tables and submarines."

My books

As I was sitting in my bed thinking whether I should finish my book or post something here, suddenly I found myself in a dilemma. Which book should I finish? I knew I had "a couple" of books that were sitting there for quite a while so I decided to do a rigorous count. The result was at least surprising, so brace yourselves! Apparently last year I've started about 25 books. Out of these I've managed to read "da capo al fine" exactly 3 (three!). Sitting next to my bed are 20 books (see the above photo), mostly bought from Amazon, all of them with some kind of marker somewhere between page 15 and 100.
These are books I started reading because I thought they were interesting in the first place, and they are, but somehow I got carried away doing other "more important" things, and... Well to be honest I guess I was just too lazy, chaotic and sleepy to do it.
Here's my list in no particular order (actually, it's the order you see in the stack):

1. Bad Science - Ben Goldacre
2. How to Fossilise Your Hamster - Mick O'Hare
3. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
4. Ratiuni ale Inimii - Clifford Goldstein
5. Watership Down - Richard Adams
6. The Emperor's New Mind - Roger Penrose
7. The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
8. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
9. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
10. Not Quite the Diplomat - Chris Patten
11. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
12. Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - Richard Carlson
13. Orbitor aripa dreapta - Mircea Cartarescu
14. The Audacity of Home - Barack Obama
15. Dreams from my Fater - Barack Obama
16. Caderea Romei si Sfarsitul Civilizatiei - Bryan Ward-Perkins
17. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
18. The Road to Reality - Roger Penrose
19. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
20. Avoid Boring People - James Watson

Pretty random things I would say. I guess some of these books will have to be abandoned, but most of them I still think are worth reading. Since I have some other projects this year, I've decided to "catch up" by reading maybe a book a month which doesn't sound too difficult. This is one of my New Year's Resolutions.

Happy New Year 2009

I can't believe it's 2009 already. I feels like the whole of last year was only a couple of months long... Honestly, 2008 was the shortest year ever. 2007 was quite short, but not as short as 2008, and 2006 was definitely a bit longer than 2007... Hmmm, I'm starting to see a pattern here, but let's not go there.

Like every year we celebrate the new year (or mourn the year just gone) in one way or another. This time someone (not me!) had an interesting idea. Rather than meeting up with loads of people, watch the fireworks, eat and/or drink, why not do the same things, but with just a few friends. Why not?

So on the 31st of December the six brave souls (Antonio&Saray, Emilian&Alina and Georgi and myself) who decided to take part in the experiment took a short drive along the A44 and were delighted to be welcomed by a beautiful little house made with Cotswold stone that quickly reminded me that probably some Middle Earth family of Hobbits must have lived there once upon a time. However, when we got inside we were not so delighted to find out that one could easily use all the bedrooms as storage for frozen Alaskan salmon (picture for illustration purposes only :) ). The problem was quickly sorted by Antonio and Emilian who started a fire (in the fireplace) and made sure it was safe to take off our jackets. Meanwhile, the girls started to cook a festive dinner. La piece de la resistance was Saray's world famous courgette soup (Emilian has been waiting more than a year for this moment) which according to Antonio didn't have the right colour. :) Saray told him he's got colour blindness (maybe bichromatic or trichromatic) and we all agreed with her. At the end of the day she's the medical expert. So while the girls were cooking and the boys were playing with the fire, I was... errrrr, oh yes, I was talking with the boys about the Universe. I must say I also had a very important contribution to the success of our dinner: I switched on the oven!



We had a lovely meal with enough food to feed 20 hungry rugby players, and then THE GAMES started. We played a Romanian version of whist (card game) and I think I've finished last every game except once when Antonio managed to "beat" me.



At midnight we followed the great Spanish tradition of eathing 12 grapes in 12 seconds. Not only that I've managed to do it, but at the end I've kissed everyone and wished them all a Happy New Year. I don't know if the Spanish think the 12 grapes bring good luck, but I can certainly say one thing: "no te preocupesssss".



The New Year triggered a moment of reflexion for all of us. How was 2008 for you? For some it was a big jump (Alina and Emillian got married), for others an overall positive experience (Saray is really happy with her new job, with her Masters...), an interesting year (Antonio lost his job, but he soon found a better one - I'll say some more about this one day), or an up and down year (Georgi has a great postive attitude about everything). How was it for me?... well I guess I had some good moments, but this can't posibly balance the loss of a great friend. To put it like Queen Elisabeth II, 2008 was my Annus Horribilis. More to come...

Back to our party... We've played another "couple" game that was supposed to check how well you know your partner using all sorts of questions... It was great fun. I learned so many things about Georgi, about myself, but even more about the others... :)) I'm only going to share with you one thing: to the question "How would you feel about your partner going out with the boys to a strip club?" the girls answered unanimously "uneasy". Not upset, mad, crazy, depressed, silent for a month, etc. etc. etc, but just UNEASY. Good to know. :)
And so the hours passed and we ended up going to sleep at about 5.30 in the morning not before playing a game of UNO which made my pulse go up to 120. TAKE TWO!!!!!!!

The following day we woke up very late (I was the last one), had a great afternoon breakfast and continued with some more games. TAKE TWO MORE!

Later on, Emilian got himself some brownie points by making some delicious pancakes (his own recipe).

And when the first 24 hours of 2009 passed, we had to pack, put out the fire and say goodby to our little house. Duty calls!
The interesting thing is that the story doesn't stop here. We've had such a great time together that we want some more.

Guys, you're great! Really!



Have a look at some of these pictures.

The three brave couples:

Antonio and Saray

Emilian and Alina

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Cip and Georgi ("What did you put in this, darling?")

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"Hola!"

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"Hola to you too!"

Yum Yum, this food is delicious!

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"I won! I won! I'll text my mum and tell her I won!"

"We're tired. Let's go to sleep!"

"I'm tired too. Emilian, can you please carry me to bed?"

"Ahh...Pfruuuu...ahh...pfruuuu...ahh...pfruuuu"

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"I had a dream with Jackie Chan."

"What? Leave me alone! I want to sleep!"

"- I told you, Ciprian. The iPhone is not that smart."

"- Yes, but it can say 'MEASUREMENT'. :) "