North America,  Travel,  U.S.

Moving across the United States by car (2) – Salt Lake City, Utah

February 17, 2023 /

I booked an Airbnb for two nights in Salt Lake City. This Airbnb is located in a gated community, and the owner happened to have a spare parking space for me to park. This is one of the rare Airbnbs where the owner himself lives here. Before I entered the house and said a few words to the owner, he told me that his English was not good, and asked me if I could speak Spanish. His place is a small apartment with one bedroom and one living room. The room I rented is quite big. He sleeps on the upper bed in the living room, and the lower floor is a desk, similar to the kind of university dormitory. He said that this apartment and the apartment upstairs are all his, and the apartment upstairs is fully rented by Airbnb. After introducing the room, kitchen and toilet to me, I chatted casually with him. I could tell that his Spanish accent was definitely not Mexican, but I didn’t know where he was from. I didn’t expect him to be Ecuadorian. After learning that I was there After staying for a month, he was even more excited than me, and talked a lot about Ecuador's fun and delicious food. This Ecuadorian brother immigrated to the United States three or four years ago. He first went to New York. He also drove across the United States from New York to Salt Lake City two years ago. This Airbnb has only started for a few months. In addition to collecting rent, he usually drives an Uber taxi and uses an app to deliver packages to Amazon. He said that the Amazon delivery software is very free and flexible, and he can accept orders at any time, but he usually receives orders at three or four o'clock in the morning. The hourly wage is two or three times that of the daytime. When he's not working, he's either watching dramas or playing Super Mario. It feels like he's living a good life.

In the afternoon, I drove past the Utah State Capitol in the north of the city center. Because the terrain is relatively high, the scenery of the snow-capped mountains in the distance is very beautiful. I parked the car on the side of the street and saw a tourist information center opposite. I went in and asked for some information. The staff there were very enthusiastic and gave me several brochures, recommending me to go to different places, and said that there would be a tourist information center this weekend. For an NBA All-Star game, there will be a lot of tourists from other places, remind me. Before I left, I was recommended to visit the Parliament Building. If she hadn't recommended me to go, I thought it was not open to the public. When I entered the parliament building, I saw several professional photographers taking wedding photos and artistic photos, and then I saw many politicians in suits and shoes, working in the office here or holding a meeting. Passing by a booth of the Utah Beverage Association, there are various sugar-free, fruit-flavored carbonated sodas and other drinks on it. The staff told me to take whatever they want, and they do activities and distribute them for free. I grab a few cans of caffeinated fizzy drinks and drink them on the drive.

Early on Thursday morning, the Ecuadorian brother even made me breakfast. I didn’t know he included breakfast before. Most of the Airbnb hosts who have stayed before are not there. Even if they are and provide breakfast, they will be charged separately. His new Airbnb is cheap and includes breakfast, which must have accumulated good reviews. I found on the Internet that the Conference Center in the city center has a tour guide with an explanation tour. If you join the explanation group, you can park in the garage for free with proof. Arrived at the convention and exhibition center at 10:00 in the morning, parked the car and went upstairs, the staff pointed to the two little girls in the distance and said that the explanation tour would start soon, and those two "sisters" would be your tour guides. I walked over to say hello to her two, they had the flags of the countries/regions they came from printed on the name tags on their chests, one was from Nepal, the other was from Hong Kong, they were both Latter-Day Saints of Jesus Christ (Latter-Day Saints) ) The sisters of the church are actually Mormons, a branch of Christianity in a broad sense, but traditional Christianity does not recognize Mormons as their branch. Salt Lake City is a holy place for Mormons all over the world and is also the headquarters of the Mormon Church. 60% of the residents of Utah are Mormons. Mormons did have polygamy at one time, but it's largely gone now.

Because I was the only one who opened the door at 10 o'clock, these two little girl tour guides took me to visit and explain the exhibition center alone. They told me about the history of Mormonism, how the persecuted Mormons trekked from the east to Salt Lake City to establish a base, their famous prophet leader Brigham Young (Brigham Young), the prophets and the 12 apostles, etc. . Although I am not religious, I am more interested in their personal experiences. This little Hong Kong girl is only 19 years old. She went to a church school in Hong Kong since she was a child. She worked for a year after graduating from high school, and then decided to become a missionary and applied to serve as a missionary at this church in Salt Lake City, USA. She said the minimum age requirement for all applicants was 19, and the missionary period was one and a half years for girls and two years for boys. Unexpectedly, when she came to become a missionary, she had to pay a sum of money herself. She saved nearly 10,000 U.S. dollars, which was regarded as a "donation" to the church fund. The church would be responsible for the rent, and then use the "donation" received Distributed equally to all missionaries, there is less than $300 a month for living expenses. But I asked them about their daily schedule and whether they have their own time to travel to other places, and she showed me her schedule, from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm every day, to take English classes, study "Moore" Men Jing, being a tour guide, etc., seven days a week, except for half a day for grocery shopping and laundry, there is no other time to travel to other places, so it seems that there is no need for other expenses. The little Nepalese girl is 20 years old, and her one and a half year missionary period is almost over. She moved to the US with her family when she was very young, but she can speak Nepali. She said that explanations in more than 30 languages are provided here, because these missionaries come from all over the world and can speak different languages. Later, I saw people from South Korea, Mexico, Canada, France, Mozambique, Germany, Argentina and other countries Most of the missionaries are young girls in their 20s. Both were deeply religious and cherished their current missionary experience.

After listening to the explanations given by the two little girls in the Convention and Exhibition Center, I went to the nearby Tabernacle Chapel to listen to the free organ performance at 12 noon. The pipe organ here is one of the largest in the world. Before the solo performance started, the performer briefly explained about his performance for the next half an hour, which could be heard clearly in the whole hall without using a microphone. In order to further demonstrate the excellent sound effects here, he tore a newspaper with his hands, dropped a needle on the podium, and could hear it clearly. During the performance, after each piece of music is over, the performer will also change the color of the background light, which has a weird and mysterious feeling.

After I came out, I went to the Family Search Library across the road. The staff inside said that they could help me to register a user on the genealogy website, and then create genealogy information to find relatives and family members. I created an account out of curiosity, but later found that the data in the database for the United States and Canada is relatively complete, and there is very little genealogy data in Asia. After learning that I was Chinese, the staff took me to an interactive screen next to it, saying that this is a special Chinese surname database, and I can look up my surname. I was surprised to find out that the province, city and county "Wanning County, Hainan Province" displayed in the family tree collection records of the "Liang" surname is the ancestral home of my grandfather. Later, you can see celebrities with the same surname: Liang Jingru, Liang Chaowei, Liang Qichao, Liang Sicheng, etc. On the third and fourth floors of the library, I also saw a lot of genealogy books from all over China. Interesting.

Then we went to Beehive House, the former residence of Mormon leader Brigham Young. It is said that he had 56 wives before his death, of which 16 wives gave birth to a total of 57 children. The group photo of his family hanging at home is very spectacular. From the commentator, I also learned that because of religious reasons, gambling is prohibited in Utah, although casinos in the neighboring state of Nevada (Las Vegas) can be seen everywhere. Moreover, there are many restrictions on the degree and time of selling alcoholic beverages.

After shopping in the city center, I drove to a hiking trail on the top of the hill in the north, where you can see the whole city. I met three people (two men and one woman) on the way, so we walked together with our companions. Talking to them, two of them are from Detroit, he moved to Salt Lake City two years ago, and his mother came here to see her for a few days this week. His partner is not from here either. He is from Bogota, Colombia, and he is studying for a master's degree in architectural engineering at Georgia Tech University. After that, they recommended me several delicious local restaurants.

In the evening, I went to listen to the free rehearsal of the world-famous Mormon Cathedral Choir. I heard that there is only a free rehearsal open to the public every Thursday night. The scene is very spectacular.

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