Culture Redux

I had a conversation the other day that reminded me of a post I made in my study abroad blog. I made a comment about how much more nature-y stuff there was to do within a few hours of where I live in Utah compared to where I grew up in Indiana. The native Hoosier still residing in Indiana who I was speaking with got a little offended. I tried to explain that I wasn't knocking Indiana (after all, I'm a native Hoosier, as well, and think I had a great time growing up there!), but it didn't really seem to help.

So, I wanted to share again something I realized while living in Paris.

One of the things that everyone keeps asking me is, "So, is the USA better than France?" The thing is, we're talking about culture here. There's no such thing as a "better" culture. France is different, but it's not better and it's not worse. It's just different. The same thing goes for any culture, whether it be German or Japanese or Egyptian or Iranian or Thai. No culture is inherently better or worse than another. They are just different.

The same thing is true for Utah and Indiana.

While "number of nature-y destinations within 3-4 hours" is not exactly a subjective number (although I'm sure you'd be hard-pressed to find a list with that exact name), perhaps the difference is in my perception. Since I have more nature-oriented friends in Utah, they know of more places to visit. I didn't really have any nature-oriented friends in Indiana (or the ones I did have did most of their nature-y stuff outside of Indiana). Going hiking and skiing and mountain biking and on random camping trips to deserts is an integral part of the culture in Utah. It's less of a thing in Indiana, probably because there are no mountains and no deserts.

Again, going back to my France statement that cultures are different, not better or worse, Utah and Indiana are definitely different. There are things I love and things I strongly dislike about both. I love that nature-focused attitude in Utah. I love the ski culture. However, I don't like the fact that the LDS church has its hand in every single government decision that is made in the state (as I very strongly believe in the complete separation of church and state). I love the friendliness of Midwesterners and their strong work ethic. I don't like that political ignorance is very common in my home state.

So, fear not my fellow Hoosiers. I'm not disowning my home state. I always have a good time when I go home and I'm proud to be from Indianapolis. Just don't expect me to move back soon...well, ever. There's too many other cultures out there for me to experience!

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Last night, I watched the movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

As a rather large Robert Downey, Jr. fan, I'd been hearing how amazing it was for quite awhile but still had yet to see it. When I realized it was on HBOGO last night, I was thrilled!

Although the plot is kind of difficult to follow, the acting is incredible! It was RDJ's first big (I'm using big somewhat loosely here - although it was a decent hit overseas, it wasn't much of a hit here in the US) movie post-rehab/jail/all that fun stuff. If you're a fan of Iron Man due mainly to RDJ's acting, you'll like this one, too. If you just watch Iron Man for the explosions, you might also like this one. 

Here's the trailer if you want to judge for yourself:

Perry: Look up "idiot" in the dictionary. You know what you'll find? 
Harry: A picture of me? 
Perry: No! The definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are!

Birthday

April 28th was my birthday, and it was a great one! Of course, the day began with some Starbucks. Lindsey Vonn popped into Starbucks as Julia and I sat outside enjoying the warm weather, so that was a fun little birthday sighting. After some wandering around in Park City, we decided to head down to Salt Lake for some birthday pastries.

And my, what amazing birthday pastries they were!! Julia found a French bakery inside the Grand American Hotel and I had the best macarons I've had since actually being in France! To top it all off, they had a gorgeous flower-filled courtyard at the hotel where we got to sit and enjoy them.

Seriously...this vanilla macaron was life-changing.

After a quick Olive Garden lunch in SLC (yes, I gave into a chain restaurant - I cannot resist the breadsticks and salad), we headed back up to Park City! 

For dinner, a small group of us headed down to Main St. for dinner at Oishi, my favorite sushi place in town. It was delicious and it was great spending time with good friends! Julia planned an awesome day...it's great having a friend like her around!

So, that's this year's birthday! I'm excited for summer to be here so that I can enjoy some warm weather, get outside to run (although I must say skiing is a much more exciting outdoor activity) and not wear a coat! 

California Love

Missing California today. Enjoy the photos :)

Earth Day and Eyes

Happy Earth Day!

I suppose I'm celebrating by using reusable grocery bags today. Apparently, Park City is considering a law that would ban plastic bags. I'm all for it! That might possibly get me to remember to bring my reusable bags into the grocery store!

In other news, I've been wearing glasses for almost a month now. I normally wear contacts, but I've been going to LASIK consultations, and they require you to be out of your glasses for about two weeks before the appointment. My final consultation is tomorrow, so we'll see what they say. I got rejected at the first place. I always knew that was a very high possibility since my prescription is quite high, but I'm hoping the second place (Moran Eye Center, one of the best eye centers in the country!) gives me the go ahead. Otherwise, it's back to contacts for the foreseeable future.

The one fun part about wearing glasses, though, has been playing with fun lipstick colors! Normally, I'm more of an eye makeup kind of girl, but it's a pretty big pain to mess with eye makeup when you're practically blind without glasses. So, it's been a red and hot pink lipstick couple of weeks. Rimmel has a fantastic (and cheap!) matte lipstick collection right now - I highly recommend it!

Closing Day

Last Sunday marked the last day of ski season here in Park City. Julia and I went up to Park City Mountain Resort to get a few last runs in!

Julia was an awesome skiing (well, she was snowboarding while I skied) buddy over the course of the season! We were both super sad on the chairlift going up to our last couple of runs. It's been a really great season (maybe not snow-wise, but fun-wise!) and it was both of our first season in Park City.

Of course, I enjoy any excuse to bust out a costume, so I wore my bright yellow skinsuit. There were plenty of people on the mountain more dressed up that me! We saw guys in suits, full animal suits and LOTS of neon 80's apparel!

Sad to see ski season come to and end...but looking forward to some summer fun!

Running for Boston

By now, I'm sure just about everyone has heard about the terrible events that happened yesterday at the Boston Marathon. I'm completely and utterly heartbroken for everyone whose lives were shattered on an afternoon that should have been one of the happiest of their lives.

I was running yesterday when the attacks occurred. I hadn't run in months, but my dad just signed me up for a half-marathon in August so I figured I should get started on training. While I was whining about walk/running for a half hour on a treadmill while watching Game of Thrones, hell broke loose in Boston. When I got back up to my desk post-workout, I was totally shocked at the information coming my way on Twitter.

Although it's pure coincidence that I happened to start running again at the same time of a horrible tragedy, it's inspired me. I want to do something about it. I'm trying to think of some way to "run for Boston." So far, the best idea I've had is to ask people to donate a certain amount of money per mile for my August half marathon so that I can donate the total to an organization helping with the victims in Boston. It'll be a little while before you can discern between the opportunists and the legitimate organizations, but if anyone hears anything, let me know.