Two things come to mind when I hear the words, "Salt Lake City:" The Winter Olympics, and, of course, the Mormon Church, and then I immediately go to a picture of Donny and Marie Osmond doing a duet of, "I'm a Little Bit Country..." But that's another post altogether. To tell you the truth, I didn't really know what to expect from Salt Lake. The only thing I knew was that we were going to get a huge education on the Mormon religion, which turned up in me both excitement and hesitation: I was excited because I was about to be immersed in a thing that was almost completely foreign to me, and I was hesitant because it was something I had a hard time relating to. I am not a religious person, and have very strong beliefs and opinions about organized religion, and so I knew this week was going to be pivotal in my Up with People journey.
Our Regional Learning day brought a tour of the Mormon Temple, the very one that they put on all of their information cards that make it look huge. I was shocked to see that the temple wasn't that large at all. Since we couldn't go inside the temple, we instead took a tour of the Visitors' Center and the Tabernacle. And the best thing about the tour was that it was given in everyone's native language. I have been hearing my native language for a good part of my life, so I decided to take the French tour instead.
We learned all about the dynamics of the church, for instance, where and when it was founded, and it's structure. It's interesting because it has a structure similar to Catholicism. There's a head guy, which they call, "the Prophet," similar to the Pope, and several Apostles, which I equated in my mind to the Cardinals. Then, we learned about the Temple itself. It took the early Mormons 40 years to construct it, and, like the city of Mecca to the Muslims, only Mormons can enter inside. It serves as a ceremonial place for events such as weddings, funerals, etc. After we got the low-down on the Temple, we went into the Tabernacle and got a presentation from a Sister about the acoustic qualities. First, she ripped a piece of paper, then she dropped some nails on the lectern. The sound was amazing. If we had to perform a show there, our sound guy, Nathan, would have been able to take a well-deserved vacation.
For our Community Impact project, we volunteered at the Utah Food Bank, which takes donations of food from all over Utah and distributes it to people in need, mostly homeless shelters. For the first part of the day, we had these huge boxes full of food that we had to empty and sort into 25 different food categories. But the fun part came in the afternoon where we were walked into a room with three huge crates full of apples, and we had to put 6 apples into bags, and then put ten of those bags into boxes.
I learned at the very beginning of the semester that us Uppies don't just do community service. We make a game out of it. At the beginning, people were casually putting apples in bags, and bags in boxes. But by the end we were split up into two groups, and we were racing to see which team could empty their crate first. Apples were flying left and right. The other non-Uppie volunteers watched in shock and awe the spectacle before them. When the guy from the food bank entered and said that our time was up, everybody in the room groaned, and the guy gave a look like he had never had volunteers groan when they had to stop working. I think the people at the Utah Food Bank are going to remember us for a long time to come.
This was one of my favorite weeks on the tour because the Education Department set up what they call, "Cast University," where various members of the cast sign up for an hour slot and teach a skill to some of their cast mates. People kept encouraging me to sign up to teach a French workshop, and since I am such a pansy in the face of peer pressure, I decided to do it. It was so good to get back into the mode of "French Teacher." And, I especially love teaching people some of the complicated mechanics of the language, which, in the case of French, is telling time and numbers. Normally, in any other language it would be extremely easy to teach those to things, but with my class, it took almost the whole time. I got a really good response from it, and am still answering the "How do you say ________ in French?" question, which is probably my favorite question of all.
One of the biggest highlights of the week was our show facility. It turns out that all of the auditorium scenes for High School Musical were shot in the auditorium of Murray High. Of course everything was lost on me because I haven't seen any of the HSM movies, so when everyone was reeling over the fact that we were performing on the same stage that Zac Efron performed on, I was like, "Hey, cool." My reaction will probably change once I see the first movie, though.
Show day was also awesome, because the staff gave us a break from rehearsal, since we had been working so hard on the show. They set up a whole "Cast B Lounge," where we had a bar that served virgin drinks, awesome massages by the One and Only Mitch McVicker, a table where they served baked goods, a human slot machine, and High School Musical playing on our screen. It's always a good day when our cast has a chance to hang out with each other. Normally, during Up with People, we only truly get to hang out with everyone during meals, so every time we get an opportunity like this, we make the absolute best out of it.
Salt Lake City was a really awesome city that I plan to visit again real soon.
Our Regional Learning day brought a tour of the Mormon Temple, the very one that they put on all of their information cards that make it look huge. I was shocked to see that the temple wasn't that large at all. Since we couldn't go inside the temple, we instead took a tour of the Visitors' Center and the Tabernacle. And the best thing about the tour was that it was given in everyone's native language. I have been hearing my native language for a good part of my life, so I decided to take the French tour instead.
We learned all about the dynamics of the church, for instance, where and when it was founded, and it's structure. It's interesting because it has a structure similar to Catholicism. There's a head guy, which they call, "the Prophet," similar to the Pope, and several Apostles, which I equated in my mind to the Cardinals. Then, we learned about the Temple itself. It took the early Mormons 40 years to construct it, and, like the city of Mecca to the Muslims, only Mormons can enter inside. It serves as a ceremonial place for events such as weddings, funerals, etc. After we got the low-down on the Temple, we went into the Tabernacle and got a presentation from a Sister about the acoustic qualities. First, she ripped a piece of paper, then she dropped some nails on the lectern. The sound was amazing. If we had to perform a show there, our sound guy, Nathan, would have been able to take a well-deserved vacation.
For our Community Impact project, we volunteered at the Utah Food Bank, which takes donations of food from all over Utah and distributes it to people in need, mostly homeless shelters. For the first part of the day, we had these huge boxes full of food that we had to empty and sort into 25 different food categories. But the fun part came in the afternoon where we were walked into a room with three huge crates full of apples, and we had to put 6 apples into bags, and then put ten of those bags into boxes.
I learned at the very beginning of the semester that us Uppies don't just do community service. We make a game out of it. At the beginning, people were casually putting apples in bags, and bags in boxes. But by the end we were split up into two groups, and we were racing to see which team could empty their crate first. Apples were flying left and right. The other non-Uppie volunteers watched in shock and awe the spectacle before them. When the guy from the food bank entered and said that our time was up, everybody in the room groaned, and the guy gave a look like he had never had volunteers groan when they had to stop working. I think the people at the Utah Food Bank are going to remember us for a long time to come.
This was one of my favorite weeks on the tour because the Education Department set up what they call, "Cast University," where various members of the cast sign up for an hour slot and teach a skill to some of their cast mates. People kept encouraging me to sign up to teach a French workshop, and since I am such a pansy in the face of peer pressure, I decided to do it. It was so good to get back into the mode of "French Teacher." And, I especially love teaching people some of the complicated mechanics of the language, which, in the case of French, is telling time and numbers. Normally, in any other language it would be extremely easy to teach those to things, but with my class, it took almost the whole time. I got a really good response from it, and am still answering the "How do you say ________ in French?" question, which is probably my favorite question of all.
One of the biggest highlights of the week was our show facility. It turns out that all of the auditorium scenes for High School Musical were shot in the auditorium of Murray High. Of course everything was lost on me because I haven't seen any of the HSM movies, so when everyone was reeling over the fact that we were performing on the same stage that Zac Efron performed on, I was like, "Hey, cool." My reaction will probably change once I see the first movie, though.
Show day was also awesome, because the staff gave us a break from rehearsal, since we had been working so hard on the show. They set up a whole "Cast B Lounge," where we had a bar that served virgin drinks, awesome massages by the One and Only Mitch McVicker, a table where they served baked goods, a human slot machine, and High School Musical playing on our screen. It's always a good day when our cast has a chance to hang out with each other. Normally, during Up with People, we only truly get to hang out with everyone during meals, so every time we get an opportunity like this, we make the absolute best out of it.
Salt Lake City was a really awesome city that I plan to visit again real soon.
