1. Churches. There is a LDS church on every other block, but protestant churches are harder to find. We've visited several churches and found a common theme--small congregations. We really like two of the churches we've checked out, and are still decided which one we'd like to get involved in.
2. Weather. After 2 months of temperatures in the 90's nearly every day, we got snow. It only lasted a few minutes in the valley, but there is still snow on the mountain tops. It's back up to 75 degrees now. It rarely rains and the skies are nearly always sunny.
3. School. Todd teaches classes of between 35 and 40 students. Despite large classes, most students are very well behaved. In fact, he frequently gets thanked as students leave the classroom. He's never experienced that before!
4. Transportation. We've spent a lot less on gas in Utah than we did in Michigan. I take the bus every day for free with my student ID. In fact, I have only driven the car 4 times since coming to Utah. That's quite a change.
5. Running. In Grand Rapids we had to drive to 92nd street or Tower Hill in order to do a hill workout. In SLC, we have to drive in order to run a hill-less route. Living in the foothills means either running up or down the mountain. While it was quite a challenge originally (especially when adjusting to altitude), we are becoming much better hill runners.
6. Seasons. Utah doesn't seem to know about the season called Fall. Trees aren't changing colors--or if they are, they are going straight to brown. I miss Michigan's beautiful fall colors!
7. Housing. We really enjoy our basement apartment! We're used to living in college housing--dorms, college apartments, the radpad--so it's different having a family above us. Sometimes we think they forget that we can hear everything they say--it's been quite entertaining at times!
8. Campus. Obviously, the University of Utah's campus is quite different than Calvin's campus. For one, it's huge in comparison. Some of the academic buildings are over 100 years old. People travel across campus in many ways--trax, buses, skateboards, scooters, bikes, etc.
9. Cars. Practically 1 in 10 cars here are subarus. Pick-up trucks and suburbans are much less common.
10. Mountains. We LOVE seeing mountains every day.
11. Accents. All of my classmates tell me I have an accent. I don't know what they're talking about. It seems like I talk just like they do.
12. "Hot Chocolate" Mugs. Yes--this is what coffee mugs are called. Mormons don't drink coffee.
13. Groceries. Except for a couple times, I have always walked to the grocery store. It's only about 5 blocks away. It usually works quite well. The weight of the groceries sometimes is a little much for the walk home though.
14. Sports. The University of Utah is obsessed with being added to the Pac12. We haven't gotten real into watching the Utes yet. Unfortunately, our teams rarely are shown on TV, but we try to keep up with them.
15. Family. Well, this is a big one. It's very different to be so far away from family.It's great to be able to skype, but we miss spending time with our families very much.
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