Just back from the AP World History Essay Grading.This year our venue moved from its five-year home at Colorado State University in Fort Collins to the Great Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City Utah. I was a bit trepidatious about going to SLC because FoCo was such a great experience. But I enjoyed my stay in Salt Lake. It's always good to see the Wolfpack and I made quite a few new friends this year as well.
The College Board doesn't do anything second class. My and my roomate (yes, no more private dorm rooms) were booked in the Grand America Hotel. I was surprised to see it's a Five Diamond hotel. It was one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. Rumor was Liam Neeson checked in while we were there. Wouldn't surprise me.
SLC is very clean and easy to get around. There's a lot more eateries, bars and restaurants to hang out and talk in. They have a free downtown light rail system and two great urban shopping centers.
I have to admit I was a bit unnerved by the LDS Temple complex. I was fine until I saw all the big murals of stories from the Book of Mormon. To see this rubbish presented as truth caused me to have shivers. But the complex was pretty amazing. Amazingly weird. Sorry if I offend folks. I'm pretty tolerant. But Joseph Smith is recent enough figure in history to know that he was a fraud. And Brigham Young, dozens of wives and complicit in the coverup of the Mountain Meadow Massacre...sorry. That's not a religion, it's a cult.
Anyway, SLC is a great city and I certainly hope to be invited back next year. Oh and I have a new favorite African country.
