Thursday, November 1, 2007

Reasons you should not move to Utah

Given I've had some experience in the matter, here are a few reasons you should not move to Utah:
  • State sales tax and state income tax. Also, Utah taxes food, which is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of.
  • Too many Mormons. Yeah, I know, I am Mormon too, but seriously, it's just not cool. People who move to Utah refer to "the bubble". What they are referring to is the fact that most Mormons who grow up in Utah have the warped sense of reality. They are completely ignorant of the workings of the outside world and they think it is a wicked place full of sinners and Utah is perfect. People who live in "the bubble" are often referred to as "Utards".
  • People don't know how to drive. I've heard that this is worse in Provo than in other parts of Utah because of BYU. There are basically two "schools" of driving here in Utah. Either you slam on your breaks when the light turns yellow and then pound the gas when it turns green, or you just run the light. If everyone did one or the other, it would be fine; but since half the population does each, it causes problems. Also, when the light is green, but there is no arrow, people pull out into the middle of the road, wait until traffic is clear and then they go. But they sit there until the last car has completely gone through the intersection. I, on the other hand, wait back at the line you are supposed to wait at, and then when the last car is almost there, I go, timing it perfectly and wasting no time; all the time not sitting in the middle of the intersection. This tends to piss people off (I don't know why; it's a lot safer). I have even gotten honked at for not pulling out into the middle of and intersection. Yeah. Not to mention the fact that two-thirds of the population has never even heard of a blinker/turn signal.
  • It takes forever to get anywhere. Utah has this grid system of roads, which enables you to locate any address extremely easily. For example, my address is 630 E 800 N, which means that my house is 1/3 of the way between the roads 600 E and 700 E and it is on the road 800 N. The problem with this system is that there are WAY too many intersections, and therefore WAY too many crosswalks. To add to this problem, the red lights on the main roads are not synchronized. So you'll wait at a red light for 2 minutes, go, and then wait at the next red light (which is the next block down) for another 2 minutes. So you end up driving twice as far to avoid the main roads so you can get there in half the time.
  • Utah people are rude. This really isn't that big of a deal, but people in Utah just aren't as nice as people in Texas. If you pass someone on the sidewalk in Texas, you make eye contact and say, "Hi". In Utah, people look away or look at the ground and ignore you.
  • Driver's License is expensive. So, Alexandria does not have a drivers license. She has a permit for Texas and could get her license there, but that's not transferable to Utah. To get a driver's license in Utah (for the first time) you must take a $260 driver's ed course (which is the exact same as the "parental mail-order" course in Texas that costs like $25). No exceptions. This even applies if you are over 18. If you are under 18, you still have to hold a permit for 6 months.
Well, that's all the bad things I can think of right now. I will write a (smaller) list of good things about Utah later so as not to seem so biased.

No comments: