Miscellaneous Stuff

Here are some accounts of things are too small to get their own page, or just some of my rambling

City Life

Here are just some random thoughts about the city. I was actually in kind of a strange position to evaluate what the city was like. I grew up about an hour away from Chicago so I got to go visit many of the great museums and attractions in this nation's third largest city, but it was still far enough that I would not go there unless something was going on so I never "lived" there. And then there is the other placed I have lived...Terre Haute , where I went to school, a medium sized town in Indiana with absolutely nothing interesting in it. So they places I had experienced living were pretty polar opposites, and as it turned out, the Twin Cities seemed to fall somewhere in between (but a lot closer to Chicago).

Living on the U of M campus was a new experience for me. First off, it was about the exact opposite of Rose-Hulman . There was almost no border between the U and the city, unlike Rose where it is pretty clear (and you really do not want to be on the other side of it). There were also actually people on the campus, even though it was the summer. It was seen as a punishment to have to live at Rose for the summer. Also, I was only about a twenty minute walk from downtown, and within biking distance of just about anything in the area. There were plenty of free and/or cheap events going on, like concerts, museums, and festivals. I was actually able to keep myself pretty busy, even without knowing anyone up here.

There was also really good public transportation around the city. The buses could get you about anywhere, and a light rail system was being built. They also had plenty of carpool lanes to penalize people who drive alone, stealing my road space. One of the nicest things about getting around the city though, was all of the accommodations they had made for bikes. There were miles and miles of walking and biking trails criss-crossing the city. Many of the road also had separate lanes just for bikes. Being a foreigner and only a very casual biker, I was able to get almost anywhere in the area on bike. I did not have to fight traffic this way or pay for parking. There were also quite a few serious bikers around here (or at least they dressed the part). Speaking of bikes, I saw quite a variety of them, including: a "chopper" bicycle, a double tall bike, and old school bike with the big front wheel but built from modern materials, and two people on unicycles. People actually used these trails too. When I went running once in Minneapolis, I passed more fellow runners than I did for an entire school year in the Haute.

So I must say, Minneapolis seemed like a pretty good city. Of course, I was only here for the summer and did not have to experience their winters.

Taste of Minnesota

Over in St. Paul, they had the Taste of Minnesota , one of those events where you cram people together, and try to sell them over-priced food. Living near Chicago kind of spoiled this event for me. It was a little smaller than I expected, and they did not really have any great food that you could not get at any normal summer festival. The Taste of Chicago spoiled me, where there was lots of good tasting specialty food. On the plus side though, they did have an exhibit of 6' Linus characters from Peanuts decorated in different ways, which I leave you pictures of.

Larger than life Linus figures

Once again, my hand partially covered the lens

The Twins

I went to a Minnesota Twins baseball game with some people from church. I was not a big baseball fan (and do not follow the Twins at all), but I enjoyed watching baseball once in a while. Besides, the tickets were like $7 (half price night). Nothing much interesting really to recount from the game, the Twins blew a couple of run lead to lose to the Seattle Mariners. I still much prefer an outdoor stadium to some indoor astroturf crap though.

Inside the Metrodome

The mascot for the twins, with their oh too happy side kicks

They had this big milk gallon (sponsor?) which flashed in an extremely unimpressive manner if a Twin hits a home run

Minnesota Thunder

I played soccer as a lad and still enjoyed watching it, so when I learned that Minneapolis had a soccer team , I decided to go to one of their games.

I was really surprised with the number of people there. It was pretty crowded, and the attendance was announced at like 7,000 or something (I think that is greater than some Twins games). It was interesting to see that soccer it catching on little by little in the US. They also had half price tickets for college students (which I did not discover till I got there), so my over-priced education saved me $6. The game itself was pretty enjoyable. No stunning bicycle kicks or anything to recount though. The play was not quite at the level of the European Champions League, but it definitely was not bad either. And after all, this is still America (or maybe Canada). The game stayed nil-nil for the entire 90 minutes, but the Thunder got a golden goal in about the first 2 minutes of the first over time, winning 1-0. Apparently this league played overtime for regular matches.

Sock-Her

State Fair

In between my adventures backpacking and kayaking I found time to make it to the Minnesota State Fair . I must say that I was pretty impressed with the fair. Their midway was good size with pretty big roller coasters, water rides, and other monstrosities. I did not go one any of the rides (because I was cheap), but they did look entertaining. Anyway, rides at fairs are always scarier since you are never certain if they will hold together. I did, however, get to sample some of the food, and it was very good. I think they even had a better selection of food than the Taste of Minnesota. Oh well. The fair also had its share of booths trying to sell you stuff and show off new inventions. The most memorable exhibit was one showing off a "transportation of the future" sort of thing. It consisted basically of a personal train car, which you could tell specifically where to go. I think they had been promising something like this since the 50's though, so I was not expecting any big changes. Of course, the fair also had the traditional horses, cows, and other animals. I sort of had to rush through the fair though because I had places to go the next day.

Minnesota Orchestra

I was not a classical music nut, but I enjoyed listening to it occasionally so when I heard that the Minnesota Orchestra gave a free concert during the summer I jumped at the chance to go. I arrived about an hour before the concert was scheduled to begin, and there was already quite a long line of people waiting to get in. The line moved quickly though and there was plenty of space in the orchestra hall. The hall itself is pretty impressive. I sat on the main level, and there were a couple of balconies above me. The concert though, was even more impressive. They played Beethoven's First Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. The conductor was Marin Alsop, with William Wolfram as the guest piano player. The only bad part about it was that they had a big projection screen over the orchestra, showing the views from a couple of the cameras. I thought this was pretty stupid because if I wanted to watch it on TV I would have stayed at home. It did, however, give a nice view of the pianist's hands while playing. This concert was also part of the "48 Hours of Music" so I got to hear some other bands after I left the orchestra hall.

Minneapolis Orchestra Hall

I do not think I was supposed to take the first two pictures, but the orchestra was not on stage yet, I did not use a flash, and they did not make the "no picture" announcement until about 10 minutes after I took them.

Come Sail Away

Tom, one of the employees for the company I worked for owned a sailboat, and invited us interns sailing one afternoon on Lake Minnetonka .

I had never been sailing before and really knew nothing about it. Of course, the guy who owned the sailboat was knowledgeable, and did most of the work. He explained a lot of the techniques and procedures for sailing, but I must admit that I was still pretty clueless even afterwards. The actual sailing though, was really fun and enjoyable. It was pretty amazing to be able to glide virtually silent over the water, being able to direct yourself with just a couple of ropes.

Riding in a small sailboat was different than other kinds of boats in which I had ridden. Sailboats can lean a great deal without tipping, and things can also get kind of ruff in such a small boat on a relatively big lake. I was not afraid of the water (I can swim), but I had my camera with me so I was a little nervous of that ending up in the lake. Tom said he had never tipped this boat before though, and I was sure he did not want to go in the drink either. But my worries about my camera were unfounded, and through all the risk and adventures, I was able to bring back pictures of the day.

A Three Hour Tour

Erik (left) and myself (right)