My first weekend in Minneapolis was a lesson Krawall & Remmidemmi, but I think I have my bearings…well, sort of. Here are some snippets:

• I met the stereotype on Friday: a strikingly blond girl who I asked for directions. Her accent was so thick I couldn’t understand her at all.

Me: Hello, do you know where can I get my student ID?
Minnesota Girl: YodelYodel GurbleGarble Yodel Gardel!
Me: Uh… Pardon me?
Minnesota Girl (slower): Yooou go ooova der and YodelYodel left Garbel Gurble!
Me (thoroughly confused): Okay thanks!

• I’ve been downtown several times (pictures!). Most of the buildings are connected by skywalks. There is also a mini-Broadway-like street that has theaters. One of my favorite things downtown is the ginormous two-story Target. (Target’s headquarters are here.)

Look Mommy! It’s America Sized!”

• There is a conspicuous lack of Starbucks in Minneapolis. Miami has them on every-other corner. I think it’s because of competition from a regional chain called Caribou Coffee. Caribou stores are a nicer inside and offer free wifi. There are also tons of indie coffee shops. I’m in one right now called The Purple Onion Café. I like the Purple Onion but I suspect it gets miserably crowded when school’s in.
• Saturday I hung out at JR’s house. His dog is cute, in spite of being slightly enfeebled by a recent accident.

• I signed up with TCF Bank since there are no Bank of Americas. The cool thing about TCF is that they are open 7 days a week and they have ATMs everywhere here. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a TCF ATM in my kitchen.
• Late Night Hilarity: Me dressed as a cowboy (I’ll explain that later) running full speed across a bridge in the middle of the night. Classic Jansen-being-special moment. After 7 years in Miami you’d think I have enough sense to carry an umbrella right? Wrong. Of course I was halfway across the old stone bridge when the sky just dumped on me. The cellphone survived, the verdict on the MP3 player is still out.


The stone bridge

I went to Mall of America today. I’m pretty sure it’s the biggest mall in the country. It’s so honkin’ big that it has a theme park INSIDE. Why do we do things like this?

• Friday was my first time on a public bus in the US. I’m now fairly competent with the mass transit system here (we didn’t do buses in Wichita or Miami), although a major transit f-up is probably in the works. “Crap! How did I end up in Michigan!?”
• Definite differences from Miami: wild rabbits (Miami has lizards), tons of bikers, squirrels that aren’t skinny and decrepit, huge historic houses/buildings everywhere, a weird grid system, new categories of immigrants – Somali, Ethiopian, South-East Asians… there’s also that Minnesota-Nice stereotype… hm.. OH! And the falls on the river!

So yeah, things are geil! More later. OH, and by the way…I found out that my neighborhood DOESN’T have a legit grocery store… just two Gas-Station-Mart-esqe things…hmmf!