"Warm" Weather

Today it got up to 37 degrees. Which sadly by Minnesota standards is rather warm. Many people used it as an excuse to spend the day outdoors, me included.

The picture with the bridge in the background is a view of the Mississippi from the south side of the city looking north.

The other is a picture of the frozen Minnehaha Falls.

The Dewey Decimal System: Not good enough for Minneapolis

In grade school I was taught that the Dewey Decimal System was a cornerstone of life in America. Without it, there would be no order to the vast sea of information available to me at my public library.

Today I realized why I have spent hours wandering through the non-fiction section at the Minneapolis Library, never finding what I was looking for: Everything is organized by the Library of Congress Classification. Instead of books on knitting falling in the predictable 740s they fall under some bizarre code called TT.

However, I am stuck in Minnesota now, because I just ordered personalized Minnesota license plates with the letters ECLAIRE. I will just have to learn this foreign language at the library.

Rare Meat

I think I am officially a Minnesotan now... I ate pheasant (shot and cleaned by the cooks) for the first time on Friday. It was actually pretty good. It tasted, probably unsurprisingly so, a lot like turkey.

So much excitement in Illinois, I wish I was back there. Quote of the week:

"In my opinion, you are a disgrace to the state of Illinois. Well, maybe not to Illinois, but if you were a governor of any other state, you would be a disgrace to that state." –This week's SNL

Lessons Learned

I have really been enjoying life in Minneapolis overall, however, this weekend I learned some hard lessons:

1. Research bars in St. Paul before going out

Last night a friend and I went to a very nice restaurant in downtown St. Paul. Afterward, we said to ourselves, "Why don't we go check out the bar that was around the corner." Inside the bar were 100 twenty something men in Abercrombie and Fitch sweaters or hockey jerseys, and three women. We used the bathroom and then escaped. On our way in my friend overheard one guy say, "Why would two chicks come here?" It was definetly the most awkward 5 mins I've spent in Minneapolis/St. Paul.

2. Downtown Minneapolis: not a great place to shop

I decided to stop at a Banana Republic in downtown Minneapolis on my way home from church because I had a coupon. Most every store in downtown Minneapolis has another location where you can park for free. When you have to pay $12 to park, it really doesn't matter that you saved 30% on a sweater.

It's Snowing!

I woke up this morning and it was snowing. This is not actually the first snow of the year. I heard it snowed once the week before I got here.

On Wednesday night my roommate took me out to a local bar to get a "Jucy Lucy." The Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger in which the cheese is in a pocket inside the burger, kind of like a jelly doughnut. It was pretty good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jucy_Lucy

Settling In

I am settling into my new home in Minneapolis.

The top photo is a distant view of downtown Minneapolis from across Lake Nokomis. The other is a picture of the house where I am living.

Moving in went very smoothly and my roommates were very helpful.