more on minnesota

tuesday was the first day of class and it was a long one, from 7:30 am until almost 6 pm. it was good though. there were only 5 people in the class, and they were all great, and the people who did the training were very helpful and generally nice. after class was over, i walked back to my hotel (the days inn) and got to skype with peter and erik again. it was really nice except that my connection there was terrible so it kept dropping the call. but it was great to see them even though i was far away. after that, i was hungry so i decided to go and find something to eat. i planned on going to a vietnamese restaurant that was within walking distance (since i didn't have a car). as i was walking out of the hotel, i heard someone yelling my name. i thought i was going crazy .... looked all around and didn't see anyone. but then i saw a window at the hotel opening and closing and it turns out it was naimesh from my class. he was thinking about going out too and just happened to be looking out the window when i was going by. we decided to see if anyone else from our class was hungry, but we didn't know their names so he went back to his room to get them. as i was waiting, another guy from our class anthony came down the elevator and was on his way out to get something to eat too, so the three of us took the days inn shuttle downtown to this place called brit's pub which was a (seemingly) authentic british tavern with a good selection of beers on tap and a menu full of english food.



i had a scottish lager:



and fish and chips:



which were both delicious! after dinner we walked around for awhile downtown. it was a beautiful night, clear and not too cool. minneapolis is very nice, clean, and was surprisingly quiet for that early in the evening. we saw the target headquarters and stopped inside the target store which had two floors and a cart escalator.



there was even a whole store devoted to scientology, which i found completely absurd. here is anthony posing in front:



as anthony, naimesh, and i were waiting for the shuttle:



i was so excited to notice that across the street in the target headquarters lobby there was a very large chihuly sculpture. i went back over to photograph it, but unfortunately the building was locked so i could only get a picture through the doors.



that was a really fun evening! the next day was another very long day of class, and dinner with the two directors of the course and a guest speaker who was an old friend of theirs. we went to this place called loring pasta bar in an area of minneapolis called dinkytown that was an old drug store and the building where bob dylan once lived. it was a really interesting building with very eclectic decor. i would have loved to have spent more time taking pictures, but i didn't want to embarrass myself in front of the class so i didn't. here are the few that i took.

the original drug storefront:



my dinner, delicious herb-crusted salmon with roasted cherry tomatoes and asparagus:



the live entertainment was a man playing a variety of instruments. i swear at one point he was playing jingle bells:



the bathroom was really cool and strange:



unfortunately the three professors were more interested in talking to each other than the rest of us, and we sat for more than an hour after we were all finished eating while they chatted and managed to thwart all of our attempts at breaking into the conversation. i wanted to get a chance to talk to erik on the phone before he went to bed and was getting tired of just sitting there, so i pulled out my phone and started text messaging at the table. luckily they took the hint and we got up to leave. i know it was rude, but most of us were thankful that the dinner was finally over!

thursday was our last day of class, and we had a really really interesting lecture from the guy who runs the ips cell core lab there and more laboratory sessions and other lectures. it was a great class, very intense, and went by way too fast! i wasn't sure what i wanted to do on my last evening in minneapolis. we had talked about getting dinner at a persian restaurant across the street from our hotel, but naimesh really wanted to go to the mall of america. i did too, but wasn't sure about navigating the light rail system. it turns out it was amazingly simple, and naimesh lives in nyc so i left it up to him to figure it all out. we had the days inn shuttle drop us off at the station in front of the metrodome, and took the light rail all the way to the station at the mall. here's naimesh on the train:



at first i wasn't all that impressed. sure it was a HUGE mall, but it seemed like any other mall ... until i saw the amusement park. i was amazed at how big (and FUN) it looked! the rollercoaster was so cool and i am a little bummed out that i didn't ride it. they even had a log ride, all right inside the mall!







there was also a huge lego store with lots of lego sculptures. i got peter a darth maul lego pen. :)





but my favorite part by far was the aquarium. i wasn't sure if i wanted to go in. it cost $20 and it was starting to get late. we hadn't had dinner yet and we wanted to be back at the university at a reasonable hour to meet anthony for beers. naimesh wanted to go in, so i went along for the ride and i was so glad that i did. it was really great ... much much bigger than i would have anticipated. we also got there just in time to see them feeding the seahorses which was really neat. i took tons of pictures. here are just a few of them:















this one's my favorite of the bunch:



we made our way back to the hotel and found anthony at the leaning tower of pizza next to the days inn. we had some great local brews (surly furious) and a late dinner. it was a great last night, and we said goodbyes and i went back to my room and packed and stayed up way too late.

i had a direct flight back to pittsburgh and it was happily uneventful. i was lucky to be sitting on the right side of the plane to see the city as we flew in. here's a photo i took of my hometown:



i can't even begin to express how great it was to be home. i actually missed pittsburgh, and i especially missed my two favorite guys. i got some really great hugs and smiles and had a full weekend with my family to look forward to.