This morning, we woke up, showered and made the long trek across the street to the Minneapolis Art Institute. The museum was pretty impressive. They had a really nice Van Gogh - Olive Trees, a couple Rodin sculptures and another impressionist painting that I really liked but forget the name of. There was one exhibit that was a portion of a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The owners of the house had apparently fell upon hard times while building the house and it was eventually sold to the Metrolpolitan Museum of Art in New York and then pieces of it were re-sold to other museums. So, that was cool.
After our visit to the museum, we hopped in the car and went to Lake Calhoun for a picnic lunch. Lake Calhoun is very nice and affords wonderful views of the Minneapolis skyline. The only downside of our picnic (it certainly wasn't the pb&j) was a cool guy in a camaro who was under the impression that everyone in the park wanted to hear his crappy music (he was mistaken). We ate on Thomas Beach and were going to take a picture of the sign but then forgot and were too lazy to go back.
We then continued our tour of Big 10 campuses by visiting the University of Minnesota. We wandered around for a little while and then sat in the grass in front of Northrop Auditorium. The grass was very green and was a vast improvement over the dying yellow grass at UW. A spectacle unique to college campuses that I've missed in the years since I've left school was taking place. There was a crazy fundamentalist christian preacher on the mall telling us all about our future damnation. Some students were making the mistake of trying to reason with him or critique his argument style which obviously appeared to be a waste of time to those of us who have previously witnessed such an event. The best thing to do is just sit back and laugh. In addition to our friend, the preacher, there was a large photo display (like 6' x 8') of aborted fetuses and genocide victims in front of the union. This display was also met with a contingent of protesters that were pleading for "Contraception not condemnation" as though they were going to convince anyone to change their mind on this issue. I'm not sure that I've come to a conclusion regarding what I think about either side of either issue. It's interesting to see people fight for a cause that they really believe in but on both sides it seems like a waste of time and unconstructive. I can remember being in the mindset of the young people arguing with the preacher and believing that by being calm and asking questions and stating my beliefs we might come to some sort of understanding or even respect. Today, however, I just felt like everyone was wasting their energy. I'm so jaded. Oh, to be 19 and overzealous.....
As we walked away from the protests and off the mall area, Kate ran into a woman that she knew from law school. Random. On top of that, Kate and some of her friends were convinced that this woman had a lesbian crush on her. I had never met her before but I was fairly confident that this was the girl with the crush and with that in mind, I sensed a bit of jealousy when Kate introduced me as her husband. She seemed nice enough and after a few minutes of awkward small talk, she was on her way and Kate and I were back to feeling like strangers in a strange land.
After a brief tour of downtown that I led for Kate (this consisted mainly of boring places that I went to while in Minneapolis for work in August of 08 - for example, the Chipotle that I ate at was one highlight), we headed back to the hostel. Kate took a nap while I read a book. We then cooked some spaghetti, drank some wine and relaxed. That brings us to the present tense.
After our visit to the museum, we hopped in the car and went to Lake Calhoun for a picnic lunch. Lake Calhoun is very nice and affords wonderful views of the Minneapolis skyline. The only downside of our picnic (it certainly wasn't the pb&j) was a cool guy in a camaro who was under the impression that everyone in the park wanted to hear his crappy music (he was mistaken). We ate on Thomas Beach and were going to take a picture of the sign but then forgot and were too lazy to go back.
We then continued our tour of Big 10 campuses by visiting the University of Minnesota. We wandered around for a little while and then sat in the grass in front of Northrop Auditorium. The grass was very green and was a vast improvement over the dying yellow grass at UW. A spectacle unique to college campuses that I've missed in the years since I've left school was taking place. There was a crazy fundamentalist christian preacher on the mall telling us all about our future damnation. Some students were making the mistake of trying to reason with him or critique his argument style which obviously appeared to be a waste of time to those of us who have previously witnessed such an event. The best thing to do is just sit back and laugh. In addition to our friend, the preacher, there was a large photo display (like 6' x 8') of aborted fetuses and genocide victims in front of the union. This display was also met with a contingent of protesters that were pleading for "Contraception not condemnation" as though they were going to convince anyone to change their mind on this issue. I'm not sure that I've come to a conclusion regarding what I think about either side of either issue. It's interesting to see people fight for a cause that they really believe in but on both sides it seems like a waste of time and unconstructive. I can remember being in the mindset of the young people arguing with the preacher and believing that by being calm and asking questions and stating my beliefs we might come to some sort of understanding or even respect. Today, however, I just felt like everyone was wasting their energy. I'm so jaded. Oh, to be 19 and overzealous.....
As we walked away from the protests and off the mall area, Kate ran into a woman that she knew from law school. Random. On top of that, Kate and some of her friends were convinced that this woman had a lesbian crush on her. I had never met her before but I was fairly confident that this was the girl with the crush and with that in mind, I sensed a bit of jealousy when Kate introduced me as her husband. She seemed nice enough and after a few minutes of awkward small talk, she was on her way and Kate and I were back to feeling like strangers in a strange land.
After a brief tour of downtown that I led for Kate (this consisted mainly of boring places that I went to while in Minneapolis for work in August of 08 - for example, the Chipotle that I ate at was one highlight), we headed back to the hostel. Kate took a nap while I read a book. We then cooked some spaghetti, drank some wine and relaxed. That brings us to the present tense.
No comments:
Post a Comment