Othanical

A lowly undergraduate climbing toward the light.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Grist

Today I played the role of scientist, commuter, and tourist.

As I mentioned at the tail end of my previous post, I am in the great state of Minnesota. I'll try to give you a little more than the wikipedia article.

I am a guest researcher in a research lab on the Twin Cities campus. Even coming from Maryland, which ain't so bad, I feel like I have stepped into the ultimate form of America. The ultimate form of America can be described as having every nuclear family outdoors most of the day, all of them riding their bikes down the plentiful bike paths, caring for their incredibly well manicured lawns, barbecuing their veggie burgers as frequently as possible, helping their neighbors, blaring NPR from all orifices of the home, and all of this occurring while it's being 77 degrees outside. Quite possibly the definition of heaven on earth.

There is a co-op craze here that can only be chalked up to the beautifully progessive nature of the state (or at least the Minneapolis metropolitan area). I felt somewhat hickish telling my colleague that I did not care whether my food was organic or whether it came straight from the beaker of PepsiCo. But everyone knows where at least three co-ops are. I am sure by the time I leave will have been completely pushed to the extreme left of the political spectrum.

On a semi-related note, I have become a vegetarian -- but I've known that I was going to become one since February, but that is another post.

I traveled over to Minneapolis campus today --taking in the massive massiveness of it all. St. Paul and Minneapolis are called the twin cities because they are right next to each other, and the Mississippi River splits them in half. Minnesota is such a cool state, that it built a transitway -- on which only buses and bikes are allowed on, between the two campuses. One can easily commute between the two campuses. The two campuses together are home to 60,000 students. The Minneapolis campus is where most of the students are educated, and as you can guess, things are built upward. The new buildings are impressive. The old buildings are impressive. This place is just impressive.

As you can tell I am impressed. But by many more things.

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