Saturday, July 08, 2006
Minnesota. Minneso-TAH!
April 20th. More than 2 months ago. I can’t believe that it’s been that long. On that day, we landed in the chilly city of Minneapolis (or was it St. Paul? I actually I don’t know…). The city of a thousand lakes. For me, the city of a thousand sighs. It was quiet. Serene suburbia. Really had that feeling of safety. You could hear even the softest sighs. The roads were not congested. You could see mostly vans, family cars. The lawns were huge, the spaces were huge, the people… there weren’t a lot on the streets. You’d think that it would be more appropriate to put a Mall of America where there were more people. But, well, maybe that was the way to get people to go there. Or maybe that’s where all the people in Minneapolis are! Maybe. The buildings were huge too. They have two huge churches (at least, I saw 2)—St. Paul Cathedral and the Basilica of St. Mary—where it takes around 6 seconds for the echo to reverberate. Surreal.
I remember though that as the first city in our tour (not counting the 3 stop-overs we had where we only see the inside of the airports anyway), it was also the first city that proved how diverse the US can be. From the hustle and bustle in LA and Las Vegas that I got accustomed to from previous visits to the nation of the free, Minnesota showed the quiet side of America. The slow pace that the great country takes at times. The serenity of walking around a grand mall or in a sculpture garden. In the midst of sudden gushes wind and rain and sunshine. In the middle of bars that sound mostly like karaoke bars and chorale concerts. It was cold then, on the tail of winter about to give way to spring. But I felt the first warmth of Filipino hospitality in American tradition there. I sigh a thousand sighs for Minnesota. -19-21april2006
tweenkies_1106 at 11:33 AM