Blogs from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, North America

HOW TO HELP EDUCATE TANZANIA Tell three friends to visit our website and learn about the project. http://educatetanzania.org Examine your resources and expertise. See a match within the KARUCO plan? Let us know. Educatetanzania@gmail.com Do you have $39.00? (Equivalent of the average yearly income in Karagwe). Hit the yellow donate button. Have more than $39. Don't be shy. We will put it to good use. Connect: sign up for our 1x month newsletter. ETI never shares contact info. Attend one of our events. Help us spread the word and invest in KARUCO. Events are posted on our website. Http://educatetanzania.org 2013 Event: May 31st / Auction / Dinner / Fundraiser / Hazeltine National Golf Course MN Fund a building ($100K) or water delivery system ($250K) or landmark tower ($30K) or technology plan (TBD) :-) Ot... read more

So the haze is clearing. Coming into the cold, white winter. Birds on the side of the white roads. Black birds. Crows, in fact. Just one. I saw one hawk as well. One dead deer. Lots on indoor/outdoor amusement parks with water slides and other exciting slide-like rides. Wind not too bad today just the temperature. Staying warm in the car though and now in Jason's house. Thank you Jason and wife! They have a 8 month old son named Tony David. HIs wife is Taiwanese who grew up in Costa Rica. Perfect for Jason who lived in Taiwan and Bolivia and speaks Mandarin and Spanish, like her. I will find out her name tomorrow. Hmm. Heading further north tomorrow through Duluth. I will follow Jason there since he is going for a funeral. Then on ... read more

A 3 hours trip from LAX i arrived at the airport (middnight). They call minnesota, 'The twin cities' because two major cities connect, minneapolis and the other city being St Paul. The whole of minneapolis is divided into uptown, downtown and the suburbs. They streets sound so simple because they name them by numbers so 1st street (downtown)to 100th Street (uptown). But its super big and confusing to me! Driving the streets is intersting because you can see 'gangs' walking around, while ive been told there not racist, people still describe each other as black, white or asian. or the new one i learnt "hipsters" (people who wear tight jeans and glasses with no glass). They are very gun friendly- its normal to have a gun in the glove box of your car which i just ... read more

"Por que Minnesota!? Ahi hace tanto frio!" Es la reaccion mas comun que recibo cuando le explico a la gente que soy de Costa Rica, pero que ahora vivo en este rincon de los Estados Unidos. Si es cierto, hace un frio del carajo, pero este lugar se ha convertido en mi segundo hogar. Aqui he encontrado una excelente una universidad, que me ha recibido bajo su gran estandarte. Aqui tambien he encontrado amistades que por una razon u otra han perdurado, y se que perduraran en el futuro. Aqui, sin ninguna duda, he encontrado mi segundo hogar. "Cuantas veces he buscado refugio de la lluvia y la nieve, pensando en este, mi segundo hogar..."... read more

After mulling over what my first blog entry would be about I decided against attempting to write the minute after minute observations that can be found in my travel journal. The places, the people, and the sounds were all recorded and after scanning through my pages, I realized that 95% of my friends and family would probably stop reading after the second page. So here you will find a general overview of my trip, far less rich and exciting than the real deal, but hopefully enjoyable and informative to read. The trip begins in Minneapolis, and ends in Pune India, nearly 8000 miles away from home. Welcome to my journey. 11:14 AM, Minneapolis I've been missing everyone back home. While my flight was delayed I realized that I had been second guessing myself all week about ... read more

I always feel a little emotional around October 21. The date has bilateral significance for me. In 1925 it marked the birth of my Grandma Ruth, and in 2006 it marked the last time I ever saw her. Her trademark sense of humor shone through in her response when I revealed that I was moving to China on her birthday--'well, that's a fine how-do-you-do!.' As I hugged her tightly goodbye, tears spilled from my eyes. To this day, I don't know whether they were tears of apprehension about my move overseas or if I had some premonition that I would never see her again. I do know that as she hugged me back, memories from my childhood came flooding through my mind. The weekend sleepovers at her house, smell of fresh coffee luring me awake; ... read more

U subotu 29.09. krenuli smo za Minneapolis. Iz Washingtona smo sletjeli u Detroit a potom u Minneapolis. Minneapolis je najveći grad savezne države Minnesota poznate i kao zemlje s 10 000 jezera. Minnesota graniči s Kanadom te imaju veoma hladne zime. Zbog jakih zima napravili su tunele koje povezuju sve važnije zgrade u gradu tako da se ljudi ne smrzavaju kad se kreću gradom i idu npr. na posao. Navečer smo izašli van u gay klub Saloon gdje su organizirali zabavu na temu cirkusa. Minneapolis ima mnogo različitosti a sve to se je moglo vidjeti u klubu. Zabava je bila dobra tako da smo ostali do kasno i oko 3 ujutro smo se vraćali u hotel. Na putu smo vidjeli jedno policijsko uhićenje s brdo policije i naouružanja a u hotelu je isto bila neka tučnjava ... read more

I recently had dinner with 15 high school students from China at a well-known Minneapolis eatery called the Old Spaghetti Factory. As we were leaving, a table of six stopped me to inquire if they were all mine. They were joking, but in a funny way, the sentiment rang true. The students arrived on the rather ominous date of Friday, July 13th. They were going to be participating in the pilot year of a four-week leadership training program that I had spent April through July creating and scheduling. If the program were deemed a success, it had the potential to become an annual thing that would include prospective students from countries all over the world. So, no pressure. While designing the program curriculum, I took many factors into account: the importance of finding dedicated, competent core ... read more