A Weekend of Fun

This last weekend was jam packed with fun events. And I was only planning on two of them.

Ethiopian Food
Friday night Kelly, C. John, Sarah and I went to the Blue Nile for some authentic Ethiopian food. It was quite delicious! Some of the dishes were a little too over/heavily spiced for my liking, but the mixture of flavors was good. Everything was pureed too. We got a huge platter that sampled all of the main dishes and each of them was a bean paste consistency sauce with either more beans/veggies (vegetarian ones) or meat floating in them. Food is consumed by tearing off a piece of enjera (flat, porous, dense pancake like material that's ~1/8" thick) and scooping up your choice of flavored paste. The other dish we tried was a mix of veggies in a butter sauce with herbs/spices and plain rice. Also tastey. It was really cool to try something different for a change. Afterwards we stopped off at the Resouce Center for the Americas. They have an inhouse library/bookstore. Lots of neat material on Central/South American countries. Some decadent chocolate on sale too.

Global Market
Saturday morning Kelly, C. John and I convened in Midtown Minneapolis to go to the grand opening of the Midtown Exchange. The various entities are housed in a former Sears building that is gigantic. Warehouse sized on the bottom with at least a 10 story tower shooting out the middle. The building houses lofts, condos/penthouses, Allina Health offices and the Global Market. The market is packed with stores owned by local international families who sell various things. Some are cafe style places that offer food fresh cooked. Some are more market like and sell products, cards, trinkets, hand-made items, etc. The food selection was phenomenal. So many good smells and tastes. You can sample Indian on one corner and Mexican the next. El Salvadorian and Chinese. After a tastey lunch of mango juice and a turkey sandwich we toured some of the lofts/penthouses upstairs. A very hot guy took us up in the elevator. His name was Chris, but didn't think quick enough to give him my phone number. He caught a few glances at me.

St. Anthony Park Arts Fair
Saturday afternoon Kelly and I wandered through the arts fair on Como Ave. It was significantly smaller than the Midtown Exchange, but interesting too. A small petting zoo and various arts booths were on hand. Lots of pottery for sale. Didn't know it was such a big thing here in the cities.

Dinner and Movies
Anticipating a call from a new friend with an invite to go dancing that night, we plopped in my apartment and rested for a while. We watched a couple movies and ate some coconut/cilantro chicken with chicken flavored rice, broccoli and a special peanut sauce.

Dancing?
Our friend (Carmen) finally called and gave us her address. Well, she could live just about anywhere in the cities. We took a stab and headed out. We were actually pretty close to where we were supposed to be, but even the last few turns to her house were rather confusing and something we wouldn't have figured out on our own. Carmen never gave us actual directions. We had to pry out of her how to get there from where we were. She seemed just as confused as we were. After standing around her house for a while and not really understanding what Carmen or her aunt were saying because they both spoke very softly and in low tones, we finally headed out. Surprise, I'm driving! Carmen didn't really give a lot of direction then either. Had to make a turn around to get to a parking spot. Watched a cop pick up some guy who was laying on the sidewalk. We finally made it to the dancing place and hopped out. $15 to dance from 12-2. Too bad I only had $13 on me. Carmen and her brother offered to pay for both of us. She didn't seem to understand what we wanted to know about the time. She kept saying 11, but it was obviously after that and most likely going to go later than 11pm. Kelly explained to her that we had to get up early for church and 2am was a bit late for us. She convinced her that it would be better to go on a Friday so we could stay later. Perhaps Kelly will go in 2 weeks. We'll see. I'll be in PA then. The place seemed nice and there were a lot of people in line to get in. All of them were dressed in "cowboy/country" attire with hats and boots. Not sure what kind of dancing it was going to be exactly. We thought salsa, but perhaps more slow or line dancing? Who knows.

A Day of Rest
Sunday I spent recuperating from a fun filled Friday and Saturday. Went to church and heard (more of a lecture really) a sermon on the DaVinci Code--separating fact from fiction. He (Pr. Sean) did a really good job presenting info.--stuff I learned in history class at sem. and some new stuff related particularly to the fictive nature of the book (the Priory of Sion and refuting claims the characters made in the book). Went to the grocery store and wandered a bit. Bought A LOT of yogurt. Watched a couple movies and laid on the floor a lot. Distributed a few things across the hall to Karen's old room to start separating things for packing.

All in all, a very fun, active and crazy weekend!!!