Welcome to the Grain Belt: January 2012

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Foshay Tower

Since my last post, the southern Minnesota temperatures have been unusually mild. It almost looks as though my first Minnesota winter will not be a true one at all. It was so sunny and still on this late January Sunday that we decided to venture into downtown Minneapolis to visit the Foshay Tower. This building was an extravagant project commissioned by the industrial baron W. Foshay. In its day it was the tallest building in the Minneapolis skyline. Shortly after it was completed in 1929, the stock market crashed, causing Foshay to lose his entire fortune.

Vintage poster for the tower's opening ceremony

Minneapolis business district with Wells Fargo Bank headquarters

Original elevator doors from 1929 building

Thursday, January 19, 2012

New Year, Freezing Temperatures

Happy new year, everyone! January has brought terrifyingly cold temperatures to the Twin Cities. It did not get too cold in December (daytime temperatures didn't drop below 6 degrees Fahrenheit), but with the new year come new freezing blasts of cold air. Apparently, freezing Arctic winds have swept through the Canadian plains and made their way into southern Minnesota. It is currently -3 degrees Fahrenheit (-19 Celsius), and I am afraid to go outside! I hope to post some pictures soon of the frozen Mississippi River and Minnesotans engaged in their crazy winter sports.

Welcome.

Minnesota, a state truly worthy of the numerous appellations which it has been given: the Corn Belt, the Grain Belt, Land of 10,000 Lakes, the Upper Midwest, the Gopher State, and home of Al Franken, only to name a few. Minnesota, a state whose natural beauty is exemplified in its name, the Dakota word for "sky-tinted water."

Minnesota is a state in which I had never dreamed of living. If not a European capital, I assumed that I would always reside in a U.S. city located not more than 350 miles inland from the East or West Coast. The notion of relocating from Munich to a city in the U.S. Midwest with limited public transit and even harsher winters than NW Pennsylvania was not particularly appealing. Moreover, the thought of bringing a European to a U.S. city with no U-Bahn was frightening as well.

The inception of our relocation to the Midwest happened last spring when David was offered a research position in Minneapolis. The only previous knowledge we had of Minneapolis was obtained through my layover in the MSP Airport in 1999 and through watching the Coen Brothers' cult classic "Fargo" twice.

Despite our many initial doubts, after doing thorough research, we were convinced of the livability of the Twin Cities. It didn't hurt that a number of college and grad school classmates and coworkers - including a former Smith College DJ from Minnesota whose judgement I trusted - assured me that the Twin Cities was a wonderful place to live.

So far, those friends and coworkers have been correct in their assertions. Minneapolis and Saint Paul form a cultural center in the Upper Midwest which includes theaters, museums, art galleries, music venues, funky ethnic restaurants, and microbreweries. What's more, the Twin Cities are much more progressive than I realized. The Twin Cities are also in the forefront of the eco-friendly movement, claiming the title of the number one biking city in the United States. And the cities' prime location on the Mississippi River as well as the myriad of lakes within the city limits create a truly unique landscape.

As I had intended to start a blog while in Munich about bad European fashion trends and tragically never did realize that goal, I am determined to regularly update this blog so that my colleagues and friends who live so far away can see what I am experiencing here. It is with these opening words that I say welcome to the Grain Belt.