abi_maha

When we landed in Minneapolis on 1st Jan 2010 we thought the flight had instead landed in Alaska! Even as we stepped out of the airport to get into the cab my legs started cramping!! My DNA was structured to live in tropical temperatures, Minneapolis was far far from that I'd think! We were totally unprepared for this cold! AJ's organization gave him a 2 day notice to relocate to the USA from India, so it was proportional that they gave us a one day notice to relocate to Minneapolis from Columbus, Ohio. Finding a mover and packer on New Year's Eve had been our worst nightmare but somehow we had found a good samaritan and now we were here in Minneapolis! We didn't know how long we'd be here and honestly at that point we didn't wish to be there for too long! It was late in the night and as the cab drove through 494 we saw what then seemed liked mountains of snow by the road! Brrrr.....

We reached Candlewood Suites next to portland avenue and as we checked in an eerie silence fell upon us.... we were wondering if we had done the right thing with AJ accepting this assignment. I am a hardcore South Indian with little exposure to winter. Even on my multitudes of vacation I had studiously avoided winters what with my perennial sinus problems I hardly needed any cold! I had just turned down a couple of employment offers, the year 2009 wasn't a great time to be looking for employment, in that environment I had cracked interviews and turned down jobs ot come to this place...did I need a mental check up??? Thinking these thoughts, it was the longest climb up 2 floors to our sute (if you want to call it that, these IT companies sponsored really lousy pads for their employees in the name of cost cutting!)

SusanM

I was born in Minneapolis and still have some family there. The winters are brutal, but the summers go a long way toward making up for them. Do be sure to get out and enjoy the numerous lakes and parks. If you're water lovers, you may even eventually want to invest in a boat...

abi_maha

Thanks Susan, I couldn't agree more.. I will continue my report, we did stay the summer and fall there and our opinion totally changed in due time..

Cali

I love Minneapolis in both winter and summer. We don't live in Minnesota anymore but we always go back in both the winter and summer and love it, but do know the natives were really complaining about the long winter this year. Love walking around the lakes and miss that the most as we don't have any place like that around here.

abi_maha

Hi Cali, this winter has been truly horrid. For a brief period there we all felt haunted...like it was never going away. But now the weather's brilliant..!

abi_maha

Ok, let me continue where I left off... am still unsure on how to structure this trip report since years worth of life in Minnesota will end up too lengthy for this forum... so let me outline our experiences by month. It took us all of Jan and Feb to rent an apartment and find myself a job. Ironically all my life I had studiously avoided being in IT, now I succumbed and joined an IT organization as a Retail Consultant. End of Feb 2010 we moved into an apartment in Eagan, by then we kind of got used to the winter there. The remarkable thing about MN is that no amount of snow can stop life. I remember a day when we had some 21 inches of snow and all of us were cooped up indoors for about 3 hours, after which an efficient clearing of the roads occurred and life resumed as normal! A-m-a-z-i-n-g! By end of March we were pretty much settled in and the winter started receding. We made a couple of local trips to the downtown area, Minnehaha Falls and some of the state parks. The parks in Ohio were way better than the ones here, but as the snow began to melt sevral of the seemingly endless miles of snow started taking the shape of lakes.... now it dawned on us why our license plate said 10,000 lakes!

April saw a couple of snow storms but by mid April mostly the snow was a thing by-gone and this city tranformed into green luscious scenery! Never would I have dreamt this was even possible... in India when a place is this cold it remains so through out the year. It is very rare to see such swings in weather in such a bustling city! With the winter safely behind us, let me submit this before I lose it or something and I shall continue writing afterward..

abi_maha

The seasons in Minneapolis is what fascinated me through out our trip there. Spring was gone even before we knoew it and mid-May started feeling hot and humid!! The interesting fact about the lakes was that not every pond (like the one we had in the back yard of our apartment) qualified as a lake, it had to be atleast 2 sq. miles!!! Wow, 10,000 such lakes sure made it understandable as to why it got humid though we weren't close to the sea!!

Being travel buffs we started heading out to Chicago, Duluth, Apostle Islands and Madison areas almost every other weekend and suddenly life was very good. In Aug 2010 we flew our parents in from India. They were thrilled to be seeing us again after nearly a couple of years!! Their month and a half stay helped us disiilusion them about life in the USA. Somehow we all grew up seeing skyscrapers and fast track lives on TVs that depicted our impression of the US, but Minneapolis is a rather laid back town unlike the more popular New York or LA kind of lifestyles. We drove them to Chicago too which they absolutely loved!! Duluth Airshow is a must do and luckily occured when they were with us we absolutely loved the Blue Angels show!Another thing that was simply amazing was the Mall of America! We spent hours in the Mall Shopping and eating crepes at the Crepe Stall!
In September we managed to wiggle some vacation and took them to Niagara, New York and Washington DC. All in all they loved that trip! By end Sept 2010 it was time for them to leave. We all had tears in our eyes at the airport and the house felt really really empty once they left....

bluegreenaide

this certainly sounds like a life adventure. i have recently earned my mba and am waiting to start my own journey. things right now seem to be stagnant. i wish you many more more adventures and journies. take care.

abi_maha

Tanks bluegreenaide, for us this sure was an adventure all right. I guess that's what makes stepping out of your country fun, nothing is predictable and nothing is dull! Thanks for reading!

abi_maha

An insomnia attack and I am unable to sleep, so let me at least continue this trip report, I call it that because now we are back in India and I just want to share my experiences before I forget them in my country's everyday chaos! Once our parents left life suddenly seemed dull again, the only thing to wait for was my sisters arrival in end September. We are a close knit family, I have two lovely older sisters and the eldest one was coming to US on work. So she extended her trip by a week and stayed with us. Needless to say MOA was her shopping haven. We spent a glorious week staying up all night almost everyday!! We even managed a small but lovely vacation in Duluth. Just like that her trip was over and life was dull. Like chapters in a book, the next one for us was Fall.

We had a splendid fall last year, my colleague guided me to a fabulous fall drive and so th route we took was Minneapolis to Jay Cooke State park-->Duluth-->Grand MArais-->Grand Portage State park. All in a couple of days!! It was a memorable trip, the route had foliage that displayed color ranging from pale yellow to blazing crimson!!! This fall trip is an unforgettable memory I carry till date from Minnesota! Sometimes during the drive we'd wonder if this is what it felt like to drive through a rainbow!! The colors of the trees would reflect on our face, AJ and I could help being A-M-A-Z-E-D!!

abi_maha

As quickly as it arrived, so quickly it disappeared, Fall- the most beautiful season of is ironically the most short lived Well, we knew winter was arriving and we started gearing up for the same. This time around we planned our vacations during Thanksgiving and Christmas wel in advance. So November saw us flying out to Florida, 5 days in Southwestern Florida and the Everglades were heavenly and Christmas in December was spent in LA and Las Vegas. I shall report those as separate trip reports!
By the end of the year we were pretty sure that our stay in Minnesota was coming to an end. Early 2011 we decided to relocate back to India and as an ode to MN we went along the Mississippi river to watch the Great Bald Eagles fishing! We had an amazing experience watching these magnificent creatures and that is the last memory I have of the Minnesota Winter- that of Bald Eagles waiting patiently by the ice holes for their fish! AJ is an avid photographer, so we also spent a couple of nights near Prairie Du Chien to capture some glorious images of these birds. That was our very last trip here...
As we bid adieu to this wonderful state and our many friends here, a sudden nostalgia hit us! Even as we were eager to go back to home and family we were equally sad to leave our friends and colleagues from here... we had these wonderful memories to take back and that made it better....Bbye Minnesota...!! Will we ever see you again????

Cali

Loved your report abi-maha. I also think fall is the very best time in MN. I grew up on the North Shore so love that you enjoyed your trip from Duluth to Grand Portage. So much beautiful scenery. Glad your family was able to visit with you also.

abi_maha

Thanks Cali for reading and your kind words!

FrankS

Great report abi! I hoping for more installments.


Yes, you might see MN again. When I left many years ago, I thought I would never return. As it turns out, there are rumours my position might get transferred back in the next couple of years to MN

abi_maha

Thanks Frank for reading and I truly hope to be back there sometime and good for you if your return come true

Pegontheroad

I really enjoyed your report. It's always interesting to see what visitors think of the country, especially when they separate the real America--or parts of it--from what you see on TV and movies.

abi_maha

Thanks for reading,Pegontheroad!