On Saturday I decided to finally see some of the downtown area of Minneapolis. So I headed out in the late morning by foot. It’s not a long walk, maybe 30 minutes to get to the city centre from here. As I got closer and closer I didn’t really get the feeling I was in the heart of Minneapolis despite the towering skyscrapers. I guess the feeling was accentuated by the wide straight streets and generally not seeing a whole bunch of people.
I walked past the cinema and decided to have a look what’s on. Once inside it then occurred to me that all the skyscrapers are connected by walkway bridges. It’s basically one giant interconnected shopping centre! But there was hardly anybody around so I figured that they must have build this for the cold winter days when it gets down to -30C here.
I headed back outside and got to the city square where there was a gathering of Asian people. Finally something to see! 😀 I put myself down and watched the performances that were put on. Judging from the flags I guess most of them were South Vietnamese. There was singing, the children were dancing and a bit later on there was a fashion show behind the stage. You can all see it in the photos in the links below.
I checked my watch and realised it was already 15:30 and I still wanted to go to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) so I walked for about 15 minutes south until I saw this massive building with two Chinese dragon statues. No mistake, that was it. Admission was free but i had to leave my bag. Luckily they let me keep my camera so I cautiously took some photos of the interesting Chinese art on display. Lynn, you help me with the Chinese characters on the stone doorway. I forgot why it was so important hehe
I spend most of the time looking at the Jade sculptures, one is a giant block carved with the gathering of poets. Another is two layered jade, white and red carved beautifully into a vase. Then there was of course the porcelain or otherwise known as china. The Dutch and English were once the most prominent traders in the East Indies and much porcelain was shipped from China to the Netherlands. To my knowledge, the Dutch then copied the blue designs on the porcelain to make it our own and we call it Delfts Blauw (or Delfts blue – Delft is a town in the Netherlands).
The third floor had a bunch of paintings. Two whole rooms contained paintings by Dutch artists I’ve already forgotten. Nonetheless, I decided I liked them a lot more than the Italian art always showing God, angels and other religious rubbish. And, somebody tell me what is the deal with naked boys in these paintings? No wonder the Vatican church has a problem with pedophilia….
The museum closed and I decided to head back to the cinema. There was a really good movie showing called “Moon”. It’s a classic sci-fi that reminds you of 2001: A space Odyssey. I will not reveal what it’s about. You have to trust me it’s really good and go see it yourself 😀
I came home all wet because it started raining like crazy and just as i was about to enter the guest house lightning struck real close! After the initial shock I ran inside and took a shower. It was a really good day nonetheless but decided to make Sunday a boring and quiet one at the guest house he he. I’m starting a new experiment on Monday. I hope this one will work! I didn’t have much luck last week.
Cheers to everybody!
Photos
Picasa
Photobucket (for Lynn):
Minneapolis
Vietnamese music
Art museum
