Minneapolis Isn't So Bad

I'm teaching a class in Minneapolis this week and as part of my New Year/turn over a new leaf/make yourself a better person thing, I've decided that I have to blog about it...

What to say about Minneapolis... Well in the past I've slagged Minneapolis a bit (okay, I've slagged it a lot), but that was mostly because I was usually stuck out in the boonies. And I'm not talking about the middle of nowhere here; I'm talking about being on the outskirts of the middle of nowhere. My opinion of Minneapolis changed a couple of years ago when I had a class downtown. I'm ready to recant.

The city has a lot of little areas with tons of good ethnic restaurants. This week, I'm with a colleague who is Muslim, so we've been hitting Halal restaurants. Not only is it easier for him than trying to find something filling and vegetarian, but restaurants with Halal food tend to have the kind of food I like to eat anyway. Everybody wins. So far we're two-for-two on picking good spots for dinner. Monday, we went to a Somalian restaurant called Safari. Loved it. If you've never tried Somalian food and you're in the area, I recommend you try it out. We had the roasted goat and steak curry - yu-hum! Last night we went to Marina Grill and Deli. They have a middle-eastern buffet, but we both went for the kebab combo (lamb, beef chicken and kafta). Even without the rice, it's a big meal. The area is a little sketch, but how bad can it be - it's Minneapolis...

Another place I like to frequent when downtown is a good English pub called Brit's Pub. Go in the summer and head to the rooftop for the sunshine and lawn bowling.

In theory, I'm going to be doing a lot more teaching in Ottawa, but so far, a lot of them are getting canceled on me. I have a couple of good trips coming up in February. I'm going to back to Colombia to teach a class in Cartagena (the colonial architecture "gem" of Colombia, apparently), and later in the month, Mexico City. I may have to go to Bloomington, IL instead of Mexico because of a prior commitment, but hopefully it will work out (my god I hope it works out; ever been to Bloomington?) Can't wait to get back to Mexico; I'm craving marginally sanitary street vendor tacos, tortas, and hamburgers already!