Jetlas strikes... me.:(

Sighhhhhh.We've been so good! Tuckering ourselves out during the day, and even with an afternoon nap, managing to sleep through the night. Until tonight. It really sucks. Especially because Nick CAN sleep, so I'm probably ruining tomorrow for him as well. It's 3:20am...and after sleeping from about 10:30 til 2:30, suddenly I'm wide awake.

Anyway, suckiness aside, I thought I might put in a brief chronology of the last few days. Nick's said he'll dothe next properpost (with pics) because it is a really frustrating process uploading photos on mini computer over wifi. So, thought I'd also give my thoughts on Minneapolis as well :).

Day 1 in Minneapolis - arrived Sunday lunch time, Walmart visit, nap, walked and got pizza (DELICIOUS, and notthe deep pan kind, just beautiful fresh homemade sauce and fresh ingredients on a thing tasty crust. Loved it. Then, beers (to help with sleep) and bed.

Day 2 - Up pretty reasonable time, missed brekkie (major sad face) then walked to Mall of America (3km) and around the Mall (several kilometres in itself). Lunch was an awesome fresh mexican place in the oversized (surprise surprise) food court. You could chose between Fajitas, Enchiladas, Quesadillas, and then Fajita style Quesadillas, Enchilada style Fajitas etc. Just ordered the first thingI saw rather than stuff around trying tounderstand the difference. Home (another 3km) for a nap, then back for dinner at Bubba Gump's (see pics in previous post). Walked off friedy goodness and the many beers. They come in 22oz. Quite ungainly, seeing as a pint is apparently 16 oz. It was here that the bartender advised us to go to Uptown if we got a chance, and was soooooo much better than crummy old downtown (so he said). You have to show your ID everytime you get a drink here, quite tedious, considering how crappy the Queensland licence is, but noone's refused us service yet (for any reason :).

Day 3 - Walked to Mall and caught light rail into city. Walked around a bit, and went to Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. I reckon Downtown actually rocked. So clean, and green parts everywhere really.Walked through the uni in town, and saw old mate squirrel, and it was just...so liveable. Lots of cute little town-homes (as they call them) and such a safe and nice vibe. Did a few more kms, saw the Minnesota Twins baseball park (Target Field, Target actually has its main office here) and then home to Mall's monster foodcourt and 'italian' lunch. Then Nick takes over from here with next 'real' post...

But I will say that NOONE has guessed our accent, and they do struggle a bit to understand. One guy guessed NZ, which really wasn't too bad. But on whole... they have no clue, and actually generally really polite so noone's really asked, even when the confused expression crosses their faces.

Quote of the trip so far, when gettingour crappy IDs checked by confused Minnesotan girl in an outside alley-style bar (they obviously have a massive inside, seeing as it kinda snows here in winter, a lot) near Twins stadium:
"We don't even have 17 months in our year here"

It was funny and sad at the same time, that she didn't know that other countries do their dates differently - and that we don't have a funky year.

Close second though, while being bailed up by one of those godawful stall-holders in the mall (a girl whosaid she was from Israel, conincidentally the same country as the crap she was peddling came from)... and AFTER a short conversation... "where are you guys from? You don't look like you're from around here" (tookit asa compliment, but all the girls my age are either fat or are fake blonde and tanned, athletic clones) "Australia"... "Do you speak english?"