Fully packed for the weekend...

Sugar free syrup....

The cold is unimaginable!

Yesterday I stayed indoors - it is freakiiiin' cold!!!! However I had to get out in the evening as we were picking up Michael's new car. I am not at all equipped to this weather. There is still no snow, but -12º and a terrible wind. After picking up the car we went to Dick’s Sporting Goods and spent $350 on warm clothes and new boots.

Vores nye par-støvler

My new cycling gear

Ice crystals on the inside of our window.
No snow, but -12 degrees and strong wind

The orientation program went good. There were a lot of students there. I didn’t meet any Danes nor anyone who should study public health. There were a lot of people from Norway so (of course :-$) I hooked up and hang out with them. Most of them lived on campus and not “on Michael’s and my side of the river”.
 

I have problems with waiving the University health plan. I am covered through Michaels job (Europæiske), however as it is not a “US-based employer sponsored plan” (whatever that means), it seems as if I have to pay 1300$ (7500 kr) for their insurance as well.  However, I do need a Hep B vaccination, a new tetanus shot and screening for tuberculosis (?) in order to be at the School of Public Health, and as I don’t think Europæiske will cover that, I guess I will benefit from the university health plan in the end. I will find out today if I can waiver or not, and then I can get my shots on Thursday when I’m off at 10.

Then came the cold

Uuuuh, it's freakin' cold now. This morning when I took off to the orientation program this sun was shining and the sky was blue. As I got out five hours later it was snowing - however not much - and windy. The wind just makes the cold so much more painful. It is around -6º now, but I figure it feels like -15º or so because of the wind. We took the bikes to the fitness club earlier today, we were dying!!! One the way home we saw a guy riding his bike with a skiing helmet and a pair of ski-goggles – if I’m cycling to school every day I need that as well.

Dinner on Chipolte after training, huge burritos.

Today I'll attend the International Student Orientation

9 + 10th of January

Monday Michael found rye flour - Waaay. Now we’re one step closer to backing our own rye bread… (Exciting reading I presume ;-D) We had a quiet night as we had planned to go spinning at six o’clock i.e. we were getting up at five in the “morning”. 

Tuesday morning, we did get up and did one hour of spinning. Afterwards Michael left for work and I did some laps in the small swimming pool (18 meters I think it is) our fitness club has. Afterwards I treated myself with a steam bath… I guess that I’ll have to use all the facilities every time I go there, in order for the extremely high price to be ehm... balanced out. 

  

This evening we went to the east bank of Minneapolis to do some bouldering Michael had found out about on the Internet.

Our apartment

Our living room

Our living and dinning room and a bit of the kitchen

The kitchen

The view from our bedroom and our bedroom

Where we live

110 West Grant Street, 29th floor, apartment G, Minneapolis, MN, 55403. This is the building seen from the front, our apartment is on the opposite, northern, side. (This white thing on the left is the outdoor-but-now-covered-pool)

The first weekend

The day after we arrived, Michael started working, i.e. I had the day to myself. We picked up Michaels rental car and he drove me to the part of campus where I had to do my “Document Check” in order to enroll in my courses. The Document Check went easy and I walked across the Mississippi river to another part of campus and had my student ID card done and visited Carol who is employed at the School of Public Health and has been extremely helpful to me and who I had been looking forward to meeting. She gave me a short tour of the premises, showing me some of the class rooms in which I’ll be having classes, the computer facilities etc. She was wonderful!

Me in front of something with a high-rise in the background...

Saturday we went spinning in an extravagant gym west of Minneapolis, they had 25 foot swimming pool, steam and dry sauna, they provided towels, shampoo, conditioner, you name it and had a whirlpool in the locker rooms. (A biiit more than I am used to from Fitnessworld...).

After spinning, we went to The Mall of America, which apparently is Americas biggest shopping mall… There were rollercoaster’s, a ferris wheel and some other Tivoli stuff inside the mall.. Crazy. We’d heard that it would take one three days to visit all shops in there, but we did a tour (not visiting all shops though..) in four to six hours. 

Michael in his Christmas-gift-shirt we bought in Mall of America...

Lunch at The News Room

Me, looking wierd while having a nice lunch at The News Room

Sunday we went gym-shopping, we visited various gyms in order to find the best (to the price!?) near us or near Michaels work which is in Plymouth 20 minutes by car west of the city. We decided to go with the extravagant one from Saturday as they had two clubs in Downtown Minneapolis and a couple (including the one we visited Saturday) closed to Plymouth. Afterwards we went to Target and bought some very nice bikes and rode a trip round the city. 

Me, shopping bike

 Here is Michael with his gorgeous blue bike (I am a bit jealous! However as I am on a tight budget, I chose the (also very nice) cheaper bike)

We are on the old Stone Arch Bridge crossing Mississippi river, looking at the Fall of St. Anthony which I not quite know exactly what is....

Getting there and the prize

After thirteen hours of flight and an outrageous experience in Copenhagen Airport, comprising an unbelievable incompetent KLM employee, an extremely long queue for security, a “closed” on the info screen next to DL9362 which was our flight and a sprint to the gate in the farthest part of the airport, we finally opened the door to what is going to be our home for the next six to seven months. We are on the 29^th floor and we were met by this view:

Moments later, it changed to this:

And then to: