Dear City of Minneapolis,
Thank you for your thoughtfulness during my brief stay this week. In a matter of 24 hours, your residents acted in the following most amiable ways:
- Finding that there was no earlier flight in the 3+ hour time span between my arrival at the airport and my scheduled departure, no fewer than four of your ticketing agents clamored to assist me in locating and understanding the time frame to visit the Mall of America.
- Having been told by the aforementioned Kind Ticketers that the ticket machine for the light rail accepted credit cards (a minor miracle in and of itself to we Philadelphians), I did not concern myself with my lack of readily-accessible liquid assets. However, seeing me fiddling with one of the machines, a nice young gentleman approached the other, informing me that the credit card function was currently broken, and directed me to an ATM. I thanked him and mentioned that I might just try the other one when he was done, just in case. However, as he finished, he reached out and deposited the exact fare amount (in two gold-dollar coins, no less) into my hand.
- While in one MoA store, one young lady offered me the large dressing room to accomodate my small suitcase, and another interestedly asked me the details of where I was from and if she could do anything to help.
- On the tram back to the airport, a pleasant young man asked me about my trip, and remained friendly but not over-chatty even after determining that the ring on a certain left finger was, indeed, indicative of matrimony (and kindly verbalized the breaking of his heart - twice - once for not living in Minneapolis, and once for being married).
Thank you for your outstanding welcoming committee!
Sincerely yours,
Preethi
3 comments:
i know many a minnesotan who would be glad to hear about your happy visit to minneapolis :-)
p.s. every time i open my wallet and see several philadelphia light rail tokens, i think...
Wow, Minneapolis sounds like the place to be! Will have to put it on our short list for the residency/postdoc years.
Maybe there's something about cities in the Midwest -- I once had a lovely trip to Chicago that culminated in someone offering me a free tattoo as a memento of my visit.
Anyway -- it's so great to find you! We are thrilled that you and Dan are married, we hadn't heard, all the way up here in the frozen wastelands of Vermont. We look forward to keeping tabs on you, and trying out the recipes you post. If you guys can think of a good excuse to come this far north, please do, we would love to host you! (I recommend waiting for spring, though, unless you ski . . .)
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