Coming to the Mall of America
It was Friday night. It might as well have been friday afternoon or even friday morning. I have since learned not to trust my well established sense of time. The sun here sets at ten in the evening. With that fact goes twenty-five years of instinct. The term night life takes on a very different connotation here. Still despite the semantics on situational chronology, fun loving insticts take loner to ebb away. And Friday evening, whatever the location of the sun, will always be Friday evening. It means I go out. We call it gimmick back home.
I had spent the better part of the afternoon trying to be busy and picking up whatever I can learn from my project manager. He'll be leaving three working days from now and then I'll be on my own. After working on it, I was not at all exhausted. We just had meetings and some investigation on silk scripts and then that was it. Chicken feed. I can even call it chick feed. I can imagine that, if back home, I become reinvigorated after a tiring day at work when I'm going out, how much more today when I feel no semblance of fatigue whatsoever. Honestly though the excitement existed only at an average level. I think it's because that's what I usually do and I'm sort of used to it. But I'm still excited anyway.
Jay was my blockmate in college. We both happened to be working for the same company and through some stroke of circumstance we ended up being roommates at an apartment here in Minnesotta. He is the designated driver of the staff car and so I ride with him going to and out of work. I was uploading pictures into the net from my cube when he called me. "Let's meet at the lobby." I was cool with that so off I went.
We picked up two more of our housemates and then the Friday night instinct came into the picture. I had no clue that they had planned to go out that night and had already made preparations to go to the Mall of America - the largest mall in the US and the second largest mall in the world. I had heard a few days earlier that the largest mall in the world was found in Canada. When I asked what the name was, nobody could recall. I can imagine that it goes something like the Mall of Canada. Anyways, the preparations included printing a map from MapQuest and step by step directions on how to get there from where our apartment was located. That was cool. I've always wanted that - using technology to make life easier.
A map is a very useful thing. It can tell you where places are located, how to get there, what to avoid, and what to expect. However, before it becomes useful there are several things that must be in the picture. Otherwise, you can only use it as props to look like as if you know where you're going. We have a map and I was the designated navigator. That seemed ok enough. I have a very good sense of direction. When I looked at the map I realized that I had to know first where we are in the map and which way is which. I don't even know where the north side in the map. I didn't want to use the sun as a frame of reference since it sets at 10pm and goodness knows what side of the world it goes to. I don't have a compass and they'd probably find it weird if I started rubbing needles somewhere to create a makeshift compass. And all of that will not help in telling me where north is on the map. Besides, I have no idea if they even printed out the right map.
It was a good thing that Jay has been here for a full month and has pretty much figured out how to get from place to place. After mumbling some meaningless words to make me avoid looking like I don't know what I'm talking about, which probably did not help my cause, somehow, we got to where we were supposed to go.
There it was the Mall of America. To tell you the truth it was already my second time here. My othernmanager when she fetched me at the airport bought some donuts at the mall and we stopped over. I ate some Krispy Kreme then - best donuts in the world and I've already eaten Cello's.
I don't know why I'm not so impressed by the structures here. Maybe it's because I expect them to be impressive and they are. A matter of expectation meeting the outcome.
We ate at Bubba Gump. I ordered some Accidental Fish. I don't know why they call it that. It probably chicken or beef that for some unexplained reason turned out to be fish. Either that or they were the fish that are unlucky enough to get run over by boats and then picked up to be cooked for dinner. It was tangy but I like it. A bit expensive though but I liked it.
Me and Jay took a walk around the mall. We looked at electronics and electronics and then more electronics. Boy, are the gadgets here awesome! There was no need to restrain myself since I only brought a few dollars with me. I couldn't buy those stuff even if I wanted to. I'll get around to that when my tour of duty would come to an end.
We then watched a movie. All four of us. Me, Jay and our two other housemates. We watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It was a cool fun movie. I enjoyed myself immensely.
I had fun. We had fun. Our instinct to have fun was not at all curbed by the our circumstances. I believe that's part of being Filipino. We'll have fun whenever we can. I missed my friends back home though. If I had my way I'd want them to be here. =)
As we drove back home. I smiled as I looked out the window. I was happy. I had fun that night. I sighed too. I miss home.
I had spent the better part of the afternoon trying to be busy and picking up whatever I can learn from my project manager. He'll be leaving three working days from now and then I'll be on my own. After working on it, I was not at all exhausted. We just had meetings and some investigation on silk scripts and then that was it. Chicken feed. I can even call it chick feed. I can imagine that, if back home, I become reinvigorated after a tiring day at work when I'm going out, how much more today when I feel no semblance of fatigue whatsoever. Honestly though the excitement existed only at an average level. I think it's because that's what I usually do and I'm sort of used to it. But I'm still excited anyway.
Jay was my blockmate in college. We both happened to be working for the same company and through some stroke of circumstance we ended up being roommates at an apartment here in Minnesotta. He is the designated driver of the staff car and so I ride with him going to and out of work. I was uploading pictures into the net from my cube when he called me. "Let's meet at the lobby." I was cool with that so off I went.
We picked up two more of our housemates and then the Friday night instinct came into the picture. I had no clue that they had planned to go out that night and had already made preparations to go to the Mall of America - the largest mall in the US and the second largest mall in the world. I had heard a few days earlier that the largest mall in the world was found in Canada. When I asked what the name was, nobody could recall. I can imagine that it goes something like the Mall of Canada. Anyways, the preparations included printing a map from MapQuest and step by step directions on how to get there from where our apartment was located. That was cool. I've always wanted that - using technology to make life easier.
A map is a very useful thing. It can tell you where places are located, how to get there, what to avoid, and what to expect. However, before it becomes useful there are several things that must be in the picture. Otherwise, you can only use it as props to look like as if you know where you're going. We have a map and I was the designated navigator. That seemed ok enough. I have a very good sense of direction. When I looked at the map I realized that I had to know first where we are in the map and which way is which. I don't even know where the north side in the map. I didn't want to use the sun as a frame of reference since it sets at 10pm and goodness knows what side of the world it goes to. I don't have a compass and they'd probably find it weird if I started rubbing needles somewhere to create a makeshift compass. And all of that will not help in telling me where north is on the map. Besides, I have no idea if they even printed out the right map.
It was a good thing that Jay has been here for a full month and has pretty much figured out how to get from place to place. After mumbling some meaningless words to make me avoid looking like I don't know what I'm talking about, which probably did not help my cause, somehow, we got to where we were supposed to go.
There it was the Mall of America. To tell you the truth it was already my second time here. My othernmanager when she fetched me at the airport bought some donuts at the mall and we stopped over. I ate some Krispy Kreme then - best donuts in the world and I've already eaten Cello's.
I don't know why I'm not so impressed by the structures here. Maybe it's because I expect them to be impressive and they are. A matter of expectation meeting the outcome.
We ate at Bubba Gump. I ordered some Accidental Fish. I don't know why they call it that. It probably chicken or beef that for some unexplained reason turned out to be fish. Either that or they were the fish that are unlucky enough to get run over by boats and then picked up to be cooked for dinner. It was tangy but I like it. A bit expensive though but I liked it.
Me and Jay took a walk around the mall. We looked at electronics and electronics and then more electronics. Boy, are the gadgets here awesome! There was no need to restrain myself since I only brought a few dollars with me. I couldn't buy those stuff even if I wanted to. I'll get around to that when my tour of duty would come to an end.
We then watched a movie. All four of us. Me, Jay and our two other housemates. We watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It was a cool fun movie. I enjoyed myself immensely.
I had fun. We had fun. Our instinct to have fun was not at all curbed by the our circumstances. I believe that's part of being Filipino. We'll have fun whenever we can. I missed my friends back home though. If I had my way I'd want them to be here. =)
As we drove back home. I smiled as I looked out the window. I was happy. I had fun that night. I sighed too. I miss home.
posted by Kim @ 8:20 AM
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3 Comments:
enjoy your stay there bro...since it would not last for lifetime. God bless you more, we miss you hereÜ
nice nice...you have a great opportunity there, kim. show america what pinoys are made of! =D
finally blogging, huh :)
even with a map, i can imagine how difficult it is to read when you don't know where you are in the first place. in our case, we can't even read where we are and where we're going. even the buses here, we have to remember by number and match it with a color inorder to get to the right place. tough fate, isn't it? :) anyway, no matter what the circumstances are, it's still difficult when you're new in a place. it's only after a while when you get used to "reading directions" that you find the map useful:) so good luck.
enjoy your stay there, kim. till when ka da gani? any chance of swinging by Bangkok? you might want to take a chance dropping by penang as well (where rex is). i heard the fare going and leaving (bangkok-penang-manila) there is quite cheap.
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