It took me 4 whole days to get over my jet lag. In between I got fever, had congestion and overall felt very dull, terribly nauseated and sick. I hated being away from home. Worst, I missed the Baseball game invitation by Milt's team. Thankfully by Friday morning I felt alive and kicking and made good use of the day by trying to catch up on all that I had missed, or was too dead to listen to earlier in the week.
The much needed weekend kick started some Mexican burritos at Chipotle and a lazy day spent at The Mall of America – a huge 3 storey mall which had numerous specialty stores like including a Victoria Secrets. Very quickly Mary and I split from the retails queens (Sheba and Melissa) and ended our retail journey with a drive to Lake Harriet which was situated in the picturous locality of Edina. A drive through the very up-market rows of pretty homes reminded me of the 
European countryside – each house had a distinct façade and each one looked prettier than the other – the question we both asked - how do you heat up a large mansion like this during the harsh Minnesotan winters?Sunday was really special to me – Melissa promised to take me to a 
Native American museum, some 100miles north to a place called Mill Lax. We started late and had some gorgeous Indian food on the way at The Taste of India – prawn curry, chicken curry, pulao and gulab jamun – we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect start to a 2 hour drive. We reached the museum just in time for it to close (funny !). We quickly attended 
the last guided tour which was on the tribe called the Ojibway (also referred to as the Chippewa or Anishinaabe). So, the Ojibways were primarily from north eastern Canada and migrated to Lake Mill Lax sometime in 750 A.D. in search of food – the vision provided to them was that “go wherever you can grow food out of water” and they reached the shores of Lake Mill Lax where they grew wild brown rice (and if I heard the guide properly – they do it even NOW!!). The US govt. has created ‘reservations’ for Native American tribes which 
get certain benefits from the state from the point of conservation of the Native American history and their age old culture. We couldn’t help but do some super quick retail therapy at the Trading Post – I bought a colourful coffee table book and a few nicknaks. We drove a mile ahead to reach an actual reservation where to my DELIGHT a Pow Wow dance camp was in full spring. Apparently these dance camps (which primarily are private Ojibway events) are open to the 
public just once or twice a year – and we were truly the lucky ones to witness one such spectacular display of age old music, colour and pure EXTRAVAGANZA. As I entwined myself in their music, I could not help but refer to it as the ‘cry of the soul’ because as far as I was concerned– this is how the age old men communicated to others in and around their tribes. Socially acceptable languages with cryptic grammar rules came much la
ter.
Native American museum, some 100miles north to a place called Mill Lax. We started late and had some gorgeous Indian food on the way at The Taste of India – prawn curry, chicken curry, pulao and gulab jamun – we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect start to a 2 hour drive. We reached the museum just in time for it to close (funny !). We quickly attended 
the last guided tour which was on the tribe called the Ojibway (also referred to as the Chippewa or Anishinaabe). So, the Ojibways were primarily from north eastern Canada and migrated to Lake Mill Lax sometime in 750 A.D. in search of food – the vision provided to them was that “go wherever you can grow food out of water” and they reached the shores of Lake Mill Lax where they grew wild brown rice (and if I heard the guide properly – they do it even NOW!!). The US govt. has created ‘reservations’ for Native American tribes which 
get certain benefits from the state from the point of conservation of the Native American history and their age old culture. We couldn’t help but do some super quick retail therapy at the Trading Post – I bought a colourful coffee table book and a few nicknaks. We drove a mile ahead to reach an actual reservation where to my DELIGHT a Pow Wow dance camp was in full spring. Apparently these dance camps (which primarily are private Ojibway events) are open to the 
public just once or twice a year – and we were truly the lucky ones to witness one such spectacular display of age old music, colour and pure EXTRAVAGANZA. As I entwined myself in their music, I could not help but refer to it as the ‘cry of the soul’ because as far as I was concerned– this is how the age old men communicated to others in and around their tribes. Socially acceptable languages with cryptic grammar rules came much la
ter.
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