Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota

My car was ready for pick up at 1:30pm. I dropped off the rental at the collision center, picked up my car (which looks great!), and drove to Hot Topic and Savers to say good bye to Cassie and Annuh. They did a great job of tolerating me for seven days – I know I can be tough.

I arrived in Minneapolis around 6 o’clock. There was a Couch Surfing mixer at the Black Forrest Inn off of 26th and Nicollet Ave. in the Uptown district of Minneapolis. Becky, my couch surfing host, asked if I could meet her there. The Uptown area reminded me of the Uptown district in San Diego. It’s vibrant and consists of eclectic coffee houses, and small independent boutiques.

The Black Forest Inn is an authentic German restaurant. Everything was in German. I had a difficult time pronouncing anything on the menu. The beer menu consisted of things like the Köstritzer and the Gösser. I didn’t even try to pronounce them, I just pointed to what I thought looked interesting.

There were about thirty members from the Minneapolis Couch Surfing group there. They were all interesting and had many stories to tell. One of the most interesting people I met was Nathan who was a couch surfer riding his bike across the country. He already rode from Philadelphia and planned on riding all the way to the west coast. I found this amazing and I had to take a picture of him. From what he told me his diet has consisted of hard boiled eggs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.





I also met Andrew Green, who was couch surfing from Miami. Those of you from the University of California’s EAP trip would be happy to know that Andrew also went to the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. For those of you who don’t know, this was the same university that I went to during my study abroad trip to England in 2001. This was the first time I'd ever met anyone who attended Sussex, so I was pretty excited. Andrew attended Sussex for his undergraduate studies in English, and then attended Cambridge for his Masters. We reminisced about the campus and the English lifestyle, he helped bring back some good memories of my experience there.

I eventually met up with Becky. From what I know about her, she went to the University of Minnesota at Morris and studied Psychology. She plans on attending graduate school for Clinical Psychology. I’m not exactly sure about what she does, but I think it has something to do with research.




Becky lives at the Carleton Place Lofts, a live/work environment that harbors artists who live and work from home. Some of the amenities include a pottery studio, dance studio, music studio, and artist room. The hallways are lined with artwork from all the residents. All the floors are made of concrete slab. When Becky told me that the music room is free and open to all residents, I almost cried. This is exactly the place that I’ve always been looking for but could never find in San Diego. The best part is that the apartments are only available for people who make a certain income.

Because the goal of the building is to promote artistry—and knowing that most artists are not very wealthy—your salary cannot be more than 60% of the area median income. In other words, if you are a single resident and make more than $33,000/yr, you’re NOT eligible to live at the Carleton.

So how much is the rent for a studio here? According to the website it starts at $600/mo. In my personal opinion, THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN SAN DIEGO! And until the City of San Diego figures this out, its local art scene will struggle.