You called? There are a few of us here...
Warning: I'm a newbie 'round these parts.

I'm desperate, I'm ok with it. Please give me a hand Dan *puppy eyes*
And..do you know any good gun range around Minneapolis?

Unfortunately I do not know really anything about the gun ranges here (not much of a shooter myself). I know they exist, but that's about it.

A quick web search turns up some locations though:

Plymouth Gun Club (Western suburb): shotguns only
Metro Gun Glub (Blaine, Northern suburb): shotguns and pistols
Bill's Gun Shop & Range (Robbinsdale, pretty much Minneapolis): seems like anything
South Metro Public Safety Training Facility (Edina, SW suburb): pistols; limited hours

Wish I could be more helpful. I might ask around a bit at work this week.

*EDIT* One of my coworkers has been to Bill's, seemed alright to him.

awhhhhh right! thanks for the tip!
My family is thinking about visiting zoo aquarium and mall around there. any other real big attraction in Minneapolis?

Oh lots and lots! It really depends on what you want to do.

If you go to the aquarium at the Mall of America, do the back stage tour.
The Guthrie is a great live-action theater on the river in downtown Minneapolis. There are more theaters like this if you look.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Fort Snelling and Mill City Museum for some history. The Mill City Museum is just plain cool to look at.
The Vikings have a home game on Sunday if you feel adventurous.
There are plenty of places to dine all over the place...
Just taking a walk along the river and going across the stone arch bridge is worthwhile.

There's also a bazillion parks. Too bad the trees don't have leaves of any color on them anymore.

Tex, if you've got more questions, pm's would probably be best as this thread is becoming "What's Minnesota Like?" Hope you enjoy your visit!

Thanks to Dan I really had good time in Twin city.

Darn dag nab dag nab it. It' -26c today here and it snowed yesterday. I may get hypothermia if I don't wear properly before going out to Church, since I have to walk a while a take a bus. burrrrr.
How's winter around where you live?

In my town it's below -10C. All roads are covered in ice so we must be extra careful when walking or driving, despite they're spilling salt on it.
But at least it's not grey like past years. There's snow and even trees are whole white. If it will snow a bit more, I will make an artistic snowman.

Where I live, it usually just rains during the winter. Just last week it was pouring rain for about five days straight. Lately, it has been pretty sunny, with a few clouds here and there.

I can tell Mcfly living in a Southern state. Hehehe

*sigh* I hate my life. My carrer route is to serve in military but since I'm not a Canadian citizen, therfore, I can't join. I'm not even permanent resident here. I can apply for the Canadian citizen ship but it's not gonna be done before I turn 18 or graduate highschool. Hence in order to follow my carrer route, I have to move back to the State and serve there. I would be honored to serve for the USA, but I'll miss my friends, home, family,MY CAT Joong, etc here.
I asked my friend about me moving back to the State today at school and one of em said he would kill me if I move, meaning he would seriously miss me. And other one said why would I move and said just to stay here. I felt beloved by my friends.

I don't like moving country To country every 6 years and moving and town to town ever few years...

Oh well.

Actually, I live in a Western state.

Also, can't you still join the military once the process is done?

I have to wait about 4 years to get it done and I'm currently grade 10 so, I could but I don't know what to do during that blank two years after my grad. but, but, I wanna go back to the State...

Well texascat, if you go into the military, you're going to be moving around a lot, no matter what. The military requires you to be away from your family and friends, even if you don't go overseas. My older (yet youngest) brother was in the Army, my older sister was in the Air Force, and my dad was a Marine. I have friends that are already in the military; one of my good guy friends went away for the summer to complete his boot camp training. Maybe you and I can voice call one day and talk about all this. I'd be more than happy to tell you about how it normally works in the military.

There is something that I have been dying to ask the Canadian members of the forum. I have been watching a lot of "South Park" lately, Trey and Matt's beef with Canada aside, is there anything behind the speech and mannerisms of the characters Terrence and Phillip? Is that some sort of colloquial accent that I am not familiar with? Do they talk that way because they are from a particular city? Or are Trey and Matt just making stuff up?

And as far as Canadian comedy is concerned, I always think of "The Kids in the Hall" and "Trailer Park Boys".

Trailer Park Boys makes me feel good about being an American because it tells me that the particular type of person present in that show is not exclusive to America.

sorry but I never watched South park before.

I'll talk to you on skype Beagle, I may be little shy....

To give you an idea of South Park's version of a Canadian's speech pattern, here are the only two clips that I could find that are safe for the forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONqYuqWY8iM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WULsZJxPfws

If you go to South Park's website, they let you watch episodes for free. I suggest "Canada On Strike" and "Its Christmas in Canada" to observe how they present Canada. I have no idea where they get this stuff.

Also, as you can see from those clips, Canadians are presented as all having beady eyes and flapping heads. But, I have to say as a life long fan that "South Park" is a good show and some of the best satire on TV.

okay, things that i can tell, prime minister Stephen Harper is little odd and isn't the best one around according to what my social study teacher taught me and few others.

aboot originates from "French Canada" Quebec , I think they are representing Quebec, which is like ummmm, Texas of Canada? they wanted to make their own country and divide away from Canada once before. before Quebec gone nuts once, French language wasn't necessary to display on any legal stuffs, according to my Social study teacher. Canada was found twice by French and Britain or is it? ahhhh I can't remember. Cob Help!

I never seen stereo stereo typical Canadian Lumber jack ever since I arrived here 4 years ago. and I have only seen one mountie once.

"only one road", they mean it by Trans Canada, which is a one long long highway that connects east to west

and others... those episodes just look random to me. but I'm not real Canadian here, GameCob can provide you with more detail.
Don't take any of word from me as if it is a fact. it's unreliable though feel free to ask other questions

and I think I just found a good job opportunity, but I don't know if I can work or not because of all permanent residence and all legal stuffs that I have to go through.

I suck at Canadian history, honestly, but i do know where the humor originates from thanks to my stepdad and family. The South park creators I find are just more willing to go into the known self-reliant jokes that people hear these days on average. Like the videos you shown for example ~ us being too nice and how everyone thinks French Canadians are way different. X3

Some truth, I have never met a rude Canadian.

hehehehehe

Does that laugh mean I have to keep my eye on you?

do you think?

I'm surprised by how number of Canadian students who are willing to learn American history. it was first day of the second semester today and I had American history class. The Class almost reached the max capacity. The teacher gave us the sheet of American history questions and quite a lot of em were able to get 80% of em done, and a lot of guys knew the lyrics of star spangled banner from the start to the end. surprising.
GO USA!

Only if we can step our game up and be as awesome as canada.

That is pretty amazing that your class got at least 80% right. Some of my history classes had most people scoring less than 60%. I wish more students were interested in their own countries history, but I am glad that somewhere there are others that are interested in History.

Scotland, home of the Scottish, God's Chosen People, but after a heavy night on the Whisky resulting in a huge argument with God he punished us and cast us down on to the island of Britain, and to add insult to injury he gave us the English as neighbours!

It's wet here, if it's not raining, it's snowing. if it ain't snowing then it's hail the size of golf balls.
We have the best beef in the world and our people are some of the most friendly you'd ever met. (unless yer fae Edinburgh!)

No~! That's mean.
I hope Cobra doesn't see this.

well I was little exaggerating.
The questions were as easy as, when is the independence day?, who is the current president in USA?, what are two major political parties in USA?, who fought for racial equality in the USA?, what was the war between soviet union and USA?, what was the civil war about?, and those kind of things. still the fact that they are interested in learning the American history is respectable.
In fact, not including two Americans in the class, one guy from Washington, and myself, there were few students who are immigrants to Canada taking American history.



hail pounds dead cows and make beef taste good? hehehhe I would like to meet a Scottish person.

The cows have evolved here to survive the weather . and hey, tender beef is good.

If you ever get the opportunity I would suggest visiting the country, beautiful landscape, friendly people, epic monuments and this thing called 'Edinburgh rock' it is a candy that in order to live a full life one must try it, we also have IRN BRU, SQUARE sausages and potato scones (epic when fried), all of these are things we treasure.

To be fair, Texas, I'm sure even here a test like that would have sad results.

I've watched enough Mock The Week and QI to understand that the Scottish fry everything. (It's been brought up at least 5 times in each)
I'd love to visit Scotland as well as Ireland, beautiful countries.

Anyway, I live in Cascadia

You don't know the half of it.
deep fried pizza, deep fried chocolate bars, deep fried burgers, deep fried sausages, deep fried pies, deep fried bacon, deep fried steak...
The list is infinite (literally, a common saying here is: "if it exists, you can fry it), yet, we have so few people that are overweight.

Scotland would get along well with the US South.

I've been told that by my friends from Texas, but due to our culture we'd only fit in with the states west of Louisiana.
I found a video that documents how robberies are conducted here

This would only be partly true. You see being from Texas myself I can tell you that certain parts of the state are quite different from other parts, and remember that Texas is Larger Than FRANCE!
So you'd probably be able to relate more with north and east Texans than say extreme south and west Texans who are predominantly hispanic in culture. But let us not forget that the blending of these two cultures created the American cowboy Annnd Tex-Mex food(which is Very addictive).

Not to mention bad for acid reflux.

Very much. They are idealized here! Just look at the Highland Games at Grandfather Moutain every year.

Me being of Irish stock, all I get is a guy at work who accuses me of being in the IRA and blowing stuff up.

step 1: acquire a pipe bomb

step 2: put it in his pocket.

step 3: sneak +34, pickpocket +12, 4000 bounty added to workplace. level-up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=han3AfjH210
Scottish demoman!

In one word?
Canadian.
In two words?
Very Cold.
But we have maple syrup, and hockey, and beavers, and Saskatchewan, so that makes it all ok. :3