Artefacts, Asian food and State Authorities

King Tut is on tour, and he's in St.Paul right now. Well, he's not exactly here, but some of his furniture is. We traveled to the Science Museum to see the Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs exhibit. Unfortunately, they didn't allow photographs of the exhibit. But, I can tell you what you missed if you haven't seen it and more importantly, what you didn't miss.

The exhibit is full of amazing statues from all over ancient Egypt, covering thousands of years of the countries historical leaders. You'll see granite statues that are expertly carved, even down to the fine little engravings they used to represent necklaces and other jewelry. It's truly amazing what they were able to accomplish given the tools we attribute to them. Sure, everybody knows what the great pyramids look like. They're amazing sights to behold, and the fact that they were even able to be constructed is amazing, let alone the precision of their craftsmanship. But at the exhibit, we were looking at the micro, instead of the macro. The craftsmanship of some of the necklaces (called pectorals) was unbelievable! Gold was fashioned into tiny little loops, hundreds of them on one necklace, and within the loops sat perfectly cut semi-precious stones. The best way to describe it is amazing.

You would've also seen some of the furniture used during that time. They had a bed, a chair, and a toilet seat on display. Looking at these things one can't help but notice two things; the craftsmanship is excellent, and these people were tiny in comparison to modern people.

What you wouldn't have seen is King Tut's remains. You wouldn't have seen his sarcophagus, death mask, or any other part of what he was actually buried in. They had a representation of his mummy, but not the real thing. They had some of the amulets that adorned his body, but none of the many coffins he was actually buried in. When we think of Howard Carter and his discovery of Tut's tomb, the first thing that comes to many of our minds is that golden faced coffin with it's blue painted headdress.

I can understand not having the actual mummy. It's probably extremely fragile and moving it across the world would be too risky. But to not have the coffins, or anything else we would normally associate with Tut, that was disappointing. Overall the exhibit was good. Not great, and a little disappointing, but I did see some very impressive things that I'll never have an opportunity to see again.

After we left the museum, we needed to eat. Since our group project is on Frogtown, we decided that would be a great place to find some food. We went down University Ave, in the heart of Frogtown, and saw Mai Village, a Vietnamese restaurant.

The food was good, and it was pretty cheap. I ordered the pork and fries rice lunch special for $9, and it covered the entire plate. Sure, I was hungry again about two hours later, but the food was great the the atmosphere was traditional.

After we ate, we headed to our state capitol building. From the outside, the building is impressive. But when you get inside, it becomes even more impressive.

We took a tour of the building and visited the state supreme court room, the legislature room and the governors office. The building itself is full of marble and granite, with carved wooden embellishments adorning almost every niche. Like the Landmark Center, it has some staircases that make my stomach turn.

After our tour, we visited the Vietnam memorial. The black stone monument has the names of all the Minnesotans that lost their lives in the war, and it's dedicated to their memory as well as the memories of those that are still missing. It's impressive to see, as most monuments are, but it's also somewhat depressing seeing all of the names of those we've lost.

On that note, we left our state capitol. We saw things that some will never have the chance to see, and learned a little about our state government along the way.