Day 8/Day 9/Day 10

So I am a little bit behind on some of my updates.  I am now in Seattle waiting to be able to get into my room at my hostel.  I will update you on tour happenings of day 8, 9 and 10.

Day 8
Summary:
I went to the Mall of America.  I arrived at 12:00 and went to A&W to get some good food, a cheeseburger and cheese curds, and amazing A&W root beer. It was glorious.  I then walked around the mall for a couple of hours and got 4 hugs. The atmosphere of the mall wasn't quite right (I will expand on this in a later blog post). I then went back to downtown Minneapolis and gave away a total of 34 hugs for the day.

Highlight:
1) A&W at the Mall of America.

Lowlight:
1) Not getting many hugs at the mall and my lack of courage to put myself out more visibly at the mall.

Learned:
1) Malls have an interesting relationship with free hugs that I need to explore more.

Day 9
Summary:
The power went out at the house which I was staying at so I spent most of the day at Starbucks near the Amtrak station writing and researching some possible ways I can get my story out to the media.  I went over to the station at about 8 pm for my 11:15 train to Seattle.  Total I gave away one hug today.

Highlight:
1) Meeting and giving a hug to a lady picking up someone at the Amtrak station.

Lowlight:
1) Leaving my extended phone battery plugged in at Starbucks.  (they are sending it to my hotel in Portland so hopefully I will have it for the rest of the tour.)

Learned:
1) Packing light is always good. I need to get rid of some things. 

Day 10
Summary:
Today I was on the train all day.  It was pretty intense.  I met a lot of pretty cool and interesting people that I will hopefully be able to keep into contact with and work on some projects together.  Total I gave out 20 hugs while on the train.

Highlight:
1) Meeting interesting and exciting and passionate people.
2) Playing spades with some friends I met.
3) Sharing the joy of hugs on a train.

Lowlight:
1) Train ride was super long and it was hard sitting still sometimes. 

Learned:
1) I should be better prepared with food because food on Amtrak isn't too great and it superbly amazingly expensive.
2) Peanut butter and jelly should become my new best friend.
3) Sandwiches
4) People are amazing, especially on trains because there isn't much else to do other than get to know other people on the train.