Yestersay was our last day with Miss Mary and the tears were glistening! I didnt think I would be this sad about leaving this crazy woman's house and never seeing her again but thinking back on it, I grew super close to this woman. Every day when I wanted a little break I would sit with her while she watched general hospital and made fun of it.
Her stories ALWAYS brightened up my day. Yesterday's were the best. She told me about how her and her dead husband Everett met. She was 17 and working at a restaurant. Everett came in drunk and asked for well done seafood. When Miss Mary brought it out to him he said it wasnt good enough. She told him to go to hell and leave then. And then he threatened to get her fired and she said never! When she got off work Everett followed her home to appologize and then they fell inlove.
She also told me how her mother sold her at age 10 which is pretty disturbing. Alot of her stories sound fake but I would really like to think that they were all true.
I really appreciate old people, especially old woman. My favorite womans studies professor told me I would recieve the best advice and most noble words from hanging out with old ladies.
When leaving Miss Mary gave me a bookmark with hearts and a calandar on it along with her address. We plan on writing her often and hopefully getting back there to visit one day. Ill post before and after pictures soon of her place.
Next Project-->South East Iowa-->Burning invasive species. Yikes.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Some More Mardi Gras Pics!
Stephy and I with mucho beads(no we did not flash)
Also...lots of provocative floats
A political float. I Wish I knew more about politics in New Orleans, ro politics in general. They were pretty cool.
Stephy, Shannon, me, and Tim waiting for the first parade of Mardi Gras to start in New Orleans called Krewe du Vieux! Tim is holding delicious ginger adult beverages. He was an amazing host and helped me fall in love with New Orleans.
This is a huge out door art festival. I remember telling Tim I wish they had festivals like this where everyone taught each other their crafts. He said they do and they're called communes. ha!
This is a picture from the Blue Nile. This is me, Steph(my favorite person on my team),David(her love interest), and Griff(a silly ginger on my team who looks alot more silly here than he is, also those are not pit stains, someone spilled on him)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Mardi Gras! Nola! Who Dat!
New Orleans is like no other place I've ever been! Patrick, Griff, Shannon, Steph and I were let out of work an hour early to rent a car and head to NOLA. The three hour car trip seemed like nothing due to our excitement. We dropped the boys off at the La Quinta downtown and the girls and I headed to Tim's house. Tim is a friend of mine I met at Rutgers who goes to Tulane Grad School for social work. A hilarious kid with heaps of stories, the best one about how he managed to hike up with Himalayas with malaria accompanied but a drug cartel and didn't know it.(ask if you would like to know more)The best part about Tim was hos hospitable he was.
He lived in a beautiful old fashioned New Orleans home with his girlfriend and one other roommate. It was a full house due to 2 other guests spending the month there who were also from Jersey/Philly. It sounds silly but there is something about the presence of other people from NJ that make me feel light and at home. We walked in to a Creole themed dinner party! Tim and Serena had made us a creole craw fish etouffee! It was delicious and exactly what we needed. After living in a church/braille school for the last 4 months, a home, with good friends, good food, and good wine(!) is the best thing any of us could have asked for.
That night Tim took us to this place called Blue Nile on Frenchman street. There was a great band playing. Their style could only be described as New Orleans own breed of music and it was fabulous.
Every now and then the singer would throw out there..."Who dem say gonna beat dem saints!", and then the crowd would scream, "who dat! who dat!"
This, "who dat" was incorporated into every song. I have never seen so much sports pride in my life. I guess after everything Louisiana has been through and the fact they they've never been to the Super Bowl really got the crowd going.
The next day we walked around the touristy and not so touristy areas. French quarter is amazing. All the architecture is Spanish which i didn't really understand but it was beyond beautiful. there is so much culture wrapped into this one little city. it is definitely someplace I could see myself living.
Later on we went to an our door art festival which made me miss embroidering and knitting and made me thrive to do something creative. We then got friend chicken and daquaris. This was a good choice.
Later on that night we headed to the first parade of Mardi Gras! For all of you that don't realize how big Mardi Gras is in Louisiana, you should know it is bigger than anything! Mardi Gras technically starts after Christmas and doest end until Fat Tuesday which is translated into Mardi Gras. This parade was called Krewe du Vieux. This is a sexual/political parade so it was very very interesting. Had alot of floats like this. Pretty X rated. This is NOT a parade for the kids.
Alot of the floats were very harsh and political. I guess New Orleans doesnt like the politics going on in their city and they were conveying this through the floats at the parade.
After the parade we floated around the city and had a great time doing so.
In the morning we got brunch and bloody marys and decided to head "home" to lake charles. All in all this was an amazing New Orleans experience and made me like the south just a tad bit more. : )
more pics to come!
cheers
He lived in a beautiful old fashioned New Orleans home with his girlfriend and one other roommate. It was a full house due to 2 other guests spending the month there who were also from Jersey/Philly. It sounds silly but there is something about the presence of other people from NJ that make me feel light and at home. We walked in to a Creole themed dinner party! Tim and Serena had made us a creole craw fish etouffee! It was delicious and exactly what we needed. After living in a church/braille school for the last 4 months, a home, with good friends, good food, and good wine(!) is the best thing any of us could have asked for.
That night Tim took us to this place called Blue Nile on Frenchman street. There was a great band playing. Their style could only be described as New Orleans own breed of music and it was fabulous.
Every now and then the singer would throw out there..."Who dem say gonna beat dem saints!", and then the crowd would scream, "who dat! who dat!"
This, "who dat" was incorporated into every song. I have never seen so much sports pride in my life. I guess after everything Louisiana has been through and the fact they they've never been to the Super Bowl really got the crowd going.
The next day we walked around the touristy and not so touristy areas. French quarter is amazing. All the architecture is Spanish which i didn't really understand but it was beyond beautiful. there is so much culture wrapped into this one little city. it is definitely someplace I could see myself living.
Later on we went to an our door art festival which made me miss embroidering and knitting and made me thrive to do something creative. We then got friend chicken and daquaris. This was a good choice.
Later on that night we headed to the first parade of Mardi Gras! For all of you that don't realize how big Mardi Gras is in Louisiana, you should know it is bigger than anything! Mardi Gras technically starts after Christmas and doest end until Fat Tuesday which is translated into Mardi Gras. This parade was called Krewe du Vieux. This is a sexual/political parade so it was very very interesting. Had alot of floats like this. Pretty X rated. This is NOT a parade for the kids.
Alot of the floats were very harsh and political. I guess New Orleans doesnt like the politics going on in their city and they were conveying this through the floats at the parade.
After the parade we floated around the city and had a great time doing so.
In the morning we got brunch and bloody marys and decided to head "home" to lake charles. All in all this was an amazing New Orleans experience and made me like the south just a tad bit more. : )
more pics to come!
cheers
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
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