We arrived at our CSers house (her name was Jessica) with a bit of hesitation considering her street looked like the hood and the house next door was a dilapidated haunted looking crack house (not really, it was actually abandoned, b
ut you know, it could have been…). Inside wasn’t a whole lot better considering Jessica’s roommate smokes pot and cigarettes inside the house with
out the windows open and she’s a pig so it was a mess. Jessica is in the process of finding a new place to live.
The house was 4 rooms in a row with the bathroom in the back, so while the front two rooms were a bit more bearable since there were doors
between them all, if we wanted to use the bathroom we had to hold our breath and run. It was rather awful. However, luckily for us, Jessica’s friend Pablo lived in a really nice new condo so after we unloaded our stuff, we went to his place and took showers there. Jessica was really tired and she wanted to go to a party that night so she took a nap at Pablo’s while he took us to the French Quarter. We went from bar to bar in Bourbon Street experiencing the different bands playing in the different bars. We chanced upon a salsa club and Carmen and I danced for a while there. I was rather scandalized by the number of sex shops that blatantly advertised “come here for sex.” Eww. Overall, I wasn’t that impressed, but it was an experience none-the-less.
After that we went back to Jessica’s to go to sleep and she went to her party. The next morning we took the street car into the French Quarter and ate breakfast at Café Beignet (which it turns out was a good move because Café Dumonde - the famous one - had a fire that morning and didn’t reopen until the evening). From there we walked about the FQ by day, taking pictures of all the pretty buildings, and then took another street car up to the cemeteries which were so beautiful. I don’t think we saw the one that was in Double Jeopardy, but it was still cool. Then we walked about half a mile to City Park which was quite beautiful (we saw a blue heron and some other cool birds) and then took the street car back to the French Quarter where we found a mall and ate at the food court and then walked along the Mississippi.
The clouds were sooo beautiful and fluffy against the bright blue sky and on the river there was a breeze that helped combat the humidity. We got to see a river boat and then walked to the French Market where we browsed the shops and Theresa found a guy working in a candy shop who spoke German, which was fun for her.
We met Jessica back at her place around 7 pm, grabbed our stuff, and then went to Pablo’s to shower after having been more or less drenched in sweat all day long. It was so nice of him to let us use his shower both nights. After we left there, we went to grab some late dinner with Jessica then went back to her house to sleep. Oh, and before we went to Pablo’s we witnessed a ghetto fight across the street where 3 or 4 black women were screaming profanities at each other at the top of their lungs. We’ve been laughing about that ever since.
This morning we got up at 8 am and then packed up the car and left around 9. First we headed toward Houmas House which is this beautiful plantation in Louisiana which fabulous gardens. We didn’t go into the house, but we walked through the gardens and took many photos.
On the way to Galveston (where our next CS host was) we passed our first oil rigs and then got to take a ferry across the water to make it to the island of Galveston. It was really fun and we got to see dolphins splashing along next to the ferry.
Our CS host Sam and his roomies (Sam and Mike) live 1 block from the beach and love to surf. They are all marine-biology post-grad students. They surf and scuba dive a lot and study the effects of the oil etc. on marine life. We were so excited to see the house - relatively clean, big, smoke-free, sofas, pull-outs and a free bed. It was like heaven. Lol They have a wide network of friends here so people are constantly in and out.
We went to dinner with Sam, Sam, Mike, and his girlfriend Julie (who was also and English major). They are all so
wonderful and fun to talk to. After dinner, we drove around in Sam’s truck and saw some beautiful mansion homes that are lit up at night. Now we are back at the house chatting it up and enjoying their company. I wish we had more time here….we leave around 4 tomorrow to head to Austin.
No comments:
Post a Comment