Life has been pretty good down here thus far. We've had a ton of good food, it's always sunny, there aren't anymore hurricanes coming, so, all is good. Both of us have kinda gotten into the swing of things with school and were slowly figuring out which classes need to have all the readings done and those which need minor perusing.
This weekend, we had a really good time going to three different festivals throughout the city (I think we missed about three others!). We ended up going to the Steam Train Festival, the Congo Square Rhythms Festival, and Art for Arts Sake. The rhythm festival was literally a two minute walk from our house with live music and food, and Art for Arts Sake was a gallery tour, with all of the cities galleries opening up and offering free wine and food.
I selfishly bought some mussels the other day because they're really cheap, but Lindsey ended up liking them.
Some of the music at the Rhythm Fest, there was a lot of percussion and traditional African dance.
This is one of the galleries we walked through, although this one was dumb, there were a lot of really good pieces. Also, there was free food and drinks everywhere.
We volunteered for a NoAids walk two weeks ago. We were going to be traffic cops, but then the real cops showed up so we just stood around, ate popsicles, and cheered.
This is my new buddy Joel and his girlfriend Yvette. Joel's in the Planning program as well and he lives right around the corner from our place.
We didn't spend much time at this festival, but there was a cool steam train that has been restored.
There was a lot of live music all over the streets during the Art Show.
Another gallery!
Here's a few dancers at the Rhythm Fest, which was super cool.
These kids are a group of young Mardi Gras Indians, a long tradition, that of which I know little about.
It's Binzer here....well, we had a grand weekend. We ended up having a Rengada.....which in sailing terms means racing sailboats. Bri and I have both been on a sailboat, in total twice, and didn't have a clue what we were doing. Our landlord's boyfriend has a friend with sailboats on Lake Pontchartrain....about a half hour out from New Orleans. The lake flows into the Gulf, so it at times is a salt water lake. (They have even seen sharks in the lake!) We had a blast and learned to "tack" "jib" and all this other stuff..... we spent the whole day out and out of 3 boats closely racing, we nearly collided a couple of times and won second about three times. Needless to say, we were the less experienced boat.
We were in first at some point!
Shrimping boats were everywhere, as it's shrimpin' season.
THis was by far the highlight of the day. We went out to where the shrimp boats were in the lake, and tons of dolphins were following behind! The shrimp boats throw out their scraps, and the dolphins eat them up! I had never seen a dolphin before. I couldn't believe it! IT took about ten shots to get this picture, but I couldn't believe how good it was! They really were this close to the boat!
Mom-I finally ate gumbo--and I sucked the crawfish meat right off the claw as you can see...it was spicy and yummy.
Brian has officially met people to 'jam' with. His friend Joel from school on the left, Joels girlfriend, and Andy-our new friend who is engaged to a cool chick in my class. They played together on Friday and then took us out to show us more of the city.....
The Mississippi River near downtown-we strolled the streets of Frenchman....
Joel and Yvette introduced us to French donuts called Beniges or something like that....sooo good. This little outdoor cafe has been selling only these and coffee for over 150 years!
Here I am looking tough again. I don't know how this picture ended up down here!
