Jan 6th

Outer Journey

Good morning, and it was. The morning of the most beautiful Sunday weather I have seen in a while, started at the Presbytere. What is the Presbytere? It is a two story historic building. The lower level is a tribute and museum of the tragic Katrina. The upper level displays the start and the past of Mardi Gras. This was such a fascinating museum to go to, and If I get to come back to New Orleans I will have to go back to it. The history and facts displayed about Katrina were so raw and tragic which is what made the museum so interesting. I knew about Hurricane Katrina from school, but I now know the devastation and impact it had on this great city. The museum had so many exhibits and facts to read. The most interesting thing on the lower level that I found was an electronic map that displayed a map of the united states. Around the map was different natural disasters (hurricane, mudslide, tornado) just to name a few. You could click on one of the disasters and it will highlight the states that were at high risk, and low risk. I clicked each disaster and was intrigued to see the results for each state.

After the museum a few of us headed over to the local convenient store which is located right on the square. It is the home of the first Muffuletta and that was one thing for sure I knew my group of friends wanted to try. I was not to excited about it. It has an olive spread on it which was very strong scented, and I am not a fan of olives. My classmates loved it. The sandwich was huge and all three of my classmates split one sandwich and still had a quarter left of it. It was the size of my head. Not an Exaggeration. The highlight of yesterday was sitting in the front of the Jackson square on the stairs watching the street performers dance and tumble, while keeping the crowd involved. It was so much fun to watch and they were so proud to do what they loved, they had a message at the end of the performance "and remember there is only one race, the human one" that really spoke to me and made me realize how diverse and open New Orleans really is.

Another highlight from yesterday was our haunted history which we did at dusk. It was very sickening to be honest. We learned about this women who abused her slaves. Tortured and murdered them for irrational reasons. She tortured them in her experimental room. In this room she would break the libs of her slaves and reset them in crazy positions. She buried some of them a live, some were buried in the floors of her house. Worse of all there was 65 bodies recovered from her back yard most of them were pregnant slave women. I left the tour with a sour taste in my mouth, and my stomach was in knots. The night ended at a hip restaurant Nola which exceed all expectations. If I am going to spend my money on myself I am going to spend it on trying new things, I would never get to try in Illinois. I am having the time of my life here in Nola!