Roll wave!

I have returned from my short stint in the city of New Orleans with few fatalities, except for several bug bites (apparently mosquitoes find me delicious) and almost permanently adding "y'all" to my vocabulary. (however, I fear this is bound to happen anyway)

 

I've mentioned plenty of times that New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the entire world, but I always forget just how much I love it until I step out of the air-condition terminal of Louis Armstrong airport into the warm (and unforgiving) humidity. Or hop on a streetcar and make my way down St. Charles passing the once thriving, now decaying Victorian houses whose grand doorways and epic balconies & front porches make the city's architecture so unique.

I was visiting the Crescent City for my freshmen orientation, and if you don't mind, I'm going to skip all of the weekend's details because I figure you'd find them very boring. Orientation was incredibly fun, but after a three hour time change, a five hour flight, and staying up till 2 am on Saturday night playing Apples to Apples with future classmates from all over the country I am totally exhausted. Long story short, I could not be more excited for school this year. Did I mention I'm taking a class on the music and culture of New Orleans? Well, it was between that and a class on voodoo and the city's haunted sites.
One thing I noticed in the midst of meeting so many people from all over the country is that majority of us all had one thing in common. We all had an enormous love for the city of New Orleans. Whether it be the food, the music, the art, the architecture, or even the people; New Orleans stole a spot in our hearts. Okay, I will admit that sometimes the harsh humidity is unbearable and it has a tendency to smell like trash (especially on Bourbon St, for obvious reasons), but how could not love a city whose words to live by are: "Why enter a room when you can make an entrance, and why walk down the street when you can have a parade? "And that's why I can't wait to make the city of New Orleans, Louisiana my home for the next four years. In the mean time, I'll be craving deep-fried seafood and blasting Zydeco music like it's nobodies business.

Soft shell crab with craw fish cream sauce over linguini pasta at the Maple St Cafe