Hi world, or the three or so odd people actually reading this blog…my name is Sinthujah. Well actually, most people call me Sintha but it always weirds me out to see my nickname spelled out so you’ll rarely see me write it out myself. My fellow group of bloggers and I figured introductions were in order with a little bit of background information as our real world audition tape for why we’re here.
New Orleans, why am I here? Well, I’m starting to see that I’m getting rather attached to this city and also why, which will be blogged on later. I’m in my second semester of my senior year expecting to graduate from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and yet I’m here in New Orleans “studying abroad”…domestically. Yeah, that’s been the best terminology I’ve been able to come up with thus far for this sort of program since it’s such an odd (and awkward) case to explain. I’m actually a “double-transfer” student starting from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana to Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina to UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Apparently, I can’t stay in one place. A.D.D. does that to you I guess?
I came into New Orleans my freshmen year in 2005 to attend Tulane, but sure enough Hurricane Katrina also intended on showing up. After the 16 hour drive from my hometown in South Carolina and moving all my suitcases into the 10th floor of Monroe Hall, the hearsay of a hurricane coming racked up the entire freshmen class for evacuation. I’m still convinced to this day that if parents weren’t with us that day helping us move in, even the school might not have taken the evacuation process so seriously since most locals felt this was just another hurricane that would come and go, as many others had. Not to place any blame on the locals, just to point out that hurricanes were the norm down here so it was just another hurricane season to them. The ’05 freshmen class slept on the gym floor of Mississippi State University for 3 days, eventually experiencing electrical shortage after the first night. Actually, my details might be a bit fuzzy now so bare with me, it’s been too long and sadly I have poor memory for my age. My phone died by the second morning and with no power outlet to charge it up again, I had no means of contacting my parents to tell them we were all perfectly fine. Meanwhile, none of the gym class floor kids had access to the news via radio or television so we had no idea the storm was hitting so strong. Finally on the third day when a t.v. magically busted out of thin air, we stood in complete shock hearing and watching the chaos going on in New Orleans and surrounding areas. It was something else to say the least. Once the hurricane winds seemed to clear up, the entire class of students was organized into two separate groups and transported to either Atlanta or some city in Texas on several charter buses. After being picked up from Atlanta, all I could think about was what to do for a semester without a school to go to, but more importantly, when am I ever going to get all my clothes and drawings back from New Orleans? Luckily, the school thing panned out for me fine, the missing wardrobe and personal items not so much…but you learn to get over these things and be less materialistic once you realize what everyone else had to deal with. Maybe that’s why I’m such a packrat now and can never get myself to throw anything away? Who knows.
So really, I’m here to be back in the city I was meant to start out in. I decided for myself that I would come return somehow maybe for post-undergraduate studies but this Research Burch Seminar in New Orleans opportunity opened itself to me and I couldn’t say no. Really, I’m here to witness for myself what I was missing from this city these past few years and I guess I’ll be here to keep updates on what all those who aren’t here are missing as well. Stay tuned. Oh, and I'll write a more cute and concise version of my biodata later. Word.
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