Gone to Carolina in My Mind

After weeks of trying to figure out how to achieve it before I head back to Carolina, at last, I decided that my closure to New Orleans will never happen . I'm finally okay with that because I find myself content that I intend to keep it this way. The Crescent City will see me again soon enough so I'm not even sad to go anymore because I know I'll be back, in one way or another.

Keeping with the italicized song lyrics theme...this is Old Crow Medicine Show's song "Wagon Wheel." My song for our upcoming road trip From Bourbon Street back to Franklin...

Headed down south to the land of the pines
And I'm thumbin' my way into North Caroline
Starin' up the road
And pray to God I see headlights

I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Pickin' me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a hopin' for Raleigh
I can see my baby tonight

Sintha out. Word.
Peace New Orleans, for now.




Currently Listening to: Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show
Currently Watching: University of Minnesota Dance Team 04

World War II Museum

When one thinks of New Orleans several things come to mind: good food, the french quarter, Katrina, beignets, streetcars and so much more. But rarely does one think New Orleans and picture the national World War II museum. I myself was fairly surprised to find it here; Washington D.C. would seem like a much more plausible place to have it, being our nation's capital and all. But no, its found here in New Orleans.

After visiting the WWII museum this past weekend I found out just why it is located in New Orleans -- and it makes perfect sense! A man named Andrew Higgens manufactured boats in New Orleans. Specifically, he invented the LCVP, also known as Higgens Boats. General Dwight Eisenhower claimed that Higgins won the war for the Allies -- all because of his boats! The boats allowed troops to land on an open beach and without them the entire strategy of the war would have been different! Just think, D-Day never would have been able to have happened. Here's a picture of one of his boats:

The museum was originally entitled the D-Day museum and focused solely on D-Day. Believe it or not, it is the only museum in the nation to address D-Day. Currently it is undergoing an expansion that will quadruple the size of the museum! The museum will expand its exhibits to include all of the campaigns of WWII and provide visitors with a comprehensive history of the war. It is scheduled to be finished in 2015, so I will definitely be back sometime after then to visit the museum again!

A Real World Experience

So I will be leaving NOLA in officially 15 days and I'm soooo sad :'( There's still so much to see!! Before I leave I really want to go by the aquarium or maybe even tomorrow since we don't have class. Over the semester I have come to love New Orleans so much (even though they don't have Bank of America). But anyway I would advise anyone who is considering visiting or studying in NOLA to definitely DO IT! YOU WON'T REGRET IT! I am hoping to maybe return to the city for medical school or something like that and definitely for MARDI GRAS next year! Living in the St. Charles Guest House we have had the opportunity to meet so many eccentric people, some who have changed at least one of our outlooks on life. Even though I missed out on the 2009 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS, I will never regret coming to New Orleans this semester. I've learned so much in the past couple of months and hopefully you have enjoyed learning about my experience as well. I wish I had some cool pictures to post here from our various excursions, but I don't...

;-) Goodbye bloggers,

Mariama

Traffic Stop

The traffic lights on the crossroads of Prytania and Felicity have really been playing jokes of late. Every other day it seems the light refuses to work and thus leaves cars in a congested line filling the area in which we live in single-file. I'm not sure if anyone ever plans on fixing the problem but it sure is entertaining to watch as I get back from class...using my clearly more reliable streetcar. Yeah..no. The transportation in New Orleans really is a curiosity. No native who can afford a car actually knows the streetcar schedule. Others rely on it everyday to get to and from work, or to and from class in our case. Some days the streetcar is late, others it's early, and then there's the unfortunate times when it just doesn't show up (particularly the last few late night runs). I wonder if anyone's gotten fired because of the streetcar? It's pretty erratic, and yet oh how I lovee the streetcars. I'm definitely going to miss seeing a new smiling face everyday and the grandmothers who never fail to tell you how their day is going. Today, I sat between a group of 4 kids riding back from Canal with their skateboards. They'd been practicing grinding down the streets, each just picking up the sport in the past 3 or 5 months. One of the younger kids had signatures on the bottom of his board and I asked the rest of them where their signatures were. They said it wasn't on there and I asked the kid with the board why. He said he didn't have a marker and so I pulled one out of my bag and handed it to him. He smiled as if he knew he no longer had an excuse. His friends began to sign it and after the boy next to me offered me the marker back, I playfully nodded and said naturally I'd sign too. I was teasing but he let me and then before I knew it, the other three asked me to sign theirs. They made my day. There's always someone on the street car to make your day.

Anyways, so here's a picture of another traffic light down...both figuratively and literally. It was just lying next to VooDoo BBQ, still flash dancing it's lights from red to yellow to green. It's Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. I guess you can never know around here...


Oh don't mind that faded image to the right...it's just the ghost of Shadoe. Creeper. Haha

Currently Listening to: The Vowels by Why?
Currently Watching: UNC's Bhangra Elite at AKD in 06 I miss dancing

Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro is borderline garbage

A friend recently sent me a song he's been working on, and lately I haven't been able to stop listening to it. Though he clearly wrote it about a girl he met far from home, I can't help but apply it to Nola. He probably wouldn't be happy I posted his lyrics before he did himself, but we'll keep it a secret. Hopefully, he doesn't like to Google his own lyrics, haha.

I didn't want it when I had it, so I took it and I threw it away.

Now believe me when I say that

You're making it so hard to leave this place

Eventhough Carolina is so far away.

So, I won't believe 'em, won't believe what they say

You and I both know it's insane that I want you still

But I'm feeling like I'm starved for something real.

Oh yeah, I'm starved for something real

How does it feel to make me feel?

Don't leave this place, even if Carolina is so far away.

Interpretting the first line as not taking full advantage of all of Nola while I've been here,  the rest is pretty self explanitory. I've learned a lot about real life here in New Orleans. A lot about the beauty of the world, the infinity of knowledge and things to learn about, as well as the tough-to-swallow realities of urban life, especially within the framework race and class; things that I've been starved of in Goldsboro and Chapel Hill. It took coming to New Orleans for me to really become aware of and indulge in this knowledge (you see what I'm doing there? Blending it with New Orleans rich food culture. Crafty, I know), and the thought of leaving so soon is kind of unsettling. 

It's amazing how italics can create so much more drama and meaning, same with a black and white camera.

Anachronism?

Currently watching: What a Wonderful Shadow Puppet

Currently listening to: Iron & Wine Such Great Heights