NOLA 2011: The Spring Break of a Lifetime – Day 7

For those of you who don’t know, I just spent my spring break in New Orleans, LA enjoying Bourbon Street and doing local service projects. I went with a group of 39 people from the WSU Center for Civic Engagement, most of whom I did not know entering the trip. We spent 5 days and 5 nights in the French Quarter and witnessed everything from the still-damaged Lower 9th Ward, to a St. Patrick’s Day Parade, to a beach in Mississippi, to the crazy nightlife on Bourbon Street.

If only this blog entry could do the trip justice…It was undoubtedly the best trip of my life, and I am already missing the people, parties, weather, food and general culture that we encountered down there. Honestly, if anyone has not gotten the chance to experience New Orleans yet, I highly recommend spending a few days down there. (Upcoming: New Orleans Jazz Fest – look it up!) Here is my recap of the trip:

Saturday, March 19, 2011:

And now we head back to Pullman. :( Personally, I’m tired and ragged and dirty at this point, and I spent the shuttle ride and our time at the gate sleeping off my week. Everyone is a little bit antsy to get home, but at the same time I don’t think anyone was necessarily ready to leave this amazing place we had experienced all week. Almost the entire flight to Seattle was spent dozing in and out of sleep, but when we were awake, the recaps began.

So many stories popped out of the woodwork that we had no knowledge of previously. Charlie’s Captain Morgan story, for one, was classic. (Yep, that’s all the information you get!) Remember when Bryan got arrested? When Katiejo danced on the bar? When Maggie tried to track down the girl who tried to start a fight? When we saw the Lower 9th? When Stephanie’s crawfish splooged on her? When we met the group of Cougar alums? The difference we made in a few people’s lives on our service projects?

After a bit of reminiscing and some much-needed rest, we were all finally somewhat awake at the Seattle airport. We spent a couple hours on our layover eating Ivar’s clam chowder and chatting about everything from the trip, to anthropology, to how WSU has changed since Charlie was an undergrad, to what we are all trying to do in the future.

When we boarded the short flight from Seattle to Spokane, I got in another quick nap and then an hour long sleep in the car on the way back to Pullman (sorry Charlie and Sarah…I was just so sociable…). And just like that, the trip was over! I slept for 14 hours on Saturday night and spent Sunday sullenly wishing I was still down South. But as I’ve said, going to New Orleans was one of the best experiences of my life. And rather than make a list of all my memories, I will just try to put together some of my personal favorite pictures from the trip and leave it at that (only a couple from the service projects - because we were actually working, whereas on Bourbon Street cameras were constantly going off!). NOLA for life. I can’t wait to go back.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the pics! I will never forget the fun times, the service projects, the food, culture and art we took in on this trip. And most importantly to me, the strong relationships I built with my fellow Cougs...Almost as exciting as the actual trip is all the new friends I've made through the experience, so thanks to everyone for making it such an amazing trip!