Happenings in New Orleans

After a jam-packed day of events, ranging from learning about 300 years of New Orleans' history at Tulane University to numerous grassroots design/build community-partnership projects, and taking a swamp boat tour of the cypress trees, what better than to head over to Frenchman street to hear some jazz. One of my roomates found a really great one. All the musicians instruments had the patina of experience and humidity of New Orleans. There were people dancing lindy-hop? Swing? Something difficult, Priya, wish you'd been with me! After about 2 hours of dancing, this guy comes to the dance floor really quietly, and then everyone realized he had on tap shoes ... Great entrance, great little act, really stole the show! He's from Israel and learned to tap dance in NYC from some classes and then learned it on the streets. How cool is that?

By the way Sain, you should have seen the UVa students line up at the salad bar at lunch yesterday ... so we didn't even last 2 days without craving the veggies.

Today, we visited the pumping station by the levee that broke and the upper 9th Ward which had the most damage done by Hurricane Katrina. There are still many dilapidated palimpsests of the disaster, but we visited an avante-garde non-profit gallery space that buys houses there and allows artists to do what they will with the structures. The community is very tight and still exists. Apparently there is a big problem with lead levels in the soil because of the lead paint that was underwater for many days. Great lunch! Such decadent brownies.

And then exploring the French Quarter :D Stay tuned for photos for when I get my computer back.