ENTERTAINMENT - Part 1

The taxi driver turned off his meter and gave us a free 15 minute ride around town in search of his true love. He had met this woman online and had never seen her face to face. She was in town with her job with Homeland Security. She was on a city tour bus, and she kept calling his cell to say she was at this place or another. He had bought I rose to give to her, but alas, he never did find her. He was heartbroken, and we were entertained.

Upper Wards

New Orleans is divided into wards or voting districts. The pictures in the previous post were taken in the lower wards where the recovery process from Katrina is slow and depressing. Most of the following pictures were taken in the upper wards. The restoration and repopulation of these areas are at 90%+ pre-Katrina.

The houses in the pictures are of "famous people", but for the life of me, I don't know what house belongs to which person. The bus driver would say, "There is a home that belongs to _____ coming up on the right. Get your cameras ready for a perfect photographic opportunity." So being the all out tourist that I was, I did what he said. Some of the celebrities that own homes in New Orleans are Sandra Bollock, Pete Manning, Nicholas Cage, Anne Rice, Fats Domino, and of course Brad Pitt.

The best homes of the celebrities were the ones I couldn't get a picture of because they were on the LEFT side of the bus. Brad Pitt owns a pink home one block off of Decater St. I got the adress so I could return later. I don't think the bus driver was too hip on Angelia Jolie according to his comments. I got the address so I could return later. My plan was to tell Brad I was the cleaning service, or better yet, a masseuse.

Anne Rice's home fit her personality the best. It had old twisting oak trees with Spanish moss hanging everywhere. There were vines woven through the wrought iron balconies. Fats Domino's home was in an area that had been badly damage by the storm. It was small and flashy - painted yellow and black with large initials "FD" on the side of the house. He decided not to evacuate during the storm because of his wifes bad health, so he was rescued by helicoper after the storm did its damage.

CALLIER - famous New Orleans architect's tomb

I don't really know who he is - but maybe Jacob does.

KATRINA

On the city tour, we had a chance to see the part of the city that was most devastated by Katrina in 2005. The bus driver is a native to New Orleans, and was one of the many who choose to stay behind instead of evacuating. Because he was a bus driver, he helped many of the elderly residence move to higher ground before the levees broke. He is also an artist, and he lost most of his work to the flood.

The holes in the roofs were made by the home owners after the flood. They would climb to the roof to wait for the rescue workers. The numbers on the front of the homes were a way of marking which homes had been checked, and how many occupants were still inside (some said things like "one yellow cat"). Even five years later, about 50%+ of the houses in this area still have the numbers on the outside and are abandoned. The third picture shows that many of the people are still living in the FEMA trailers.

Look closely at the next picture and you will see just a door standing. Most of the homes within the first five blocks of the broken levee were completely wiped away. The second picture shows just the steps. The bridge is the distance of the levee that broke.

KATRINA MONUMENT - shows the rising water level and the frame of a home

MUSICIANS' VILLAGE

80 homes built for musicians in the area. The homes are sponsored by a corporation or a family ($75,000). The new owners are given an interest free loan and pay payment of about $550 a month. The money is then used to build other Habitat homes in the area.

BRAD PITT'S ORGANIZATION "MAKE IT RIGHT 9 HELPING TO REBUILD NEW ORLEANS'S LOWER NINTH WARD"

50 homes designed by 21 architects. The architects' design was to be green, affordable, and durable. Most of the houses' electric bills are bewteen $8-$20 a month.

The new houses in these pictures are within sight of the levee that failed. I don't know about you, but I would have a hard time moving right back to the spot that had the worst destruction and flooding???

SPIRITUAL REALM

Let me start by saying that we visited New Orleans during the weekend of Halloween. It was also during the VooDoo Festival. The first picture is of a "mock" voodoo alter that I saw on the city tour. The bus driver also drove us by an actual certified voodoo temple where a real priestess would do a reading for you. Later that night, we located the temple (set up just like any other tourist shop right off of Bourbin St.) because one of the teachers wanted a "real" voodoo doll. I stood across the street and refused to go in. There were dolls hanging all over the ceiling of the shop. The teacher changed her mind about buying anything after a tour of the place.

The LaLaurie Mansion - one of the MOST haunted places in the city.
(I think everything was haunted on some level.)

The following three pictures were taken inside the St. Louis Cemetery #3 (there are 42 cemeteries in all). New Orleans is below sea level so the caskets will float if they are buried below ground. If you family is well off, then they can purchase a tomb to bury their family members. Most tombs only hold one casket at a time. So when one person dies, the last person's remains are removed from their casket and placed at the back of the tomb while the next body is placed into the casket spot. It takes one year and one day before anyone's remains are composed enough to be moved. So what are you suppose to do if your uncle dies today, and you die tomorrow? Not to worry - your casket will be placed in one of the wall vaults around the perimeter of the cemetery until there is room for you. The wall vaults look like apartment buildings for the dead.

Jackson Square with St. Louis Cathedral in the background.

Saturday morning before we left (the morning I had the beignet) I talked to the sisters at the Cafe where they had just come from morning mass. They were teachers at the elementary school. The friend from New Orleans had gone to school at one of the Catholic schools in the area. After talking to the sisters, we went over to the Cathedral. Mass was over, but they were still chanting in the back. So Mom, I went in a knelt down to say a prayer for you.

New Orleans - ARTS DISTRICT

We stayed in the Warehouse/Museum/Arts District two blocks from the river. There were murals painted on most of the buildings. The first two murals were inside the Embassy Suites where we stayed. This was the view just outside my room. My picture of the mural on the Holiday Inn does not do it justice. The clarinet looked 3D. Even the shadow is painted on so it seems as if it is not attached to the building at all.

This statue was another math lesson in proportionality. :)

The title of this figure was just called "Mother and Child". Someone please explain to me the signifigance of her standing on her poor husband???

Many artist would sit up their work and just paint all day. What a life!

I found the owner of this bug about a block away. He was wearing jeans so filled up with patches that you could not even see the jeans. I asked him if the bug down the street belonged to him (it had to). He told us that he was restoring the bug. My friend asked him if he was putting in a new engine because it was being pulled by a trailer. He said, "No, I am RESTORING it. It doesn't need an engine. That would mean I would have to buy tags and pay taxes."

NCTM Conference - THE FOOD

I attended the NCTM Conference (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) this last week in New Orleans, LA with a group of middle school math teachers in the west Texas area. Although the conference itself was inspiring, I felt that I learned so much more about fine arts than math.

Besides attending the conference, we had a chance to:

• eat some really good food
• experience New Orleans night life
• take a tour of the city
• attend a Hornet's NBA game
• see the distruction and rebuilding of the city caused by Katrina
• eat some really good food
• play some slots (a math lesson on probability)
• see a lot of art
• hear a lot of music
• eat some really good food

I decided to break the trip up into categories, and post one each day this week.

Today, I will get the "eat some really good food" out of the way. I do not have tons of pictures of all of the food I ate because my fellow math teachers thought I was out of my mind every time I took a picture of my food. But I did get to eat jambalaya, shrimp gumbo, black beans and rice, and crawfish ettouffee. I did not find anyone who served boudin, so I am a little bummed about that.

The first night we ate at the Grand Isle Restaurant two blocks from our hotel. I had grilled blackened bass with steamed vegetables. Delicious!

The last morning before we left, I got up at 6:30 to go to The Cafe Du Monde on Decatur St. in the French Market. I went with a teacher who grew up in New Orleans. The Cafe was established in 1862, and serves Biegnets (French donuts) and beverages. That's it, just Biegnets and whatever you want to drink. The Biegnets reminded me of the homemade donuts my mom used to make. They were SO GOOD!!!