The Big Easy
I just returned from my spring break trip to New Orleans. I don't know if it was the best spring break ever but it was up there. I think the break I enjoyed the most was back in 4th grade when I played Mario 64 the whole time, but that's another story and not a very interesting one.
I began my long (16 hour?) road trip after meeting my three traveling partners. Luckily they all turned out to be pretty cool people. We ran over an owl on the highway. I'm not sure how exactly this happened, but it was gruesome, hope it wasn't an endangered species.
We spent about 6 or 7 hours each day gutting houses, that means knocking out mold infested drywall and warped paneling so that the houses can be refurbished. It was hard work but not too bad. The first and second houses were not so bad. Despite being located in the lower 9th ward they were salvageable because they had been made with brick or stone walls. I guess the Three Little Pigs story holds more truth than I realized. The third day, however was a different story. None of the furniture had been removed and every room in the house was piled high with junk that looked as if it had been sitting around the house since 1970. All of it was now soaked with water, and smelled foul. It wasn't so bad at first but once you picked the garbage up and tried to move it to the curb the stench was so horrible that it forced you to gag. Some people vomited. The wood paneled walls and floor had warped or bucked with bumps sometimes a foot higher than the rest of the floor. As an interesting art major from Ohio put it they had "lasagnaed". We had to tear out all this damaged stuff and behind it we were greeted by spiders, centipedes, and worst of all cockroaches of all sizes. It was horrific, the man who lived there said he did not plan on returning but for some reason needed this stuff cleared before bulldozing. You should have seen me take out this ceiling fan! The last house we worked on was very nice, and it was on higher ground so only some of the walls were damaged. We knocked them out and swept up all the debris.
We met a few of the owners and they were all friendly, some more than others. During the night we went to movies or visited tourist attractions down town. I ate at several restaurants and cafes including the Cafe Du Monde which I liked. Saw V for Vendetta, which was very good. I should have known it was by the Wachowski brothers. I became friends with a lot of interesting people there were students there from all over the country.
CNN even showed up on my last day there to film for Anderson Cooper's 360 show. Life at the volunteer camp was not glamorous the food was okay, better than what I expected but not great. The showers were freezing cold most of the time, and not very private, and the cots we slept on were very creaky and became messy fast because people around me would not follow the rules about bringing food in.
But overall it was a very rewarding and enjoyable experience. I actually did something important. Not that sitting on my ass and watching TV isn't important but this time I got to help others and hang out with some new friends while I did.
The four of us took turns driving back and forth from New Orleans. We passed through Kansas City, St. Louis, and Memphis on the way that. We had laptops allowing us to watch DVDs in the car. That made me feel a lot better, I use most spring breaks to watch all the movies I didn't get to see while busy with school work.
I will try to have pictures from this trip up soon. Stay tuned.
I began my long (16 hour?) road trip after meeting my three traveling partners. Luckily they all turned out to be pretty cool people. We ran over an owl on the highway. I'm not sure how exactly this happened, but it was gruesome, hope it wasn't an endangered species.
We spent about 6 or 7 hours each day gutting houses, that means knocking out mold infested drywall and warped paneling so that the houses can be refurbished. It was hard work but not too bad. The first and second houses were not so bad. Despite being located in the lower 9th ward they were salvageable because they had been made with brick or stone walls. I guess the Three Little Pigs story holds more truth than I realized. The third day, however was a different story. None of the furniture had been removed and every room in the house was piled high with junk that looked as if it had been sitting around the house since 1970. All of it was now soaked with water, and smelled foul. It wasn't so bad at first but once you picked the garbage up and tried to move it to the curb the stench was so horrible that it forced you to gag. Some people vomited. The wood paneled walls and floor had warped or bucked with bumps sometimes a foot higher than the rest of the floor. As an interesting art major from Ohio put it they had "lasagnaed". We had to tear out all this damaged stuff and behind it we were greeted by spiders, centipedes, and worst of all cockroaches of all sizes. It was horrific, the man who lived there said he did not plan on returning but for some reason needed this stuff cleared before bulldozing. You should have seen me take out this ceiling fan! The last house we worked on was very nice, and it was on higher ground so only some of the walls were damaged. We knocked them out and swept up all the debris.
We met a few of the owners and they were all friendly, some more than others. During the night we went to movies or visited tourist attractions down town. I ate at several restaurants and cafes including the Cafe Du Monde which I liked. Saw V for Vendetta, which was very good. I should have known it was by the Wachowski brothers. I became friends with a lot of interesting people there were students there from all over the country.
CNN even showed up on my last day there to film for Anderson Cooper's 360 show. Life at the volunteer camp was not glamorous the food was okay, better than what I expected but not great. The showers were freezing cold most of the time, and not very private, and the cots we slept on were very creaky and became messy fast because people around me would not follow the rules about bringing food in.
But overall it was a very rewarding and enjoyable experience. I actually did something important. Not that sitting on my ass and watching TV isn't important but this time I got to help others and hang out with some new friends while I did.
The four of us took turns driving back and forth from New Orleans. We passed through Kansas City, St. Louis, and Memphis on the way that. We had laptops allowing us to watch DVDs in the car. That made me feel a lot better, I use most spring breaks to watch all the movies I didn't get to see while busy with school work.
I will try to have pictures from this trip up soon. Stay tuned.
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