Farewell

Outer:

            My favorite place in the French Quarter is in front of the St. Louis Cathedral. I chose this place for a couple of reasons. First, it was always our meeting ground. Almost every day we met here to begin our journey for the day. Actually walking into the cathedral and looking around was amazing. This is the first place that I began to learn the history of this wonderful city. The next reason I chose it is because it was the first place I learned exactly where it was in the city. As long as I knew how to get back to the cathedral, I knew I was fine. My land marks were Decatur street and St. Louis street and I could use that to navigate my way through the city.

            I also like the atmosphere outside the cathedral. It’s nothing like we have in Peoria. You constantly hear music filling the streets. They are lined with beautiful and colorful artwork. When you stand here, you know you are not home and feel like you are experiencing different culture. This is what drives me to travel and see new places. This is also the place we stood to watch the parade. So there really is just so much stuff to do right outside the St. Louis Cathedral.

At the parade

 

            I have already told people to come visit this place. Especially those who love history and food! I would highly recommend setting up as many blogs as you can. I still am blown away about how much I have learned on this trip. Each tour you take re-iterates how much history is in this city. Each story you hear makes you want to hear more. All the guides we had were amazing and brought their own unique way to tell their story. I would also recommend you take the music tour with Milton. This is coming from a person who doesn’t even like music. Him walking around with the blue tooth speaker so you can hear the music while he was talking about it was icing on the cake.

            The final advice I would give to someone coming here, is to come with good friends. The city is so much fun, it’s one of those types of vacations you can leave your family at home. Coming here with a group of girlfriends for a long weekend would be an ideal trip. The open carry with drinks reminds you that you are not in Peoria anymore. Even the attitude of the people is completely different than home. Walking down the streets of Peoria, everyone looks down. Even making eye contact is not enough for people to say hello. In New Orleans, people not only say hi, they tell you to have a good day. This is one thing that makes this city so unique and a great place to visit.

            One place I would tell others to visit is the Garden District. We went for one afternoon on our free time and the houses were just amazing. They were full of architecture and colorful. Of course we have big homes in Peoria, but these have something those homes don’t. You look at them and they seem like they are should be on a postcard.

Inner:   

I enjoyed this class and I would recommend it to anyone that needs to get another general education class out of the way. My favorite part of the class was going on all the different tours. The ghost tour was my favorite because I liked hearing all the dark stories the city had to tell. I would also highly recommend the music tour because I learned a lot that I didn’t know before. I’m really glad those were set up and we basically didn’t have to worry about it. This is also something that I wouldn’t have done on my own family vacation. I was surprised at how much history I learned and how much New Orleans is a major part of how our country got started.

My favorite part of the trip was being with my best friends. We all said before we left that this trip would either make us closer, or we would end up hating each other. The matching tattoos is a testament that this trip made us closer. Don’t get me wrong, there were times when we got tired and got a little testy with each other, but in the end we love each other. I would highly recommend coming on this trip with at least one person you know. It made the whole trip easier for me and less homesick.

The people of New Orleans taught me a lot about humanity. They are the nicest most resilient people I have ever met. I felt like each time someone talked to me, they genuineially cared about what I was saying. This really hit when we were talking with one of our tour guides was talking about Hurricane Maria. She said we really have to send prayers that way because she feared the people of Puerto Rico and the other islands were getting forgotten. She knew what they were going through and how they were feeling right now because she had been through that experience. They taught me that no matter what I’m going through, things could always be worse. They showed me that being nice to someone will take you a lot further in life than being hateful.

I learned that I have a lot more patience than I thought I did. At home, my life motto is if you’re on time you’re late. However, on this trip not one of my friends could arguably be the slowest person in the world. I feel like her motto at home would be if you’re on time, you’re early. As you can see, this is a recipe for a disagreement. I learned to kind of let all the small stuff go. It didn’t matter most of the time if we showed up ten minutes late. Towards the end of the trip I learned to just let it go and be patient. We didn’t miss any tours, we never got left behind, and I didn’t feel like anyone was having to wait around for us. I will try to remember this and take it home with me the next time I am rushing Lance out the door.