Saturday, February 15, 2020
We landed in New Orleans in crystal clear blue-sky weather
in the middle of a field of more green than I’d seen in Boston for four or five
months. Hours earlier, we had all gotten up and dragged ourselves to Logan
Airport at 6am—even before Ms. Myers and Ms. Landers got there (ed. note – Ms.
Myers and Ms. Landers were on time!). Landing in New Orleans was a pleasant
surprise: for a few hours it felt as if I’d cheated the city of Boston into an
early summer.
Once we got our bearings, we decided our first stop would be to
get a taste of classic New Orleans cuisine at a family-run neighborhood
restaurant in the mid-city area: Katie’s. Before we went in, we noticed posted
outside was a marker designating the sea level from Hurricane Katrina—high above
any of our heads. While some students ventured beyond trivial meals, by tasting
food such as catfish with a reduction sauce, one of the students ventured to
taste a plain burger. In fact, one of our number assumed that “burger” meant “chicken
sandwich” and failed to notice why the waiter asked how well the meat should be
done, and was pleasantly surprised when he received a one-inch beef steak
hamburger, instead of what he presumed he was receiving, a medium-rare chicken
sandwich.
In the evening, we attended a Mardi Gras krewe parade (Krewe—a
community organization that puts on parades) and begged the people in floats
for beads and other goodies. The constant rain of goodies from the floats made
it an exhilarating sight to see. The sheer amount of money and community
support poured into the parade was unmatched to anything in Boston. This town’s
parade could be compared to any of our sports championship parades. As the
marching bands and dance and cheer teams marched by we realized the state of
segregation within the parade. Each marching band was either of African
American or of Caucasian decent. The same applied to the cheer squads and dance
teams. Furthermore, students came to see the strong military culture embedded
within Southern society, with every high school having a JROTC regiment (Junior
Reserve Officer Training Course), and many students participating within the
program. The town (Slidell) whose parade we saw also had a surprising amount of
dance teams, all dedicated to putting on a great parade.
While definitely a tiring and busy day, I can’t find
anything else to compare to the color and vibrancy of the city of New Orleans,
especially on first impact.
Roy Zhu and Bowen Popkin
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