Last Day of Work and House of Blues

Friday was the last day of work. I helped out with the kid's camp, and the kids brought in a lot of desserts. We had chocolate cupcakes, brownies, chocolate cheesecake, banana bread, and chocolate chip cookies along with breakfast burritos and turkey grilled sandwiches. The rest of the day I just looked up some membership card info for Liz and chilled.

After work I walked with Ashley (the other intern from Yale) to the Praline Connection Restaurant on Frenchmen. We had a variety of foods there, including catfish, okra, pickles, and chicken liver, which were all fried. They also had alligator sausage, which was really good. I didn't try the chicken wings which were supposedly extremely spicy. They had gumbo (which was really dark in color and had sausage and chicken wings in it) and extremely rich, creamy pralines.

We went to the House of Blues to hear Andrew Duhon and Jessica Lea Mayfield after the dinner.

African-Creole Food Tastes Chinese?

We (me, Graham, and Andrew O.) made an excursion into the French Quarter to Bennachin's for some African-Creole food. It took awhile to walk down Royal and we saw Andrew W. and his girlfriend coming back from Bennachin's. They said it was good, so I was excited. When we finally got there and ordered, we asked the waiter about half the menu. Andrew W. told me later that the bennachin, or African jambalaya, was really good. I was going to order that! But the waiter discouraged me. Sigh. Next time I will go with gut instinct. I ended up with boneless chicken, cashews, and rice with a brown gravy. To tell you the truth, I was not impressed. It tasted like Chinese food. Maybe there's some relation?

St. Bernard Excursion

Today we went to work with Amanda and volunteered on two houses. I went with Ashley, Naomi, and Amy to a house in Chalmette while the others (Meghan, Andrew O., and Graham) went with Amanda to a house in New Orleans East.

It was fun to take a break from work and pitch in some hours towards finishing a family's house. We were at Lee Davis' house, putting on the finishing touches. Amy and I spent the morning taping the trims around the floor and windows while Naomi caulked the doorways and Ashley painted the white patches on the walls. After lunch (we went to Charlie's where I got a huge loaded baked potato), we painted primer on the front of the house and finished taping up the rest of the house.

Chris Duhon and New Orleans East

After work I walked over to Ruth's Chris Steak House for the meet and greet with Chris Duhon. Work was mostly just doing writing and looking stuff up. The event was fun and I got autographs and a picture. Once we were all gathered we made our way over to Cafe Giovanni for dinner with the Durham ELI group and parishioners from New Orleans East. The food was good but overpriced. Hearing stories about the aftermath of Katrina definitely put things in perspective and in a rather somber mood. Even though it's been four years out, people are still struggling to pull their lives together. The group was given two questions, what people don't know about Katrina and what we should do/take away from our experience. I think the consensus was that the world doesn't realize how communities affected by Katrina are still working towards rebuilding and that New Orleans and the other neighborhoods still need volunteers and lots of help.

Bread and Butter is Delicious

At work I just finished up the Big Read contact list.

Four of us (Amy, Andrew W., Graham) went to a Holocaust survivors speaker event put on by the Southern Institute. Anne, who was born in 1935, and almost 5 when WWII started, shared her story. It was very interesting hearing from a person who experienced the Warsaw Ghetto and being smuggled out of the ghetto. I can't imagine being a little girl sitting silently in a small chest for days and days. It's difficult to comprehend how fast Anne and her sister had to grow up under the circumstances. But I really enjoyed hearing her story because it brings alive the stories you read in history textbooks and memoirs. When asked about the malnutrition and food in the ghetto, Anne declared that her favorite food is still bread and butter because that's what her father fed them when he came back from Russia for the family. Anne also had a funny story about how she confronted David Duke. Apparently he's tall, and she happens to be short, so she had to reach up to tap him on his shoulder.

After the event we walked over to Crepes a la Cart for some dessert. I got the fruit compote crepe with strawberries and cream. It was really good, and I definitely have to go back to try the other crepes.

Bastille Day

Today was Bastille Day, although I didn't really do anything for it. I met with Liz and another guy for the symposium. After that I spent a lot of time looking up all the contact info for the Big Read.

The museum hosted the French consulate's private event tonight, but I wasn't able to make it. I'm sure there was a lot of good food.

We had a reflection session tonight, and Ashley brought cheesecake for Meghan's birthday!

No Camp = No Free Lunch

Since we canceled camp this week, I don't get free lunch. But that means I have more time to help out around the museum. I'm still working on symposium stuff and I'm helping out with the Big Read contact list.

And we found out today that the Harry Potter midnight show was sold out. Sad.