New Orleans: High School Cultural 2018

You probably remember the post from last year about my school trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. For this year's cultural trip, we went to New Orleans. We stayed in the French Quarter, a city neighborhood with narrow streets and French-style architecture. On the trip, we got to immerse ourselves in the local culture, as well as have fun. The trip lasted a total of 5 days, and these days were all full of fun.

What a street in the French Quarter looks like

After arriving in the French Quarter, checking in to our hotel, and stopping at Popeyes for lunch, we got a tour of the area we were staying in. The tour guide was old and very quiet so I couldn't hear what she was saying, but we got a general idea of what the area was like. One of the busiest places in the French Quarter is Jackson Square, and at night street performers and fortune tellers flock to the area. Once we had dinner, we went to the Smoothie King Center to see the New Orleans Pelicans play the Portland Trail Blazers. The reason why we went to this NBA game was that my annoying and persistent classmate brought it up, and a decent amount of people that were registered for the trip were interested. I had never gone to an NBA game before, but it was a great experience. We got to sit in a special party box (it wasn't a suite) that had a PS4 and an Xbox One. However, the only games these consoles had was NBA 2K18 so you could play a virtual basketball game while watching a basketball game. We even got to be on the jumbotron! After the game, we went back to the hotel and went to sleep.

Jackson Square

During the fires that were happening in New Orleans, firefighters would inspect houses and leave marks like these to report on how many dead bodies were found in the house. The initials are of the inspector, 9-13 is for the date, and the 0 is for how many dead bodies were found.

The Pelicans game

A tomb in the St. Louis Cemetary

An in-progress float from Mardi Gras World

The next morning, we went on a tour of St. Louis Cemetary. The cemetery was like a city of dead bodies. The reason I say this is because the graves were in tombs above ground due to the low elevation of Louisiana. Because the state is below sea level, if bodies were buried under the ground, they would deteriorate quickly due to the moist soil. After this, we went to Mardi Gras World, a studio that makes Mardi Gras floats. We got to learn more about the culture surrounding the holiday in New Orleans, see how floats are made, and make our own masks. Once we finished our masks we went to the Riverwalk mall and got to explore and do a little shopping. I didn't really buy anything, but it was a good mall. For dinner, I tried a Po' Boy. I enjoyed it somewhat, but after getting halfway through it I couldn't handle the spice. After dinner, I hung out in the hotel pool and then went to bed.

The dining room in the Oak Alley Plantation house

On the third day, we went to the Oak Alley Plantation. This was the rainiest day of the trip, and unfortunately, we were doing something outside. However, we got to tour the mansion of the plantation owners, as it was too rainy to do anything outside. We had also planned a tour of the garden district for this day, but due to the rain, it was postponed to the next day. Instead, we got to have some free time at the hotel. That night I had seafood gumbo for dinner, and really enjoyed it. We also had another chance to go shopping, and I bought a souvenir t-shirt. Then I hung out in the pool and went to bed.

The new t-shirt I got

The riverboat we went on.

The house of Pate and Eli Manning's parents.

On the fourth day, we went on a boat tour of the Mississippi River. We also stopped at the Helmet Battlefield to hear the history of the battle from the War of 1812. After the boat tour we got to have more free time in the mall to go shopping, and then we went on the garden district tour. The garden district is a wealthy neighborhood of historic houses. The houses are very expensive, with most costing millions of dollars. We even got to see the house of Pate and Eli Manning's parents! For a snack, I had beignets from Cafe Du Monde. Beignets are French doughnuts, and they were very delicious. After I had my snack, we went on a ghost tour. Our tour guide told us lots of spooky stories about hauntings in the French Quarter. Dinner on this night was not like other nights, as Passover had started. In order to come on this trip, I had to sacrifice being able to go to the family Seder. Because it was hard to find gluten-free things to eat, I went to Popeyes instead. After dinner, we went back to the hotel. I was able to join in on the end of my family's Seder through Skype, but when I was singing along they were hearing me out of sync. After this, we went to bed.

On the last day, we went on a swamp tour. We got to see lots of alligators up close which I really enjoyed. We also saw an eagle's nest and a turtle. We even got to hold a baby alligator! (I didn't want to.) After this, we returned to the hotel and had lunch in the French Quarter, and then we checked out of the hotel and went back to the airport. Unfortunately, our flight got in really late, so I wasn't able to join in on the second Seder.

Alligator

Holding a baby alligator

Overall, I really enjoyed this trip. I am thankful that I go to a school that supports experiential learning, as I find that learning through experience makes it so that memories about the place we visit stay with me. I am very excited to go on more trips with my school and to see where we will go on our next high school cultural trip.