I will tell my grandma that I met a real cajun from the bayou
I haven't blogged for awhile, so I wanted to quickly tell you what I've been up to lately. My classes are going just dandily right now, but what I really want to talk about is my weekend. This past weekend, as part of a club swim team trip, I took a little 3-day trip to New Orleans! I have never been there before and it was incredible. Perhaps some people would enjoy other cities more, but being a music major, besides Vienna, this is the one place you learn about the most. It was fantastic to finally see a place that appreciates jazz. In the french quarter it seemed that every other bar or club had live music that was jazz, blues, or really bad cover bands. I even had the good fortune to hook up with my close friend Brenna Muller from Conn and then convinced the whole swim club to come with us to see New Orlean's own Ellis Marsalis (famed piano playin' father of Wynton)! It was a great show, even though he's 70 something, and the entire club ended up really enjoying the show (the ladies especially loved the sexy bass player). Speaking of sexy bass players...Chris Reilly has got the moves to make you groves.
Anyway, the entire charm of the city is great, it's like being in a jazz version of Pirates of the Caribbean. Also, unlike Philly (in so many ways), the entire service industry down there was fantastic. We got lovely drinking and hangover advice from the hostess at the House of Blues (which had surprisingly good food), and genuinely kind treatment almost everywhere we went. And, if you're interested to know, the death culture down there is really cool too. There are tons of voodoo shops, haunted tours, and cemetary tours. The cemetaries are especially neat because the tombs are all above ground so the coffins don't float out of the ground because most of the city is below sea level.
If anyone has not been there and you have a chance to go I highly recommend it. My weekend was some of the most fun I've ever had and some reminiscent of floralia, but along the Mississippi. I hope everyone is enjoying this blustery Feburary. Oh yeah, in reference to the title, some awesome guy at a bar really told the team that.