Orientation

This has been very interesting so far. Yesterday I had some free time before we had to meet each other at 4:30, so I took a bus down to the French Quarter and looked around. It wasn't really what I expected. I also went to Magazine Street, which is a very famous street in the middle of the Garden District. If any of you have ever read any Anne Rice novels (the vampire Lestat, etc.,) you'll know what I'm talking about. I saw some cemeteries of the "undead"!

Last night we went out to dinner at a Mediterranean-style restaurant and met each other. Melanie is an elementary teacher; Noreen is an elementary ELL teacher; Joe is a high school science teacher; and Sarah is a middle school science teacher.

We are staying on St. Charles street (a famous street) across from Tulane University. Tulane is a traditionally Jewish-based university. Down the street a bit is Loyola University, which is a traditionally Catholic university. They share a lot of resources.

The streetcars on St. Charles Street still are not working since Katrina (two years ago in September). They do have buses, however, but it is difficult at times to get one to stop and pick you up. I walked for miles and miles. Finally, a nice lady who was out walking felt badly for me, insisted on going and getting her car, and gave me a cup of fresh ice water in a Mardi Gra cup and a ride back to my guest house. It turns out that she is an English teacher here. She is married to a man from MN and he has relatives in Bloomfield, IA. I told her that if she is ever in Des Moines, she has a free dinner coming! It's true about southern hospitality!

Today we went walking around Audubon Park, which is by my guest house. It is really pretty. I will attach some photos. Then we went to the lab and met Dr. Dyer. His talk was fascinating. I learned a lot about caterpillars and parasitoids. It also made me become more interested in global warming.

I have to get back to the lab now--we are out for lunch, and try to do an Adobe Connect with some of you at the school. The first attempt this morning didn't go very well. Not enough bandwidth is one reason.

Talk to you later.