Bittersweet

Finals are officially over, class rooms have shut their doors, and Tulane University is less lively as usual. Yes, school has let out for the summer. Remember that feeling that you would get whenever high school or perhaps another college would let out for the summer – usually counting down the days right. There are even songs about how great it is to not be in school. That same feeling never came across me while I was packing for home and saying goodbyes to tons of friends from miles away. In a way, I was sad to say bye for a couple of months! Weird, I know but you should come here and see how it feels!

While springtime at Tulane came to an end, there was no end to fun in New Orleans and Tulane during the last few weeks. Tulane and New Orleans had festivals every weekend in April! The festival season was kicked off by Tulane’s very own Crawfest. 15,000 pounds of crawfish, hours of live music, and you and a couple of thousand of your best friends all on the first week of April! Crawfest was a blast and Tulane students had free access to all the fun. Not to mention, two huge festivals in New Orleans were underway in the latter part of the month – French Quarter Fest and Jazzfest! French Quarter Fest is a cultural festival of the history of New Orleans’s most famous neighborhood, the French Quarter. Plenty of food, arts and crafts, and local names headlining the stages which were all free to the public! The most famous of New Orleans festivals, behind Mardi Gras of course, is Jazzfest – huge names like Dave Matthews, Earth Wind and Fire, Etta James, James Taylor, and so much more come to play for two weekends of live music and delicious food. I had some friends come into town for this one – all of whom wanted to see Dave Matthews. It was a truly a fantastic way to celebrate the end of an unforgettable year and let loose some steam before finals week!

Have you ever seen a monkey ride a dog? How about two bison climb a trailer? What about prisoners riding bulls? Well, some friends of mine and myself have! In mid April, we took a Road Trip! to Angola State Penitentiary to see the annual Angola Rodeo where prisoners actually ride bulls and sell arts and crafts of their own craftsmanship. It was quite an adventure. When you got to the state pen, they made us park in a mud pit which latter turned into disaster. The rodeo featured prisoners playing poker while bulls are running around them, thousands of lawn chairs, and a concoction called Fried Coke. It was quite an experience. Leaving back to our car in the mud pit, a truck sprayed the entire front windshield and right side of the vehicle with gallons of mud! We looked real classy rolling back into Tulane from our road trip.

Though different emotions seemed to come over me while I was packing my bags and the car, this time to go back home, I got excited about the events I have lined up for the summer. First, I am getting involved in theatre in my local area by jumping in on a community production of West Side Story. Jumping in three weeks before opening will be quite a challenge seeing that they have been practicing for three months! But, it should be a great way to get involved in something I love. As I mentioned before in my last blog, I will be taking part in Tulane’s Chile Summer Program, a summer study abroad program that awards two classes and the opportunity to travel one of the most beautiful and interesting nations in South America. I have been looking forward to this for quite a while. I will be leaving in late June so this blog will become a document of my experiences in my five weeks in Chile. It is important to note that Tulane offers many summer abroad programs such as Brazil, Australia, and the United Kingdom. You should go to http://global.tulane.edu/studyabroad/programs/summer/index.html and check them out.

(The Atacama Desert in northern Chile, a destination during my stay there in July)