It's hard to believe, but today started our last state-side workshop for the QFI-UT Austin Teacher Leadership Program. It's bittersweet, to say the least. The "sweet" part is that this workshop is in New Orleans, a place I've only visited briefly (when I embarked on a cruise via the port there). Y'all, I haven't even been here 24 hours, and I'm already obsessed. I mean, just look at these photos. We're staying just blocks from the French Quarter, and it's incredible. Tyler and I arrived mid-afternoon, and we met Brielle at the hotel prior to heading to St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. Established in 1789, this is the oldest cemetery in New Orleans -- and it is still used today for burials. A city ordinance was decreed in 1803, and while it was "not strictly followed, it did prompt the style of interment we are most familiar with today in New Orleans, above-ground tombs, an aesthetic tradition of memorial architecture that we inherited from France and Spain, with the added benefit of it solving the issues associated with a very high water table" (Source). There are several "wall vaults" in the cemetery, and this is where countless individuals are buried. Bodies are left undisturbed in their tombs for one year and one day, and after that time, the remains are pushed to the back of the vault to make room for another family member. Throughout the cemetery, you can also see several tombs have started to deteriorate, and others are sinking into the ground. Many famous people are interred in the cemetery, including the infamous voodoo queen, Marie Laveau; Homer Plessy (of Plessy vs. Ferguson); and, in the future, Nicolas Cage, in a giant, seemingly out-of-place white pyramid. The cemetery is only accessible via tour, and while our guide was super informative and entertaining, he was a little hard to follow -- perhaps because I had done zero research myself prior to the tour and did not at all know what to expect ahead of time. After our cemetery tour, we met most of the group at Napoleon House, a "200-year-old landmark that's as casual and unique as its French Quarter surroundings." The then-mayor of New Orleans was the building's first occupant, and he offered the house to Napoleon when Napoleon was exiled -- but Napoleon never made it. Now, it is "one of the most famous bars in America, a haunt for artists and writers throughout most of the 20th century" (Source). I had a Pimm's cup, a NOLA classic, and an alligator po'boy with red beans and rice. Everything was incredible. After, we headed to Cafe du Monde for amazing beignets, which we enjoyed on the street while listening to buskers performing great songs, and then to Bourbon Street to witness debauchery. On Bourbon Street, we wound our way through Pat O'Brien's, the bar that invented the hurricane, to a piano bar where we enjoyed more great music and, well, hurricanes.
It was such a fun first day in New Orleans, and the workshop hasn't even started yet!
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