essentially the best place ever.

yesterday i arrived in new orleans. :oD

while it's impossible to fully describe how amazing this place is, i will attempt to provide you with some of my favorite sights, sounds, smells, and stories each day.

bartholomew was my driver from the airport. at eighty years old, he has six children, eight grand children, and seven great-grandchildren. prior to working thirty years for greyhound, he served in the air force. he didn't believe me when i told him that my suitcases weighed only 50 lbs. a piece. i apologized on behalf of my luggage. he was reluctant to drop me off anywhere but in front of my building. i live at loyola university in the uptown neighborhood of orleans parish in a dorm room with another girl from chicago. she works at loyola's free law clinic and is indeed very pleasant. i spent last night and the majority of the afternoon today wandering aimlessly--one of my favorite pastimes--around uptown.

here's a few reasons why i would drop everything to live here forever:

1. audubon park. i live across the street from the Nicest Park Ever. there are hundreds upon hundreds of magnificent forrest gump trees. yeah, you know, the dangling kind. they're actually oak and serve as homes for rather large cockroaches. ick. then there are the tiny lizards!! ::insert excited little kid gestures here:: the squirrels here are much feistier than those in pennsylvania. they're turbo-charged. must be eating the giant bugs. as i was walking home i saw what appeared to be a tail-less squirrel. then i said, 'wait, oh, that's a rat, doofus.' but it wasn't a gross rat...it seemed happy to be frolicking in the Nicest Park Ever. it's much better if i just believe that it's a Rodent of Unusual Size. around the perimeter of the park runs a fabulous 1.8 mile track for biking and jogging. (nb: for running junkies, check out Gmaps-Pedometer. a great blessing for those anal souls who run wherever their feet take them and still want to know their mileage but are too cheap to buy an actual GPS thingy. thanks sara! huzzah!) while walking on said path, i came upon ochsner island in the middle of the park's lagoon. it must be home to at least a thousand--if not more--water fowl. snowy egrets, great egrets, night herons, anhinga, chinese geese, whistling ducks, and....turtles! (more little kid gestures) it was at the island that i met Irina, a young russian woman whose husband is a professor of physics at tulane. turns out they used to live in pittsburgh (who knew?) and were both very fond of it, especially zelienople. she let me use her binoculars to see all the baby birds in their nests, and we chatted for a bit about the birds and other things. i saw her again today after my run. :o) and last, but not least, the park doesn't have.....garbage! it's completely clean! woohoo! ::clicks heels::

2. i can walk to whole foods. i get so excited whenever i get to go there. they have vegetarian things. free range eggs. warm bread. at least ten varieties of soup. homemade salsa. i almost cried whenever they put all my groceries in one brown bag. finally. i spent nearly an hour in the store. it's just a change from having to schlep all the way down to reading terminal market or stock up at acme. i can walk to whole foods. yes. i win.

3. i can walk to work. tomorrow i start my internship at the research institute for children at children's hospital new orleans. it takes me a half hour to get there on foot. left onto st. charles. right onto henry clay. 1.5 miles. my legs are loving every step. after eight months of studying-induced atrophy, this is certainly a welcome change.

4. i can walk to octavia bookstore. at 513 octavia st. it's a very small, very neat local book shop. it was here that i picked up chris rose's 1 dead in attic--an autographed copy, no less. as it is out of print, please let me know if you'd like to borrow it.

5. i can walk to cafe luna. yummy peach smoothie + blueberry and cream cheese muffin. great place to read and study.

6. everyone says hello. this is profoundly awesome. plus no one has said 'run, forrest, run' yet. excellent.

7. the uptown homes are infinitely beautiful. i love the porch swings, the gas lanterns, and the front gardens. pictures soon.

8. hats off to bruce and company for a little saturday night revelry at fat harry's (napoleon at st. charles) and the columns hotel.

as you can see, i really enjoy the fact that everything is in walking distance. it's how people were meant to live. free-roaming. :o)