FINALLY, Our day of freedom; the day we are allowed to roam New Orleans by ourselves, using our acquired traveling and haggling skills. It's sad, but as a college student, the most exciting part of the day was sleeping in past 8 am. This is a rarity, so it was a nice treat. After we all slept in, we all got up slowly, took our time getting ready, and gathered around noon for lunch at the Gumbo Pot. Though some of the group was not thrilled about cajun and creole cuisine, we tried out a new place. It was quite delicious and full of flavor. After lunch, we went into the small mall and traveled the shops. Each of us bought a few things, including myself. I bought a few shot glasses and sugar skulls for my collection, along with a couple of t-shirts. Treat yourself, right? After the mall, we traveled around the French Quarter to do some more shopping, mostly window shopping. We encountered an interesting man on the streets, who was part of the Meals on Wheels program, selling hats to raise money for the program. He was absolutely hilarious, so we visited with him for a solid ten minutes. We ended up buying the matching hats, and went on with our shopping. As we were walking around the French Quarter, we saw that a dance group was setting up for a performance. They weren't dancing yet, but were telling jokes and trying to draw people into the show, so we took a seat to see what it was all about. Best decision I have made on this trip so far. The show was full of laughs, amazing dance moves, and hilarious crowd members. It was almost as if the dancers were heckling people walking the streets, and it was perfect. We had intended to go travel to listen to street music, but encountered this dance group, The Dragon Master Showcase instead, and we were quite glad we did. After the show, we all traveled back to the hotel to relax for a while, before our fancy dinner.... that we didn't know was so fancy (THANKS STEVE). We were all dressed quite casually as we walked into world renowned chef Emeril's restaurant. Though we all felt under dressed, we were still excited for the experience. We enjoyed an amazing dinner with friends, an experience that none of us have ever had before. This was my first time in a 5 star dining establishment, and it was very elaborate. The food was delicious and the service was wonderful, so I am glad we went. You could tell we definitely didn't fit in, especially Steven and Andrew who some how managed to land a potato in Andrew's beer. Rather than fish it out, they pretended nothing happened as Andrew drank the potato beer. We decided after dinner to come enjoy a nice dip in the hot tub, however to our dismay it was broken. Therefore, we produced the hillbilly idea to turn our bath tub into a hot tub. Talk about classy, 5 star people. So we proceeded to take a nice dip in the "hot tub."
Coming to the city of New Orleans, I had many preconceived ideas regarding various cultures and groups of people. It's difficult to not have these ideas, when we live in a society such as we currently do. Racism is alive. Prejudice is alive. In my opinion, we are born into a world that teaches hate. My parents taught love and respect, but the world around them teaches hate. It has been so refreshing to experience the different walks of life, and squash these preconceived notions. I think the reason I enjoyed The Dragon Master Showcase so much was that they used clean humor, that not only poked fun at themselves, but squashed many beliefs and jokes regarding the African American race. Like one of the videos below, they were joking with children referring to themselves as the "Black Ninja Turtles" which had the entire audience almost in tears. They would crack jokes at members of the audience, but never attacking their race, gender, or sexuality. It was so funny to see them interact with the audience, as well as the patrons walking the streets. As if their talent wasn't enough, they spoke about their true passion for dance and music. They stated that this is a way that they can bring people of all nations together, in a peaceful manner. Their work is an art, and they believed that music and art bring us together. It was also refreshing to see that they wanted to have children involved, white, black, asian; it didn't matter. They had clean humor so that children could come enjoy their show, and wanted to be a positive influence for the children. I come from a biracial family, with many children. I want to protect their innocence as long as possible, and this was a show that I would love to bring them too. Not only did their sheer talent attract the audience, but their clean humor and positive affects also played a part.
Completely shifting gears, we went to a five star restaurant for dinner. Now I know what Steve Perry was talking about, just being a small town girl. Illinois is so simple to me, where you work to provide for yourself, and appreciate the little things. I am not exposed to such fancy establishments or experiences, similar to what I have encountered on this trip. Boy, was I out of my element at Emerils. There were 3 servers to the 6 of us at the table. As a server, I often handle 6 tables, which can equal up to 40 + guests at a time, yet here they had 1 server per 2 guests. I never waited for a thing. My napkin was placed on my lap for me, my chair was pulled out for me, and my jacket was taken for me. I enjoyed the experience and it was absolutely delicious, but I was out of my element. Even though it was expensive and a real treat, I do not think I would be any more in my element if I did have that kind of money. I was raised in a household where money didn't buy happiness, and the money that you did have was earned through hard work. I could never see myself being waited on hand and foot like that constantly, considering my roots. Regardless, it was a great experience.
