St. Patty's Day!

Today we didn't have any required service projects planned, although a small group of students opted to return to Clarence's home to continue work. Although his home is unfinished, our students really helped a lot!

Students were free to do whatever they wished today, but I'll highlight some of the planned activities students could participate in. 

At 10, I led a tour to the Voodoo Museum in the French Quarter and Saint Louis Cemetery #1. We learned a lot about voodoo practices at the museum including that basically every popular belief about voodoo is wrong. Voodoo is a merging of Catholic and traditional west African beliefs and focuses on positive energy. Voodoo dolls, for instance, are meant for making positive wishes by the person they are attuned to rather than cursing and harming people. After the museum, we went to the oldest cemetery in New Orleans: Saint Louis #1. This cemetery was opened in 1789 after the New Orleans fire of 1788 in which more than half the city burned. One of the most interesting graves in the cemetery is that of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.

After the tour, a group of people joined Amber and I at the Acme Oyster House, which is a world famous eatery! Everyone thought the food was delicious. After lunch, Amber led a group of students on a tour to the Garden District via streetcar where they got to see some of the beautiful mansions of the city. They even stumbled into a St. Patty's day block party while on their tour!

In the evening, 30 of us went to dinner at the world famous fine-dining establishment Brennan's. We enjoyed a four course meal in the Red Room. The Red Room is said to be haunted by a man who killed his wife and her lover and then committed suicide in the room in the 1700s! His picture hangs in the room and it is said that his expression changes! Brennan's is also the restaurant that invented the dessert Bananas Foster, which was very good.

After dinner, everyone spit up to enjoy the evening. I joined a group of people who went to Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, which is currently a pub said to be haunted by Jean Lafitte himself! (He's the pirate I mentioned before.) The pub is the second oldest building in the Mississippi Valley and has mostly original fixtures, so it was exciting to see.

Your friendly trip leader,

EM

Pictured above:

Garden district home

Jessica, Denise, and Jessica at Brennan's