Departure Day

Outer Journey: The best part of this trip was Jackson Square. From the second we first walked up I knew this was a place that I want to be. You could hear the music as you approached from blocks away. As we approached it started to become evident that the amount of talent here was limitless. They had street performers, painters, musicians, palm readers, and everything in between. The first thing I heard coming out of the square was a jazz trio with a trumpet, trombone, and a tuba. They played music that was inspirational, and upbeat. They definitely knew how to draw a crowd. This place felt that it was a paradise for creative minds, and that I would have fit right in. Everyone you met had a smile, and a kind word to say. Many people, however, would warn of thieves and that putting your wallet in your front pocket was a good idea. I especially enjoyed seeing the wide variety of different acts that were performed here. Jackson square seemed to be prime real-estate if you wanted to make money off entertaining people.  Everyone had their own unique talent. Some would paint their bodies a certain color and stand in one place of long periods of time, others would be giving psychic predictions about your love life, and other would play music from the bottom of their heart for everyone to hear. There was nothing that was off the table when it came to the direction you wanted to take your creativity in Jackson Square.  One lady even was selling art that was pictures of penises with cats inside. Literally, the strangest art I have ever seen, but she said it was the shock factor that sold so many paintings. Jackson square always had music playing, even on the coldest of days. The dedication that these musicians showed was inspiring. Some of the different types of music that was played varied from single players that played the saxophone and sang, two and three piece bands, all the way to full drum lines with 8,9,10 members. The variety was just as diverse as the numbers of people in the bands. You could start on one end, and start hearing traditional Jazz, then walk down 20 feet and here blues, then walk a little farther down the line and here a folk band. This kind of a melting pot of ideas is what I will miss most about New Orleans. I will definitely be coming back in the not so distant future. I would highly recommend visiting this place at least once in your life. It is a sort of magical place, that radiates talent and ingenuity. The best way I can describe the feeling this place gives you is to compare it to a child that is about to walk into a toy store. Everything around them is something that draws their attention, if only for a short while, and when they see something they like they stop play with it. The same is true for me, and everyone else I saw walking around Jackson square. The amount of talent was so vast that you felt like you had to keep moving if you wanted to see if all. Overall Jackson Square was one of the most beautiful places I have seen, and if you get the chance to go, GO!

Inner Journey:

This has been one of the best experiences of my entire year. New Orleans was a beautiful city, that was so full of culture and life.  This class really taught me the importance of the City of New Orleans to the culture of our entire country. When learning about the battle of Louisiana, all I could think was that if these other countries would not have found this place first that the culture here would be entirely different. I would say my favorite part of this class is having the guided help of Colleen. The activities she planned and the order she planned them in really enriched my experience in this class. For instance, we started the first day with a ghost tour and this basically just walked us around the city and got us more comfortable with the streets. It was also a good introduction to the history of the city. Every tour we went on taught us a little bit more, but the most valuable asset this class gave me was to have a teacher that was so passionate about the place we were at. She let us have autonomy and this helped us to get everything out of New Orleans that we wished to find. While at the same time, she guided us through the city, and told the history better than most the paid tour guide did. My favorite part of this trip was getting closer to my fellow classmates through our mutual new experiences. New Orleans has countless activities that could be done. This town could keep someone entertained for a long time. Through seeing this new city with others I formed new relationships with a few people that really will have a lasting impact the rest of the way through nursing school. My favorite place that we visited in New Orleans that was scheduled on our roster was the pharmacy museum. It was so interesting to see all the different types of old medicine that was used. It seemed that a lot of medicine that they had defied logic. Such as taking mercury injections to cure syphilis. On top of being an interesting museum that was full of old medicine and medicinal remedies, we had a tour guide at the end who was really great. It was knowledgeable and funny. He knew how to keep the crowd’s attention and told us many stories about how old medicine would affect people.  I thought it was really interesting that they would give women opium for almost anything which led to massive addiction rates. Overall, this city was such a great experience and I can’t wait till the day I can go back.