A Teeny Tiny Glimpse of New Orleans

So after sucking the life out of the local internet cafe's bandwidth, I uploaded some video and you can click here or on the McD's picture above for a brief medley of images and sounds from New Orleans, my new second home. As it turns out, my new second home is still quite a mess. There are countless important traffic signals still burnt out (scary when at a four-way stop), whole neighborhoods without power (including ours, although only occasionally), no nearby grocery stores, and few open hospitals. The stores that are open tend to close mighty early. The local Home Depot, which as you can imagine does a booming business, shuts down at 5PM for lack of staff. McDonald's is offering a whopping $9.75 an hour plus a weekly bonus! Imagine that! A fast food restaurant offering a living wage! Except that because of the shortage of available housing around here, rents have doubled if not tripled. So much for for that.

I've wanted so very much to be a video maven while down here, but all these years of not knowing how to drive have finally caught up with me. My boyfriend has to chauffeur me around like a suburban 1950's housewife. A bike has been purchased, but alas, has not yet arrived. I think today we're getting a rental from the outrageously busy bike shop, so hopefully, I can scoot around this week and share the sights with you. And, oh, are there ever some sights to see!