New Orleans, New Friends

Last weekend we decided to take our first trip as a family to New Orleans, which is only two hours away. Since one of the many creatures that W is into lately is fish, we thought we'd try out the aquarium.

We asked our new friends, Rasha & Hashim, to come along with their three sweet children. We met them at the park one day in September and even through some laughable language barriers, we have all become good friends.

Sweet Rasha. Love her.

W, Andrew and Budi

Wilson loved the fish. He ran from tank to tank screaming, "Dish! Dish! Dish!" At several points I thought he would just explode from excitement. He could not believe he was having this incredible encounter. It made me wish I could have that fresh look at life again.

Little Sibba... is she not the most beautiful baby you've ever seen?

 It was a nice aquarium and we are glad that we went. We would have loved to walk around downtown New Orleans but we just happened to be there on the one day of winter we have had all year here. It was freezing (you know, like 50 degrees) and windy and so we decided to go into a nearby mall instead. But don't you worry because they had a Cafe du Monde kiosk and we got ourselves some incredible beignets.

 Speaking of New Orleans... did you all know we just went through Mardi Gras season? It is such a big deal here that our students got off Monday and Tuesday...for Mardi Gras. Next year I hope to get a little more involved in the festivities (it's not all about the trashy beads for scandalous acts like on PCB spring break), but this year all we really did was attend one parade and buy a king's cake. It kind of caught me off guard.

We are still learning this strange, but lovely, new world we are living in. Sometimes I feel completely at home here and some days I feel like Rasha... where I don't even understand the language. I know it will take time and we are welcoming it with open arms.