(no subject)
wow. so much has been going on lately, it's hard to decide where to begin. i guess i'll go day by day:
sunday: went to cactus (Bye, Cactus!) for the last time with Emma and bought some CDs (still not cheap)
monday: dentist, sat for 2+ hours at the driver's license place, then went to rodeo with Kim and Theresa (Leann Rimes + carnival + scary boys behind us)
tuesday: went to Galveston all day with kim, theresa, renee and rashi. my first road trip (except ren fest). got a major sunburn because it was kind of cold and i didn't think i needed sunblock. then after we came back i hung out with Amy for the first time in a while, which was really awesome.
wednesday: i didn't do much all day because i felt like it. it is spring break after all. at night i went to an awesome concert with Emma - the Fever and the Moving Units. it was at a sketchy club off Westheimer (can't remember the name. it had numbers in it.. 1450? 1415? something like that).
thursday: here i have to go into detail.
On Thursday i got up at 5 am to drive to the airport so that i could embark on the most meaningful and amazing part of my spring break. I and 10 other dash girls went to New Orleans with 2 nuns to visit our sister school, visit the girls who stayed with us during Katrina, and to view the devastation and see how we can help.
as everyone says, you cannot possibly know until you go there, until you see the breach in the 17th street canal with your own eyes, until you talk to the residents of the lower 9th who are gutting their houses. on every single building in new orleans there is a spray-painted x. during the flooding, agencies had to go and check each and every house and building to make sure there were no people or pets still there. in the top section of the x is the symbol of the agency who checked (FEMA, DEA, SPCA, TFW, etc), on one side is the number of animals, and on the bottom is the number of dead found. while we were touring the city in a bus, we would gasp each time we saw a number higher than zero on a building. the numbers got higher as we entered the 9th ward and the poorer neighborhoods. the thing that surprised me the most was not the damage - i expected damage. the most surprising thing was the sheer size of it, the scope. it was not just a neighborhood, an area, a quarter of the city. it was ALL of the city. 80% of the city is still without basic infrastructures, like grocery stores, street lights, passable roads, public schools. it is a complete nightmare. and it has been 7 months since the hurriciane.
after we toured this horrific mess, our sacred heart friends wanted to show us their new orleans, where they still have fun and live their lives as normal as possible. we went to a coffee shop with them and went shopping in the uptown district, which only had about 4 feet of water during the storm and has pretty much recovered. this was a really important part of the trip for me because i remembered the NO girls as being distant and even mean to us. but that was just because they were in shock and in pain at the time. now they are really sweet and friendly, and they really really wanted to show us what they love about new orleans, what makes their city home to them. it was very nice.
all in all, i learned so many amazing things from the trip. i will post pictures as soon as i can so that you too can see what's really going on in New Orleans.
by the way - you know that new movie Failure to Launch? filmed in new orleans. but they changed all the license plates and the setting to maryland for the movie. weird, huh?
anyway. now i am going to bake a green cake for st. paddy's day. have a good one y'all.
<3 Caitlin
sunday: went to cactus (Bye, Cactus!) for the last time with Emma and bought some CDs (still not cheap)
monday: dentist, sat for 2+ hours at the driver's license place, then went to rodeo with Kim and Theresa (Leann Rimes + carnival + scary boys behind us)
tuesday: went to Galveston all day with kim, theresa, renee and rashi. my first road trip (except ren fest). got a major sunburn because it was kind of cold and i didn't think i needed sunblock. then after we came back i hung out with Amy for the first time in a while, which was really awesome.
wednesday: i didn't do much all day because i felt like it. it is spring break after all. at night i went to an awesome concert with Emma - the Fever and the Moving Units. it was at a sketchy club off Westheimer (can't remember the name. it had numbers in it.. 1450? 1415? something like that).
thursday: here i have to go into detail.
On Thursday i got up at 5 am to drive to the airport so that i could embark on the most meaningful and amazing part of my spring break. I and 10 other dash girls went to New Orleans with 2 nuns to visit our sister school, visit the girls who stayed with us during Katrina, and to view the devastation and see how we can help.
as everyone says, you cannot possibly know until you go there, until you see the breach in the 17th street canal with your own eyes, until you talk to the residents of the lower 9th who are gutting their houses. on every single building in new orleans there is a spray-painted x. during the flooding, agencies had to go and check each and every house and building to make sure there were no people or pets still there. in the top section of the x is the symbol of the agency who checked (FEMA, DEA, SPCA, TFW, etc), on one side is the number of animals, and on the bottom is the number of dead found. while we were touring the city in a bus, we would gasp each time we saw a number higher than zero on a building. the numbers got higher as we entered the 9th ward and the poorer neighborhoods. the thing that surprised me the most was not the damage - i expected damage. the most surprising thing was the sheer size of it, the scope. it was not just a neighborhood, an area, a quarter of the city. it was ALL of the city. 80% of the city is still without basic infrastructures, like grocery stores, street lights, passable roads, public schools. it is a complete nightmare. and it has been 7 months since the hurriciane.
after we toured this horrific mess, our sacred heart friends wanted to show us their new orleans, where they still have fun and live their lives as normal as possible. we went to a coffee shop with them and went shopping in the uptown district, which only had about 4 feet of water during the storm and has pretty much recovered. this was a really important part of the trip for me because i remembered the NO girls as being distant and even mean to us. but that was just because they were in shock and in pain at the time. now they are really sweet and friendly, and they really really wanted to show us what they love about new orleans, what makes their city home to them. it was very nice.
all in all, i learned so many amazing things from the trip. i will post pictures as soon as i can so that you too can see what's really going on in New Orleans.
by the way - you know that new movie Failure to Launch? filmed in new orleans. but they changed all the license plates and the setting to maryland for the movie. weird, huh?
anyway. now i am going to bake a green cake for st. paddy's day. have a good one y'all.
<3 Caitlin