In February Mardi Gras rules New Orleans, and several of us discovered
that this event spans several weeks preceding Ash Wednesday. A number of us live on the Parade route, and
we were surprised to find our regular routes to school impassible, and throngs
of people outside our doors. My
neighbors were nice enough to adopt me for the festivities, and introduce me to
some of the local traditions. One of
their friends works for the local paper, so I was educated on some of the finer
aspects of New Orleans culture and issues.
Several of my classmates volunteered as first aid responders, and while
attempting to visit them I made the amateur mistake of thinking that it would
be possible to cross the parade lines downtown.
While I was cut off from my friends that evening, I met a group from
Florida, and had a very interesting discussion about the recent US-Cuba
relation shift with an exile. Perhaps I
will make it to Florida to take them up on their generous invitation to
visit. I found the parades featuring
political satire to be the most interesting, but I would be remiss for not
being impressed by the Krewe of Orpheus (which my neighbor’s uncle rode in) who
in addition to being one of the most sophisticated, were forced to endure a
torrential downpour.
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