Anshu Vipparla Simply stated, I’ve diagnosed myself with an acute case of Chronophobia- the irrational fear of time or better yet the fear of running out of time. I can’t believe we’re already halfway done engaging, which means I ONLY have four weeks to finish everything on my never-ending bucket list. Insert panic attack here. Even though the last two weeks have been filled with firsts, food, and festivals, there’s so much more left to check off before I leave the city I’ve already fallen in love with. |
I have a lot of obsessions like dinosaurs, chocolate chip cookies, bridges, and World War II. Last week I drove on the 24 mile long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway (the world’s longer overwater bridge) across to the Northshore for the first time. It’s actually a pretty droning bridge after the first time, but the moment when you reach the 12 mile marker and literally all that surrounds you is the blue of the sky and the water blurring together in every direction, never stops being surreal. Then World War II museum! It was absolutely amazing and the film, "Beyond All Boundaries," captured all those moments in the war that I used to spend hours reading about. We ended up spending 5 hours there but I'm sure I could've stayed so much longer walking through those exhibits. I think New Orleans is starting to be the newest one of my obsessions. Oh you know what else was in the Northshore last week? A Crab Festival! Oddly enough there was very little actual crab there, but I ended up trying crawfish for the first time! Johnny and I were at the festival with our Red Cross vests handing out smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. That’s what I love most about my job- I have the chance to interact with so many different communities and people. It never gets old. If I had to pick one moment from the summer so far as my favorite, it would be the day I was not only in a 4th of July parade in a decked out Red Cross tractor, but I also took a fast-paced tour around Baton Rouge during our first time in the city. |
Okay so it was a small parade that only went around this cute little neighborhood and we only had a trailer with maybe two vans behind it, but it was an hour of me running around behind our trailer (apparently parade cars are much faster than I expected), handing out Mardi gras beads and American flags to everyone watching us along the sidewalks, and being a part of all the festivities with such an amazing organization. So right before the parade Johnny and I had two hours to get lost in Baton Rouge. We ended up visiting the old Louisiana statehouse which literally looks like a castle, the new Louisiana statehouse which looked like a smaller version of the empire state building, the USS Kidd also known as the “Pirate of the Pacific,” the old Governor’s mansion where Pitch Perfect 2 was apparently being filmed later that day, and the LSU football stadium where we met Mike the tiger in about the same amount of time it took us to take a streetcar into the French Quarter from Loyola and back. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much during the parade and my legs hurt from wandering across Baton Rouge by the end of the day, but it was undoubtedly memorable in so many ways! Sidenote- our lucky number is now 1435 people in case anyone’s been keeping track. So not everyone shares in my chronophobia here in the city known as the Big Easy, but no one can really escape cibophilia (the abnormal affection for food) in the city. I’ve had the best cheesecake ever, some heavenly chocolate chip gelato, a pesto panini to die for, some fancy donuts, pretty incredible hummus, and other things that I could go on and on about. My parents also dropped by to visit me this weekend which was the best because not only did I get to see my brother, but I also got to show my parents all my favorite parts of the city. I might have gone a little overboard by making an itinerary for their entire visit, but it was only because I wanted them to see why New Orleans is such an amazing place and why it’s so different from every other place they’ve been to. We went everywhere- uptown, City Park, garden district, west bank, the French quarter- and of course we had a lot of mouthwatering food stops along the way. | |
It feels like my blog post has just been a collection of lists- what I’ve done, where I’ve been, and what I’ve eaten. I just couldn’t figure out any other way to recap everything that happened over the last two overwhelming, but amazing weeks. I guess I’ve been able to check off a lot of things on my bucket list already and do some things I didn't even think to add to it, like watching the spectacular fireworks along the Mississippi. With only 4 more weeks, those anxious bouts about how much time I have left commenced. But I’ve realized that my list for New Orleans won’t really ever end, so I’m just going to explore all that I can in the next 4 weeks and come back to the city later to keep on going. |