French Dough&Jersey Bros

Hey y'all, it's Matt here holdin it down for today.  We started off a little later than usual this morning, but I don't think anyone minded the extra sleep.  We began the day with some unexpected free time in the French Quarter after our plans to see the Katrina exhibit in the Louisiana State Museum were put on hold due to an hour long wait.  Everyone went their separate ways, including Terrance who went back home after deciding it might be a good idea to bring along his wallet.  I went with Michiko and Lea amongst others to Jackson Square to do some shopping for the second straight day.  I proceeded to purchase a standard-sized chess set made of jade from a Pakistani vendor for a negotiated price of $120.  Feeling confident with my negotiating skills I tried to haggle another merchant on the price for a hat, but was unsuccessful in my attempt, settling for the original price of $24.  We headed back to the museum and went through the Katrina exhibit, which I think had a strong emotional impact on everyone in our group.  For me personally, I was really captivated by the first-hand, personal stories that we heard from the hurricane's victims, such as a mother and her daughter axing their way through their own ceiling to escape the flood waters. Afterwards we went upstairs and saw the Mardi Gras exhibit, learning about its history and importance to the city.  We then walked several blocks over to Buffas restaurant.  However, there were about 5 entrees offered on the menu, and all ridiculously priced, so the majority of the group walked all the way over back over to Jackson Square, where we had lunch at Café Demon.  I enjoyed live music while trying my first Gumbo, which was quite delicious.  With some time to spare we headed over to Café DeMon, where almost all of us ordered a personal bag of beignets.  I personally wasn’t overly impressed with the beignets, which to me wasn’t anything more than fried bread coated in sugar.  Next we decided to take a drive downtown, where we saw the Superdome, Tulane University, and a creepy cemetery with mausoleums.  I ended up passing out towards the end of the drive, so there’s not much else I really have to say about this part of our day.  We returned home to be greeted by our new friends from New Jersey! Their group is much larger than ours, consisting of about 20 frat bros and sorority sisters, so it’ll definitely be interesting living with them the next couple of days.  We spent the evening hanging out around the house and playing cards with our friends from Williams.  I think our group is starting to really come together as a whole, as I feel as if I’ve known these people all of my life, when in reality it’s only been 4 days since we left College Park.   I’m looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow.  Better catch some sleep before our new rowdy friends get back from their first night out at Bourbon St……