Well, I'm back!
I got back from New Orleans Saturday night, after spending 4 nights there. It was a lot of fun.
I've been catching up with things at work, and have been spending most of my free time binging on playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - I was in computer withdrawal after 5 days of no Internet or computer games. GTA:SA is amazing - even better than GTA: Vice City, which was better than GTA III.
The game takes place in LA, San Francisco and Vegas in 1992. You come back to the 'hood and help re-start your gang - your gang color is green and your brother is the leader. After a while, you are forced to leave and head for SF to start your life over. They say that if you play only the minimum parts of the game to finish it, it takes about 40 hours and you only complete about 50%. I'm about 2/3 done with my first time through.
New Orleans was cool - we stayed at the Bourbon Orleans, in the middle of the French quarter. The hotel is said to be haunted by ghosts of some children and a soldier. We took a walking tour which took us by houses said to be haunted. The most interesting building was the home of Madame LaLaurie - in the 1830s, a fire broke out in the home. When firefighters got to the attic of the house, they found a torture chamber, with dead and alive slaves chained to the walls, in various stages of dissection (including the living ones). The LaLaurie family escaped in the confusion - their fate is unknown. Needless to say, the house is said to be haunted. If you want to read about more of the atrocities (and they are really, really bad), google "LaLaurie".
We took a paddleboat down the Mississippi to the Chalmette battleground, where in 1815 Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the last battle of the war of 1812. It is a pretty weak battleground compared to Gettysburg. Chalmette is a big rectangular field, and the Americans were on one side behind an earth wall (swampland and the Mississippi were 2 other sides). The Brits marched toward the Americans and were routed - over 2000 casualties to the Americans' few dozen. This battle made Jackson a national hero - many years later, he announced his candidacy for President in New Orleans.
We went to the casino; I did well at blackjack; I quit while I was ahead.
The weather was in the 60s and 70s - the food was amazing (I love gumbo!) - and it was a relaxing time.
I'll contribute to some of the political debate later. My apartment mate David is teaching a class on media law at a school here in NYC and I am a guest lecturer on the FCC tomorrow night. I need to prepare for that discussion tonight.
I'll be in Hanover for Thanksgiving - JP and I can take the train to Philly and catch a ride with you, H, right? Later, I can go back to Philly with H and catch the train to NYC.
Glad to see you guys are keeping up the blog! I'll be posting more this week!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 11/16/2004 05:43:00 PM