NOLA pt. 2 & Thanksgiving

Hi hi,

Started the week off with the rest of our trip to New Orleans, had my first authentic Thanksgiving in the middle, and ended it with some much needed chill out time. It was great to finally have a week off from classes!

Monday 25 November

This morning we woke up around 9:30am so that we could make it downstairs in time for the hostel’s free breakfast (which ends at 10am). Whilst we originally planned to head back to bed to sleep some more, we found that there was a 2 hour cruise on the Mississippi River that departed at 11:30am that Ciara, Georgia, Susanna, Vera and I liked the sound of, so we went back to the room to get ready for that.

The cruise ended up being really lovely! It was sunny so we got to get some rays, some of the sights were nice, and we even got to listen to some commentary from one of the crew members and learn at little more about NOLA. For the last half of the cruise, a band was playing live jazz music, which was really enjoyable background noise for the journey.

(The exterior of the Steamboat Natchez - the boat we took - decorated in Christmas decorations)

(A view of Jackson Square (and the cathedral) from the boat on the river)

(A cargo boat seen along the river waiting to head into the main dock in the city)

(Doing a little Titanic recreation)

(Dancing to the jazz music)

(The girls found the dance floor inside and annoyed all the old people by having a boogie in front of the band)

After getting off the boat, we headed out to find some lunch. We stumbled across a sports bar near Jackson Square and I had a roast beef Po Boy. A Po Boy, short for Poor Boy, is a typical NOLA sandwich.

We then took a walk to the other side of the French Quarter to meet up with some friends to visit a cemetery (as you do in NOLA). Unfortunately you had to book and the area seemed a bit dodgy, so we headed back into the French Quarter. On our way back we spotted a collapsed building right in the middle of the city. Apparently it was a whole big story – a Hard Rock hotel was being built and collapsed in the middle of construction last year, killing several people. It apparently had something to do with corner-cutting and dodgy construction. Now there are cranes still hanging off the side of the building, and there are supposedly still bodies trapped inside that cannot be retrieved, and will be never be since the building is going to be blown up.

When we got back into the French Quarter, we headed for famous Café du Monde, known for its Beignets, which are the French equivalent of a donut. It is common for people to wait an hour or more in the line to get in, but luckily we only had to wait about 10. However, we then had to wait around 30 minutes just to have our order taken, and another 10 or so until we received our food. The whole process was lengthy, but in my opinion it was worth it. They were delicious – and very messy – and went well with a hot chocolate. I was slightly disappointed with how messy the whole place was, but I guess that should be expected of a place known for messy food.

It was then time to head back to the hostel, which included a walk back through Bourbon Street as the sun was setting. We had originally planned to book a Voodoo/cemetery/haunted tour of some sort, but by the time we eventually went to book (6pm), everything was unsurprisingly sold out. Instead, we all took a nap or chilled out. I woke up from my nap at 9pm and found everyone playing monopoly downstairs. I ran to Wendy’s with Georgia and Ciara and then ate with the others playing games. The girls and I then headed back to the room and packed our stuff, and then spent the rest of the night chatting about a million different things. We got so caught up in the fun of it that we didn’t realise it was nearly 3am, so we split off and hit the hay.

(Ciara (Ireland), Vera (Germany, Susanna (Scotland), Georgia (Aus) and me)

(Vera (Germany), CJ (Aus/NZ), me and Georgia (Aus))

Tuesday 26 November

We had to wake up around 9:30am today to squeeze in some breakfast and then head to the bus, which was leaving the hostel at 10:30am. Thankfully the bus back was emptier than on the way here as many people were going from NOLA to wherever they were spending Thanksgiving, which meant we all got our own set of seats which was optimal for napping. Other than a stop in McComb, MS for lunch at Burger King and then a toilet stop somewhere else along the way, we headed straight for Oxford.

We arrived home around 5pm, and I hopped straight into the shower to wash off the disgusting feeling of sitting on a bus all day. I spent the night chilling out and then making myself some pasta for dinner, and then Dylan picked me up around 9pm so we could hang out and I could stay over.

Wednesday 27 November

The whole day was spent chilling at Dylan’s. We slept in, watched the 3rdPirates of the Caribbean movie, and then had steaks and fries for dinner. I tried to show him a Eurovision grand final on YouTube, but they’re geoblocked as the US isn’t in the contest – rude! (In all honesty, YouTube probably did Dylan a solid there by not making him have to watch 4 hours of Eurovision haha).

I got him to drop me home around 8pm as I felt like some much needed alone time. I spent the night chatting to dad and catching up on my blog post writing (which was a lot harder with an integral typing finger out of action).

Thursday 28 November

Happy Thanksgiving! Dylan picked me up from the dorm around 10:45am and we headed towards Northwest Mississippi where we would be spending the day visiting different groups of his family. We took about 2 hours to get to our first stop of Amory because Dylan weaved me through some of the towns he used to live in (he and his mum moved around a bit).

Our lunch stop was the house of his grandparents on his dad’s side (his dad would not be present, though, as he lives in Florida, but Dylan went to see him over the weekend while I was in NOLA). We got to their house early (much to their surprise) so the food was still cooking, but we sat with her in the kitchen while Kathy (grandmother) finished cooking up the last few things and she and Lee (grandfather) asked me a bunch of questions about Australia, how I’m liking Ole Miss (they’re alumni that are quite involved and proud) etc. Dylan’s great grandmother came over not long after and by then the food was ready so the 5 of us sat down to a lovely traditional Thanksgiving meal. There was turkey, green beans, sweet potato, corn bake, gravy, cornbread, devilled eggs, and sweet tea. I tried a bit of everything, and I especially liked the turkey, green beans and corn bake. For dessert we had fresh baked pecan pie and brownies. We spent the afternoon looking at old photo albums and giggled at baby photos of Dylan, and he loved seeing photos of his dad when he was younger.

We headed off around 3:30pm and Dylan drove me around to a few more of his favourite spots, including the land where his old house was before it burned down (he and his mum lost everything in the fire :( ) and I met a distant uncle and cousin. It started to get dark so we began heading over to his mum’s place in Tremont.

We got to his mum’s place around 6pm, and they were still cooking the food. The house was a very modern log cabin-like house in the middle of the woods, deer heads hanging on the wall and all.

His mum, mum’s boyfriend, grandmother (mum’s mum), and one of his half-sisters were there. We played around with the dogs and then sat down to another Mississippi-style Thanksgiving meal – deer meat burgers (coated in a bread crumbing), mashed potato, mac n cheese, green beans and gravy, and dessert was homemade apple crumble. This was my favourite of the two meals today as everything was so delicious! While we were eating dinner the Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State ‘Egg Bowl’ game had started (and the family knew I was really interested in it so they sat me at a position on the dinner table that gave me the best view of the TV lol).

Once dinner had finished, we continued watching while snuggled up on the couch with all of their pets (I’m pretty sure they have 5 dogs and 2-3 cats). Ole Miss ended up losing by 1 point, infuriating everyone in the house except Dylan’s sister who supports State. We headed off shortly after the game finished (10pm-ish) and started the 1.5 hour drive back to Oxford.

I’d slept a lot of the way home, and when I opened my eyes as we arrived back at Dylan’s I noticed he’d been crying. He’d been thinking about how we only have 2 weeks left until I leave. I’ve constantly been counting down the days lately, getting sad that I have so little time left with everyone, but I’ve been trying to hold myself together. But this just set me off. We hopped into bed a had a bit of a cry and then crashed, having had a massive day.

My first Thanksgiving was wonderful and definitely one to remember!

Friday 29 November

We had a very chilled day today. We had a lazy morning at Dylan’s before heading to my dorm so I could shower and change, and then we headed to Abner’s for some lunch (fried chicken). After running a few more errands, we headed back to his place and had a relaxed arvo.

We were planning on just ordering some food in for dinner, but Georgia messaged me at around 7:30pm that she’d locked herself out of our room, so I offered to head back and let her in considering there was no one on the front desk (because of the break) and it would have been too much of a hassle to sort it out otherwise. Since we were out, Dylan and I decided to head to El Agave Mexican Grill for dinner. I had a subpar burrito, and he had a burger.

When we got home, Dylan introduced me to this crime decision-based PlayStation game and long story short its addictive and fun and I ended up playing it for about 3 hours haha. At around 1:30am the controller died on me and, finally snapping out of my focus on the game, realised I was exhausted, so we headed to sleep.

Saturday 30 November

Dylan and I slept in, made eggs and oats for breakfast, I played some more of the PlayStation game, and then he took me back to the dorm around 3pm. It was absolutely bucketing rain (that badly that all of our phones got issued an emergency flooding warning) so I was saturated by the time I made it into the dorm.

I spent the afternoon cleaning my room, doing some washing, watching some Netflix, and then I made myself some pasta for dinner around 8pm. When that was done, I went up and met the others in one of the common rooms where they were watching a corny southern TV show called Hart of Dixie which was surprisingly addictive to watch. I stepped out at one point to have a long facetime with mum, and shortly after headed back to my room. I spent the rest of the night doing some homework and then fell asleep.

Sunday 1 December

Had a very lazy morning, only getting out of bed to get some chocolate for breakfast and go to the bathroom. I caught up on writing this post, but otherwise didn’t really leave bed until 4:30pm. Just after 5pm I met the others and Dylan at Rebel Market to get some dinner, and then Dylan and I headed back to his. I made him do a partial face mask and then we ordered some food while watching an old Hilary Duff classic Cadet Kelly lol.

I had a very lovely week off from school, and loved having some extra time with everyone without having to go to class. I’m sad we only have two more weeks left, but I’m ready to smash out this last week of classes and then finals. Also, it’s now only 9 days until I see Mum!!!

- Emily xx