What a great trip we have all had so far!

My first plane ride ever, in LIFE went so well. It was definitely an amazing experience to be flying so high in the sky that I could be walking on clouds if I stood up! Take off was definitely exhilarating, and feeling the plane rock back and forth as it gained momentum, climbing higher and higher in the sky was an experience I will never forget. I sat on the row by the emergency exit for the extra leg room, as I am a giant and would have felt claustrophobic without it, and there was this lady who sat next to me who was talking on her cell phone during the safety instructions. I felt real secure. While I was extremely tired that morning after about four hours of sleep the night before, I  couldn't close my eyes at all during the flight because I wanted to experience every sight and sound while I was up in the air. We had a layover in Baltimore, and then we took our second flight in to New Orleans. The flight attendants were absolute Southern Bells. They had a million sarcastic jokes that they shared over the intercom and they made the flight very comfortable for everyone. When we arrived in Louisiana we the group hung out for a while while a few others got the vans we would be using for the week! We took lots of pictures and even played the Oreo challenge, trying to get Oreos from our forehead to our mouths without using our hands, and we ALSO had a contest to see who could stand on one leg for the longest. Melissa won! (Kudos to Joey for coming up with these fun games to keep us busy while we waited!) Later on we drove to Peace Lutheran where we settled in for the night, and then after that we watched a documentary of a first-hand account of Katrina and how it affected the people of New Orleans. We learned that response came way later than reasonable, that the residents of New Orleans were not provided with public transportation out of the city; that they were threatened with death by the police and other government/law enforcement agencies if they tried to seek shelter in dry land because there were such crowds of people running for their life from the flood. The next day we learned on the bus tour that New Orleans actually fell victim to a man-made disaster, not a natural disaster, in 2005. The winds that hit New Orleans were around 70 MPH, and the levees, which were intended to hold up for 200 MPH winds, collapsed, causing the flood. The worst part is, there was little to no help from the local and federal government to fix their mistake, and instead the people of New Orleans had to fend for themselves, jumping through hoops to get aid.

There are a million other things I could talk about right now, but I'm going to leave it at that now and get back to you later!


Much <3,
Stephen