Mascot-eating Tigers and Potlucks in Bars

**This version includes some grammatical corrections, noted by my brother. I said that miles were "m.", but they're actually "mi." And I used to be a geometry teacher!!**

2023 mi. + 180 mi. (New Orleans to Baton Rouge and back) +500 mi. (New Orleans to Houston, air) +1,324 mi. (Houston to Philadelphia, air) + 350 mi. (Philadelphia to Wheeling, WV) = 4,377 miles

Current location: Wheeling, West Virginia

States traveled in: 5

Number of cows saw in Pennsylvania: probably around 300

Po-Boys eaten: 2

Bourbon Streets walked down: 1

Number of dueling pianos witnessed: two (is it possible to have one dueling piano?? write in with your answer!)

Number of dishes at the potluck in a New Orleans bar while watching the Saints game: close to 20

...and we'll start this week's blog with that last fast. A potluck dinner, free food, in a BAR. I don't think health codes would allow that to take place in any other city (write to me if I'm wrong, which I probably am), but seriously, how cool is that. Apparently this bar, Finn McCools, is the best place to watch Saints games other than the Super Dome. Monday night it was packed. There were serveral TVs including a huge projector screen showing the game. The game, unfortunately, was not pretty. All of the dishes that neighbors brought in, however, were very pretty ... and delicious. Lots of red beans and rice - which apparently is the stapel dish in New Orleans on Mondays.

Bet you didn't know that.

So this past week has been good. In my last blog you saw pictures from my tour of the lower 9th ward, which was sobering yet important for me to see. The stories of Kristyn's evacuation to Atlanta (17 hour drive, due to the storm and traffic), the immidiate clean up and the incompetent and complex dealings of the aftermath were very informative.

One story was about a man who lost his home, was given a FEMA trailer, but he hasn't lived in the trailer for the past TWO years because FEMA never sent him the key. He's been locked out since.

Apparently the mayor sent busses to Texas, where most of the displaced residents of the destroyed neighborhoods moved to, so these New Orleans residents could be bussed back for his election. Once the election was over, they were bussed back. Their homes are still not fixed.

There are plenty of stories like this. My time in New Orleans was not simply a solemn tour of the past. There were plenty of fun times had. Like the potluck dinner in the bar.

I ate some po-boys (which is just yet another name for a sub, hoagie, sandwich, etc.). Fried shrimp with lettuce, mayo and ketchup on great French bread. The place that I was taken to was apparently famous; a very small hole in the wall near the River (Mississippi River, in case you've never heard of it) where the Discovery Channel was going to be filming at that very night I went. Not too shabby.

I went to the BEST burger place in New Orelans, which was fun, had my first Bloody Mary at this awesome bar on Bournon Street; this bar had multiple venues in which you can sit down and drink. After walking past the huge fountain with a flame coming out (I could have sworn it was the very own Goblet of Fire ... the flame was almost blue) we walked into this huge room with two dueling pianos. Sophia - a friend from high school and a Tulane grad student - her two friends and I were probably the youngest ones in the room. But the crowd was great, the music was awesome, and good times were had.

The names of these places are escaping me, so I apologize, but that is the type of quality you get when you pay $0 for my blog.

At least you get these cool pictures.

Baton Rouge was a lot of fun. Spoke to a few Catholic students at their meeting at Southern University. Then spoke at a youth retreat for 3o high schoolers. I went into the meeting hall, spoke for about 20 minutes about my life, then left. Speaking to high schoolers was great, made me miss teaching. Whenever I noticed they were getting bored (who wants to hear about me speak about my "calling"??) I just told them exotic things about Micronesia. The cool guys in the back really liked it when I said I could open coconuts with a machette. When they started to fool around, I pulled out a machette that I carry, threw it right past them, sticking to the wall inches from their ears.

That last part didn't happen. But it would have made their retreat so much more interesting.

Also went to LSU (ranked number 2 in college football ... ranked number one in my heart. aww) to meet up with some students. Yeah, that was cool and everything, but the highlight was checking out the 3 million dollar habitat where Mike the 6th lives. Mike is not a rich student, he is a tiger. The LSU mascot. During home games, students try to do anything to make the tiger roar because each roar indicates how many touchdowns their team will score. Mike is not allowed to go to away games because he once ate the other team's mascot.

Now, if you're like me, once you heard that story you would probably respond immidiately with: Mike should be allowed to go to every away game after that incident. How cool would that be?

True story. But seriously, meeting with the two seniors interested in JVC was the highlight.

Monday was the University of Loyola. That day reminded me of one of the reasons why I took this job: to meet energetic and passionate college students, full of ideals, lofty aspirations, sugar and spice and everything nice.

I'd like to give some shoutouts at this point. The Jesuit Volunteers in Mobile and New Orleans were amazingly hospitable and caring and super fun and good looking. I enjoyed my time crashing on their couches, driving them to shop, going out to eat with them, playing games with them, philosophizing, curing diseases, writing foreign policy and all the other normal things JVs do when they are together. Every JV community, I'm sure, is rocking, but combine a JVI alumn and a JVC community and you get fireworks (unfortunately, not the actual fireworks, but the metaphor explaining the amazing chemistry formed by the enthusiasm of all people present). Really, they were awesome people. 'nuff said. I wish them luck in their endeavors and I hope to meet up with them again.

Future JV communities that I'm going to visit: you have high standards to meet.

Future friends: you also have to deal with the bar being raised (just kidding, I love you ... please let me crash at your place).

Future donors: I'm still waiting for your money.

Yesterday was a hardcore day (when is it not for me!!) of traveling: 6:30 flight to Houston then Philadelphia. Got my rental car a.k.a. my new home for the next 5 months. Booked it to Wheeling which took about 7 hours to get to (that included stops to take a break, put out a fire at one of the many barns I passed, meet good honest Americans to kick off my campaign, and to fill the tank with gas).*

* Two of those things are true. Guess, and you win this week's prize.

Wheeling West Virginia is great so far. I can say that because I have only seen a few streets of it in the dark and I have not left this house yet to see the campus of Wheeling Jesuit University. I'm staying at an off campus apartment (huge) where a few students live in an intentional community. Kind of like a mini-JVC for college kids. I have yet to meet any of the students that live here yet, just the coordinator who let me in last night; I passed out last night before any of them came home and I woke up after they left for school.

So I'll be in Wheeling for almost a week. Give some talks here, an info session there, meet with more interested students, walk around campus, brace myself for the onslaught of the deadly forces of winter that are rapidly approaching (I'm refering to the 60 degree weather that constitutes the end of September...wait to hear what I will probably have to say about the end of October).

Enough about me; I want to hear about you. Yes, a blog is usually a one-way communication. But as a good friend of mine says: "Your thoughts." I'd like them. Write in.

Here is a good conversation starter: my job is pretty awesome. How is yours cooler than mine? Discuss.

One more: I actually liked ketchup mixed with mayo on my po boy. What other weird combinations of condiments do you like? (that's as philisophical as I can get right now).

Until next time, enjoy this photo from Bourbon Street:

New Orleans Part 1

Miles travelled: 2023

Current Location: New Orleans

Here are some pictures from my "tour" to the 9th Ward. Special thanks to Kristen (I hope I spelled that right!) for giving me a very thorough and provacative tour.

This is a house that was washed away from its original location. Probably was taken a couple of hundred yards away.

The date is when the rescuers came for the first time to check the house.

This is the area where the levees broke. It's mostly many acres of overgrown grass like this. Houses used to be here.

Gutting the houses. You see this everywhere.

This is all that is left of most houses: the foundation and the steps and maybe a gate.

The new levees. You can get a good look of the Lower 9th Ward. That huge area of grass used to be a neighborhood. I guess they're not rebuilding it.

F-14s and Cemetery Cats

Miles travelled: 500 (in air) + 1,235 (in air) + 143 (driving) = 1,878 miles

Couches/new beds crashed: 2

Current location: Mobile, Alabama

Hello everyone. I thought I'd start each entry with the number of miles I have traveled so far seeing how this is, you know, a travel blog. I'm currently in Panera Bread, my new hub for stealing wireless internet for my work laptop (it's not really stealing since it's free, I'm just not buying anything while I'm here...I don't really got the monies right now).

Life on the road has been great so far. It's definitely challenging though. That relaxed feeling of walking through your door at your house, apartment, dwelling, igloo, etc. is just the best, isn't it? After a long day of work, no matter how great and sunny or awful and cloudy, it just feels good to be home. Away from work. Back in Chuuk, my home WAS my work place; I resided at a boarding school for boys (the girls left the campus every afternoon) and was always ON as a teacher, disciplinarian, random white person on this 3x4 mile island. I do miss the coconuts though...

Anyway, I was saying that having a home at the end of the day is great. I think that will be the thing I miss the most on the road. So far the couch and the bed I have stayed in were great. The people I've been with (the Jesuit Volunteer communities in New Orleans and Mobile) have been more than wonderful. Meeting these energetic youths brings me back to when I was an energetic youth myself (that brings me back approximately 5 days ago, before I started traveling). Seriously though, they are awesome.

Here are some highlights of the trip so far:

First night in New Orleans the JVs hosted a potluck dinner. I probably met over 20 people and remembered like 2 names. I heard stories from nuns about the destruction of Katrina and met some awesome Former JVs who, like me, were figuring life out (not like Plato "I'm going to philosophize about life and come up with the ideal government", more like "what the heck will I be doing come April when this job is finished" figuring life out). Great times.

As I picked up my rental car, gripping the steering wheel, my GPS female voice (her name is "Movie Phone" ... don't ask, it was funny when I spontaneously said it a few weeks ago) telling me to "Turn right", I readied to embark on the beginning of my driving career when out of no where an F-14 landed at the airport right in front of me. It was probably less than 50 yards away from where I was sitting in the car. I'm mentioning this cause it's kind of cool to see a fighter jet gliding down so close to you. Cool stuff.

The number of bugs that splattered on my windshield on the way to Mobile from New Orleans was sickeningly high, however it was too comical for the situation to be gross. I couldn't beleive how many splats would happen per minute. It was gross. And big bugs, too. Like dragon flies. I think there were a few actual dragons in there also. The windshield wiper spray did nothing. You would need lava to scrape off all the dead bugs. You know the scene in Gone With the Wind where the camera pans back to reveal a huge field of dead/suffering soldiers? That scene is currently on the windshield and hood of my car. I looked around and saw that I was not the only car with that problem, so I felt better. What caused me to think that my car would be the only car on the highway to have 100 dead bugs covering the front of my vehicle is beyond me. Fun times.

Spring Hill College is beautiful. 3rd oldest Jesuit University in America. Smallest population. But it has a rocking 18 hole golf course. I actually played a round of golf by myself yesterday on my day off. Now, I know my life will be a bit adventurous and simple, but isn't golfing the high life? What gives, AJ? I thought you were living out of your car over the next couple of months? Well, I golfed for a few reasons: it was a beautiful day and I knew, just knew, that it would be one of the last times to spend a long amount of time outdoors, in the sun, not in the cold. I will be driving a lot, inside a lot and afraid of the cold a LOT. So I took advantage of the sit (short for situation). Also, I have never, ever golfed so many holes by myself before. In fact I have NEVER golfed by myself before. I usually go to the driving range and fool around with friends. But I saw it as a bit of a challenge to myself: I'm going to be doing new things by myself for the next couple of months, I might as well try to do a few old things by myself, too. That's deep, right?

(Spoiler alert! The quick story below gives away part of the title of this blog. Skip down below if you don't want anything given away!!!)

We ate with the Jesuits at Spring Hill (some of them knew one of the Jesuits in Pohnpei, the other Micronesian island I spent some time on. Small world) and it was a great time. Two of them gave us a tour of the campus afterwards (beautiful campus...so far it's winning the Most Beautiful Campus Award on this tour ... and yes, it's the only campus I visited so far). Like all good Jesuit colleges, there was a graveyard. Deceased priests were there. There were also grave sites that were RESERVED for the Jesuits living on campus now! Creepy, but efficient. Anyway, and I don't know why this is still so funny to me, but apparntly there are a bunch of wild cats that live (the tour guide Jesuit said "guard") in the cemetery. And it was true: a bunch of cats were just roaming around the small cemetery grounds, chillin and owning the place.

Ok, maybe you should have been there, but I think it's really funny that a bunch of wild cats 1) exist in a little society all on their own, 2) live and somehow survive on a college campus and 3) are "guarding" the graves.

That's it for now. I wanted to blog before tomorrow, when I drive to New Orleans and actually tour the city and party there and get a feel for what happened two years ago. The next blog will have pictures I take, I'm sure.

Thanks for reading. If you want to submit questions to me, that would help me guide my writing a bit. The questions do not have to necessarily relate to my travels. They can be anything from Micronesian questions, meaning-of-life questions, asking for fashion tips and what have you.

Also, if you are interested in a blog about a more conventional life and job, but by no means uninteresting, AND if you want to check out a blogger who is a legitimate writer and not some random yahoo who happens to know the English language (me), check out my brother's blog:

http://thesaltminer.blogspot.com/

There are no F-14s mentioned in his blog, though, so I currently have the edge.

Also, thanks to my boy Ditty who lent me the first season of "Lost". Apparently this TV show was one of the "things I missed" in the past two years. It's a good quality show, I have to admit. The girls on the show are also kinda hot. Just thought I should throw that out there.

If YOU think there have been some "things I missed" in the past two years, write them into me, and your list can be published in this blog!!! If you turn in the biggest list you can win a prize!!*

Ok everyone. Take care. I'll write to you next week.

* Prizes include either a friendly thank-you email or a brand new car. I'm still working on that email.

Carpets and Katrina

Welcome to all of you who are interested in my life … that’s why you’re checking this new blog out, right? Whether you are long time followers (my family) or have recently joined the bandwagon of AJ-crazed fans across the world, you are definitely welcome.

Perhaps you have come to hear about my thoughts on life and America post-Chuuk. Maybe you want to travel along with me across the eastern seaboard – my new “home” for the next few months of uncharted territory. Or you are hoping that you have latched onto the newest blog craze that will soon rise to national stardom and you can claim that you were a true fan before hype (kind of like me and seeing Napoleon Dynamite in theaters before any college kid heard of it).

Lucky you, because you will certainly hear my thoughts on reverse culture shock, experience my travels as I experience them and you have permission to believe that this blog will become popular beyond my immediate family and obsessed friends (or those acquaintances who accidentally click on this blog link from Facebook).

Those dancers on treadmills can become famous using the internet. So can I.

Here is the basic background information you need:

I graduated from college in 2005 with no idea what I really want to do, but I was confident that it’d fall into place (don't ask me to clarify what "it" means...I still have no idea!).

I got accepted to the great program of the Jesuit Volunteer International and gave two years of service to the small state of Chuuk, part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a neglected yet strange and beautiful place surrounded by hundreds of miles of the Pacific ocean. I was extremely isolated for two years, living with a loving yet small community for those two years. My life was incredibly unbalanced with work, more work, and work on my weekdays and weekends. Advice for anyone: Do not reside in your workplace for every day of the year, especially with no ESPN or Mythbusters.

But I learned a lot. Learned about my self, teaching, the world, the inner workings of coconuts. I got used to the simple and challenging lifestyle that I was thrown into…

…and suddenly I’m back home. The US. Good Ol’ New England. Western society and the like. I missed it a lot. I missed my family, my friends and good lord I missed the food. (Mexican food has not found its way to the equitorial Pacific yet). And suddenly I was able to have it all back in one huge gulp. That, plus a climate that my body rejected, the infant-like fascination with wall-to-wall carpeting and a newfound yet extremely comical (frustrating to those who accompany me) fear of supermarkets. Big, scary, engless supermarkets.

Life is great. But it’s surreal at the same time. And you need to know I’m fine with that, because I appreciate all that I have. That and much more. That’s all there is to it.

I have a job where I get to visit college campuses and meet enthusiastic and passionate students who are curious about giving a year or two of their lives away for … something! Something bigger, something grander, something right. If they are like me when I was graduating, that’s how I also felt. Ah, college: so young and idealistic. That plus a bubble hockey machine, a slushi machine, and three illegal piranahs in my dorm room Junior year (best ... room...ever!).

Back to being idealistic. Yeah, before I graduated I didn't know what field I wanted to enter into. I knew two things: I wanted to help people and I wanted to travel. If all I had were my intentions, I would be successful in life. Right? Right? I thought so. I think that’s why I like the West Wing so much: the characters truly care about the bigger picture and want to do what is right, even though fighting for the right thing is not the "usual" thing to do. It’s not "business" in Washington. These characters, however, make fighting for the right thing business as usual. That’s why I am inspired by that show.

That and the dialogue is pretty impressive. Bartlett for president.

Be warned: if you read this blog, please expect random tangents like the one above.

Here is another random tangent:

There were three top stories in the news the other day: General Patreus coming to Washington giving his assessment on the situation in Iraq, the exiled Pakistani leader trying to return home, and … wait for it! Britney Spears. Top three stories in our news.

THAT’s why I 1) still don’t like television news media and 2) I would rather get my news from BBC.com, the Financial Times or the Economist. I’m a news snob. Good for me.

Back to seriousness…

Here is a hint of some deep insights that this blog claims to produce. Actually, a unique and interesting reflection will probably occur in my next essay (that sounds so academic: “essay”). I am going to New Orleans for my first tour of college visits for my recruiting job. In case you didn’t know, I was in Chuuk when Katrina happened. To me, Katrina was a one page story printed from the internet and posted on our teacher’s bulletin at Xavier High School, where I taught. We received the Time Magazines with the cover stories of the destruction MONTHS later. A very perceptive friend of mine told me, during one of our conversations while I was away on this small island, that during Katrina and the immediate aftermath, the feel of the country, or at least the nation’s media, was very similar to the days of and after 9/11.

I’ll be honest: not for me. I was more worried about not fumbling my words as I stood in front of 25 Micronesian students, most of them had English as their second or even third language. AND there were at least 6 native island languages existing at our unique school. I feel for New Orleans, but I think, since I was literally a world away, I felt bad the same way we feel bad when we hear of natural disasters in India or Peru; it’s awful, but you forget about it after 24 hours because it’s too far away for you to fathom. We have our lives to worry about here.

So we’ll see what happens. I need to recruit when I’m down there. I want to recruit for JVC. But I also want to learn. I get to meet all sorts of people – current volunteers, priests, juniors and seniors in college, campus ministers, professors – and share with them my experiences. That’s my job.

A great extra benefit of my job: I also get to hear about their experiences.

If you’re lucky - and if I’m not lazy to post blogs - maybe you’ll get to hear about both.