N'Oleans, Louisiana

The weekend began at 4:50 AM for me as I made my way to Jacksonville airport, still half asleep. From there it would be another four hours until I touched down in New Orleans for a few days of almost certain insanity. The Saturday morning rendezvous included Claudio, Kris, Mike, and Erich. Parades had closed a lot of the major streets in the area and getting back to CJ's place was easily the second worst part of the trip (more to come on that topic later). So after dropping off Mike and Kris because CJ drives a Yaris, we headed back to the airport to pick up Erich. The thirty mile roundtrip took three hours with a quick stop at a grocery store to stock up on alcohol. When we finally made it back we walked into CJ's place only to find Mike covered in beads prancing around the house with Kris and a half empty JUG of wine gone. We were all impressed. You are too.


Lunch came with a pitcher of Margarita and after, we made our way back to CJ's just long enough to load a backpack with Jager, Bacardi, and several Monsters we received for free after almost hitting some dumb kid in the street. Next stop was Canal St. and CJ's friend Brendan's place. There was already a parade going on full of oddly colored floats throwing out a deluge of beads, and the occasional stuffed animal. The heavy drinking pretty much began some time around here (5 PM or so) and continued for the next six hours. At 9 PM we were all pretty wasted, at least I was, and only a few things stood out pretty clearly for me still: Mike getting hit on by some fat girl in orange fishnet stockings, and Kris taking a shot of Skyy and chasing it with a mixture of Soco and Jager. At some point we all acquired a ton of beads. CJ and Erich disappeared for an hour or so and returned with more than any of us. That's about all I remember from the first night. Apparently we were the only drunk ones at Brendan's at this point. Go asians!..and Claudio.

Day two started with Mike and Kris sleeping on a flat airbed mattress and me wanting to kill myself (the low point of the trip for me). I guess it had rained on us for a good hour or so as we tried to hail a cab back to CJ's place and I caught the flu. The flu in addition to a hangover felt so amazing I couldn't believe it. We ate lunch at some expensive place Claudio picked but I could only eat salad and drink water. Then I found out if I sit very still it felt like my head was floating away from my body. Drinking began a little after noon with CJ hitting it the hardest. Erich or someone suggested buying fake mustaches which ended up being a hilarious idea.



Half an hour later we were sick of hearing the word "mustache". We made our way to St. Charles street and tried to get as many beads as we could off the floats before meeting up with CJ's friends and going to some house party hosted by Yale. The party had amazing food and an open bar and it was all free. Erich spent a good portion of the time playing with a Woody doll from Toy Story that he found on the ground.

Next was the infamous Bourbon Street. I don't know if any of us took pictures at this point, but imagine a narrow street overlooked by tons of balconies full of drunk people throwing beads and flashing the crowds below. We did our best to weave through the masses without getting smashed while girls and guys were flashing the bead-wielders on the balconies above. It was pretty much exactly how I imagined it would be. Insanity.

So turns out Mike took a bunch of pictures of Bourbon street. The rest of the entry will give you an idea of what we experienced. All photos are courtesy of Michael Tang!

Here's a pretty good example of our view of Bourbon street

Go America!

Erich dancing with the natives

Parade Aftermath