as blonde as it gets...

A Whirlwind Week

Hi! Here to update you on what's been going on for us down south:

On Tuesday we had the luck of seeing the Maraists again (the ND alum and his wife who'd taken us to Lake Martin and Breaux Bridge) and they took us to see St. Martinville, where they'd both grown up. This was our real Acadian history lesson--since Mrs. Maraist is currently writing a book on Acadian history, we had some really knowledgeable people to show us around. The Acadian memorial was our first stop, where they have all the names carved into the wall of the first 3,000 or so settlers who landed in the area from Nova Scotia. They also have a huge mural of the settlers which was recently painted, and a descendant from each family posed for the painting. We also saw the Evangeline Oak, a huge famous oak tree that sits by the Bayou Teche.

The Church in St. Martinville was beautiful, and it was so old it even had those kind of pews where you have to open the little door to get in. After taking a little drive through the country and the sugarcane fields and checking out a country house of the Maraists right on the bayou, we headed to Broussard, another little town. We had dinner there at Nash's, a Cajun/Italian (an interesting and delicious combo) restaurant inside an old Victorian home. We had another fantastic meal, seafood of course, and we're just amazed at the generosity of the ND alumni club here in S Louisiana.

One of the highlights of the week was our dinosaur dig in Turkey. We made our own clay the night before and had the kids make dinosaur bones out of it (after getting to play with it, of course). The first class was a total disaster, though, because our clay didn't have enough flour at ALL and got all over their hands and wouldn't come off! We took them outside after that and we'd hid some "dino eggs" (big easter eggs) around the playground area filled with candy. We also hid pre-made dinosaur bones in the sandbox for them to dig up, which they loved...some of them were even convinced that the sandbox rocks were teeth.

They had their drama, music, and dance performance on Thursday, which was hilarious. The kids had been working on the play, called "The Legend of the Cursed Island," for five weeks, and they'd basically written the entire thing themselves! It was hilarious to see how they'd made their characters act exactly as they do. We got to meet some of their parents and relatives at the play, and hopefully we'll get to meet more of them at the end-of-the-year production.

Friday was a different day because the kids didn't come to camp--instead, we spent the day cleaning the biggest room at the Thensted Center with Daniel and Phillip. It was one of those jobs that is so satisfying...it was dirty. really dirty. We washed the baseboards, walls, cleared the bookshelves, the AC vents, the fridges, vacuumed, etc. Our favorite part was finding a perfectly preserved skeleton of what may have been a baby squirrel about ten years ago underneath an old fire hydrant! It felt so good to clear out the place and give it a good cleaning.

That night we had Stacey's birthday dinner over at Susan's, which was amazing as always! Mandy made an unbelievable birthday cake for Stacey (her favorite yellow cake with chocolate icing and raspberries) and we all celebrated together...great way to spend my last night as a teenager, says Stacey.

Stacey's birthday was pretty different from any other birthday she's ever had, and it was pretty darn awesome. Although we were hitting ourselves on the heads when the alarm went off, we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6:30 to get to Café des Amis in Breaux Bridge, or "Pont Breaux," Louisiana. They have a zydeco breakfast there every Saturday morning where people go to dance! We hadn't yet been to the breakfast and we knew we had to get there before we left, and it was totally worth it. We got the zydeco omelet and some biscuits for breakfast and then just stood and watched the people dance for a little while. Even though it was just the two of us and we hardly knew anything about zydeco dancing, we got pulled out onto the dance floor by some knowledgeable zydeco dancers before we even made an attempt to dance with each other. We learned a little bit about trying to keep our rhythm, but we really weren't the best...

Turns out we just needed to be led by some experts, and we had our wish granted that night! The Oliver boys, who live next to the Comeauxs and are the sons of Mandy's friend Renee, took us to a cajun wedding :) Although we never did end up meeting the bride and groom, we met a lot of the family members and danced the night away! It was striking how good people are here at dancing--we couldn't believe we were in a place where EVERYONE knows how to dance, and can do it well, too!

In between dancing in the morning and dancing in the evening, we went on a bike ride through Lafayette, looking through shops and browsing through downtown. We got some chicken gyros at Cedar Grocery (awesome) on really good French Bread instead of pitas. There were a lot of flags hanging from the ceiling and we were very surprised to see that we could identify most of them because of our trip around the world at the Thensted! After lunch we got ice cream at Borden's-birthday cake dipped in chocolate, Stacey's favorite. We took the bikes back to Susan's and then went shopping to look for souvenirs and clothes.

We had noticed a sign for a mall on the way from Lafayette to Carencro, so we decided to stop and check it out. "Northgate Mall." Well, we felt like we were in a post-apocalyptic world because there were approximately 8 people in the entire mall and there were long strips where there were no stores at all. The only signs of life were a couple of Foot Lockers and a few stores without even a name. Significantly sketched out, we scooted out of there pretty quickly!

After a long and exhausting but awesome week, we got some much-needed sleep last night. We can't believe how fast it's flown by! Stay tuned this week for some updates as we finish up our last week in Cajun country.

Are we cajun yet?

This week was pretty cool for us because we got to show other people (namely Mrs. Shudick and Renee) our new home! When the Shudicks got in on Wednesday night, we made sure to be hospitable (ha, ha) and bring home some fresh boudin from Don’s specialty meats since we’re Cajun food experts now. Seemed like they really liked it!

We got to go to Lake Martin with them on Thursday afternoon after a long day of making egg rolls, paper lanterns, and lucky money envelopes in China with the kids. Lucky for us, this nice man pointed out an alligator inches from the bank who was chomping on some grasses and a mama alligator with her babies!! They were the cutest, although those oversized lizards could probably chomp your fingers off. Later, when we were walking on the footbridge through the swamp, we saw another one with its tail up on the bank. It was a little too close to us for comfort for Renee...being in the car was preferable for her, although Stacey asked to get out of the car near the first alligator (and was promptly shut down due to a recent story of a kid getting his hand chomped off).

Next was delicious Deano’s pizza at Susan’s, which included Cajun Canaille (the Cajun French word for “mischievous”), Marie LeVeaux (a crab pizza named for the New Orleans Voodoo Queen), Chicken Fresco, and a Crawfish pizza…aah it never gets old. A great dinner with great people!

Corinne and Renee accompanied us to the Thensted Center on Friday, which was awesome. At first, the kids thought we had cloned Jonelle, which amplified their confusion considering some of them still can’t even tell Stacey from Jonelle! We went to Saudi Arabia with them, so we did some cool sand art and then blew bubbles outside. The kids were an absolute mess because we’d used a bubble recipe with Karo corn syrup to make them “hard bubbles” that you can actually hold with your hands. They had a blast with all of us, and we loved having some extra hands in the classroom!

We had some more great food that night at Lanell and Leon’s that night—she cooked an awesome catfish courtbouillon (translated to quickly boiled liquid). Renee absolutely LOVED the rolls, probably because they were rolled in milk and butter ☺. Grandpa Jack, Jonelle’s grandpa, sent down Polish sausage and peirogi for the family to try. It was delicious and it was really nice sharing something with them that our families eat. We had planned to go dancing or see a movie that night, but we were all exhausted and had to get to bed before our big weekend!

Charm City, baby

Hey! It’s only Jonelle…just wanted to give everyone my first impressions of Baltimore (where we spent the 4th of July). This being my first time to the real East Coast, I was a little unsure of what to expect…besides the crazy stories Stace had told me about Sherwood Forest (a cult-like, 1950’s esque, country clubish, really cute neighborhood for all of our dear readers who are unfamiliar with it). The weekend was really wonderful, complete with crabs cooked in Old Bay…absolutely amazing…and really fun to sit and pick with everyone. Directly after arriving at their summer house in the Forest, I was chauffeured around in a golf cart on a personal tour of Sherwood and the Severn River. This neighborhood is located about halfway between Baltimore and D.C. I got to meet a lot of Stacey’s really nice childhood friends, as well as her family, who were all really nice and welcoming – apart from them actually somewhat liking soccer, which I guess I can overlook. The whole neighborhood was so cute and they even had their own firework show on the 3rd! On the fourth, we walked in a neighborhood parade, and ate hot dogs at 9:30 a.m.! We had some more crabs for lunch then went on a boat-ride on the River.

After dinner (typical 4th fare) we traveled to Baltimore to check out the city. Well my first impression was perhaps not the most flattering, I thought the city was really nice. When we arrived in the city, just past the Ravens Stadium, I glanced out the window toward the car next to us, and saw a guy shooting up in the backseat. This was the first time Stace or I had ever seen this—yikes! I did get to see her high school, which was really quaint, and we stayed overnight in her house which was in a really nice part of town—not like my first impression at all. It was really fun meeting all her high school friends and seeing the place where she grew up. We headed back to the Forest (ha) in the morning and had a little bit of time to hang out before our flight. Stace and I went to Robin Hood Beach…yes this is the actual name…with Mrs. Collins and we relaxed in the sun and went swimming off the pier for a much too short hour before we had to jet off. The flight back home was essentially a 2 hour nap for us after the awesome weekend eating crabs, hanging out with family, and exhausting our patriotic wardrobe.

The big 2-0!

Hello There!

We know this is a bit late (2 weeks) but we thought we should tell you all about Jonelle’s birthday since she was the birthday princess (at age 20…while somehow still managing to look and act exactly the same as at age 10). We had to go to work, which we thought would be a bummer but turned out to be awesome! Who wouldn’t want to be serenaded by 50 little kids :] not to mention a breakfast that consisted of French toast and peach tea…an excellent substitution for blueberry muffins. We were a little tired because we had to stay awake until midnight, stargazing—until a possum attacked us, causing us to run inside. At work, every new class that came in sang Happy Birthday, and were well behaved for the birthday girl. At lunch, we went to the store to get ice cream, and ate a whole pint, completely unaware that the center had bought a giant pink frosted cake for everyone, including the kids helping out from Connecticut. The cake ended up being for both of us because Miss Jean knows us by face, but still cannot get the names straight and had Stacey’s name written on the cake. The entire center sang to both of us, and everyone got a piece of cake. One of the girls even made Jonelle a bracelet out of yarn. After work, we headed to the pool for a relaxing afternoon, then had a cookout at Mandy’s. Everyone came over, and Mimi, Mandy’s mom, made a chocolate banana cake…awesome. She also got some beautiful earrings and a lot of love. In all, it was an awesome way to turn 20!

Houseboat Pictures!

Scene of the Atchafalaya basin...streches forever and ever.
Us on the "party barge" with Mandy and Blake.
Adam's houseboat! This picture was taken before the leaves came in.

Austin

Okay--so Austin was seriously fun. We had a blast! After the 6.5 hour drive with no A/C (it's our own fault, we know) we arrived in Austin, which is completely different than anything that you would expect. It is very hilly and reminded us both of Boulder, CO. We stayed with Mandy's sister, Laurie, who has a beautiful house there. She had fresh Mexican cuisine waiting for us, which we enjoyed in the backyard by the beautiful pool! We visited then promptly donned our suits and swam for awhile before going to bed--we were exhausted after a day with the kids, a six hour drive, and swimming!

The next day we went to Schlitterbahn (which the German lady we work with kindly informed us was in fact a German word...duh...but she told us schlitter means to sled and bahn is a rollercoaster--sounds about right!). It was a ginormous waterpark not far from their house. We spent the day riding the slides and floating in the whirlpools and lazy rivers, which was awesome, and since Stacey had just gotten a waterproof camera we were able to bring it through the whole park and even down the slides. We went with Phillip and his cousin, Iris, and her friend, Kate, which made it ten times as fun for us because we got to act like seventh graders at a water park! It was a fantastic day that only got better with a stop at Sonic for ice cream on the way home :)
The crew before we left in our sweet hats...we were gonna wear them into the park, but we would have lost them of course! Jonelle, Phillip, Kate, Iris, and Stacey.


The girls in the whirlpool!

That evening we went to "Music in the Park" in Laurie's neighborhood, which was an informal show by a local band next to the lake. It was an awesome setting--laying out a blanket by the water and listening to music was exactly what we wanted to do on a night like that!!

Sunday was our day to venture into the city of Austin, and we hit the capitol building first because we knew it'd be open early; turns out the Austin capitol is bigger than the nation's capitol building in D.C. As they all say there, everything in Texas is bigger and better!

After seeing the capitol and driving through the UT campus a little bit, we spent the rest of the day on South Congress, which is the big shopping street in Austin. There were some great boutiques there, and we made sure to stop into Allen's, the premier place for Cowboy boots...although they were not exactly in our price range, the college students that we are, we loved picking out the knee high leopard prints or the $700 utility boots to try on.
Possibly the best part of our day: REAL MEXICAN FOOD!! We both got a chicken fajita taco and an ahi tuna taco...so amazing. Best part about it was that it was sold out of a roadside stand--apparently, the new thing is to sell things out of airstream trailers. We saw everything from Mexican food to cupcakes, BBQ to puppy adoptions!
Overall we had an amazing time. Good food and family (or so it feels..)--what could be better!?

Thensted Update

Hey all! Sorry we haven't posted in forever, but with our big weekend in Austin and Jonelle's birthday on Monday, we've been all over the place!

Things at the Thensted Center are continuing to go well. Last week, we went to Egypt and the kids made bookmarks with their names in heiroglyphics. Their favorite part of the day, though, was our mummy wrap; we had them get into teams and wrap one kid in toilet paper, trying to get as much coverage and style points as possible! We had a Christmas party with the kids on Friday (June 25th, halfway til Christmas) where we decorated sugar cookies and made some cute reindeer crafts.

The highlight of the week, though, was the marble incident. We have this jar in our classroom that we fill with marbles when the kids behave, and we can take marbles out if they don't...but the kids aren't supposed to touch the marbles. One of our little punks, Tanner, doesn't exactly listen to anything we say and has his hand in either the marble box or the Starburst bag 24/7. Friday was a particularly hilarious day for us because the kid finally got what he deserved--yeah, he swallowed a marble. Don't get us wrong, we made sure he was okay before we started laughing, but the face was truly priceless. Luckily, it passed right on through!!

This week, we've hit up Brazil for a carnival (made some cool masks) and the South Pole for a compass experiment and some paper bag penguin puppets. Since Stacey has been obsessed with penguins for her entire life, it was a great outlet for her to talk about the different species of penguins to people who might care!

Here we are with most of the Thensted Center staff. On the left is Ms. Dorothy, who works at the thrift store, then Dionne, who comes just on Fridays, Phillip dressed as Santa for the Christmas party, Julia, director of the center, Ms. Jean who is in charge of the Summer Program, Ms. Pitre, and then Tidy, the cook, is on the bottom row with us. These are some amazing people!

On Sunday we got home from an awesome weekend in Austin--will post again tomorrow about it (with pictures, of course!)

Pictures!

This is us at Lake Martin standing in front of the cypress swamp. There are flocks of birds nesting in all the trees-really pretty to look at! Of course Jonelle wanted to see the famous pink birds that nest there while Stacey was more concerned with the French history and culture present there (in case you didn't know Stacey speaks French rather proficiently).

Eight Foot Alligator!

Blue Heron chilling in the swamp -->

Hey Guys! Here are some of the pictures from Lake Martin-the alligator and the cypress swamp--sorry I know you all wanted a picture of the Nutria Rat but it was too quick for us!

Natural Wonders of the Cajun World

Well, this was really a week of firsts! On Wednesday, Dr. Maraist (a Notre Dame grad) and his lovely wife took us to meet some other ND grads for dinner. On the way, we stopped to see Lake Martin, a large lake near Breaux Bridge, LA that incorporates a lot of swampland. We were able to walk on a footbridge through the swamp right next to all the cypress trees. After we got back in the car, we drove along the edge of the swamp and finally saw our nutria rat!! That thing was DISGUSTING. The head was probably 4 times the size we expected and it had this gross hooked nose. We tried taking a picture of it, but it ducked under the water as soon as we opened the car door--maybe that whole nutria rat hunting plan is going to be harder to execute than we expected...after that, we saw an 8-foot alligator (pictures to come)! When we stopped the car to get a closer look, it started swimming towards us--thank god we stayed in the car. When it was almost at the shore, it stopped..and slowly sank until all you could see was its little eyeballs peeking out of the water.

After that adventure, we had an unbelievable dinner at "Café des Amis," a restaurant in Breaux Bridge with live music and signatures of famous people on the walls. Jonelle got a Crawfish pie, which was like a crawfish étoufée in a puff pastry--crazy good--and Stacey got crab stuffed flounder! The white chocolate bread pudding we had for dessert was definitely in the top 10 desserts EVER made, and it was so good we almost made ourselves sick from eating too much of it. We met Father Bob, the priest from ND who got us the passes to the gym, and a few other alums who were so nice to treat us to such an amazing dinner.

On the way back from dinner, the Maraists wanted to show us true cajun dancing, so we stopped at Mulate's, a cajun restaurant and dance hall that had a live cajun band who spoke and sung in French! It's like coming to a different country being down here; we're meeting more and more people who are fluent in French, not to mention all the fleur-de-lis and French street signs everywhere. The Maraists, who are both bilingual (Mrs. Maraist grew up speaking both French and English--SO JEALOUS!), were explaining that the Cajun French is similar to the French that was spoken in the 17th century, so words for modern technology don't exist in the language. They also told us about the deportation of the French people from Nova Scotia, and how eventually a large population of them settled in Southern Louisiana.

Oh, and another thing to add to the list of crazy Louisiana has and most other places don't--Huge, Vicious bugs. It's so hot that these things don't die in the winter, and they just grow and grow. We are starting to get used to them though, like a giant cricket hanging out in our room, or ants as big as athumbnail with red stripes. They also have different names for the bugs- a dragonfly is referred to as a mosquito hawk! Even if we are getting used to seeing the bugs, our legs and ankles are not used to being attacked constantly by them--both of us have bites from these little boogers up and down our legs. Sweet blood I guess!

Saturday was a new adventure altogether. Adam (Mandy's eldest son) called us at about 3 o'clock and invited us out on his houseboat on the Atchafalaya Basin (pronounced uhCHAFFalaya). We packed up some snacks (including about 4 cases of water, which we carried to the boat and later back into the car) and headed out to the Basin. We stopped at the Welcome Center to get some brochures and maps, and were pleased to see that we were the most exotic people that had visited in awhile! When they pulled up to get us, we boarded 'St. Michael', a pontoon boat with a grill and tent on top. We stopped at Adam and his wife Ellen's camp-a floating shed with an A/C generator and bunk beds... and no bathroom. There was a barbecue pit onboard, as well as a porch swing and University of Louisiana Flag. We promptly dragged the swing onboard the pontoon and took off to take a tour of the Basin.

Once we got out in the open water (about 20 feet deep) we got to jump in the water. We didn't go in the water near the camp because it is located near the cypress trees in shallow water, meaning there could be alligators and snakes lurking in the swampy areas. The water felt so good because it was still over 95 degrees at around 4 o'clock. Essentially we were swimming in a basin of the Mississippi River, so when we got out of the water, mud was sticking to all the little hairs on our arms and stomach. After a while of cruising around, looking at the various camps people had set up (which in case you are wondering, you can set up anywhere around the Basin as long as it is government property), we headed back to the camp to start barbecuing dinner. While Ellen, Mandy, and their friend Blake started cooking, Adam took us in a little john boat around the swampy areas. It was seriously so cool! We went through the cypress trees, where there were lily pads and Spanish moss everywhere. It looked exactly like the swamps in movies. We thought we were going to see another alligator lurking in the shadows under a giant tree! Once we got back we had some delicious, and of course spicy, barbeque chicken and sausage. We left to head back to Carencro to shower and rinse the mud out of our clothes. Overall the swamp was gorgeous and one of the most unique areas either of us had seen.

Saturday night was our first go at Cajun dancing--even though no one was available to take us, we decided to go stag to Cowboys, a country style bar/dance hall. Wayne Toups was playing--he is apparently THE band to see if you're looking for "Zydecajun" music (a mix between Zydeco and Cajun, the local music from around here). Well, the parking lot was completely packed with pickup trucks, but we could not believe our eyes when we walked in! The place was jammed with people anywhere from age 18 to 60 in Cowboy boots and hats who were line and Cajun dancing to this folksy accordion music. It was straight out of either a movie or 50 years ago. The band was really awesome, and we're really into the whole zydeco thing now that we've heard it live--just a happy sound that totally fits the place we're in! We spent the evening going up to random Cajun boys explaining that we're from the north and we don't know how to dance. It was hilarious; once we told them our story, they either laughed at us for wanting to learn to Cajun dance in "just one night," or they consented and gave us some dance lessons. We left the place knowing a little more about how to dance and wishing there was a place like Cowboys in the real world (i.e. South Bend, IN)!

So THIS is a service project?

Jonelle and Stacey here. Just finished another great day at the Thensted Center--today we went to Pompeii, Italy, where we learned about the Vesuvius eruption of 79 A.D., exploded our own volcano, and did a plate tectonic experiment with graham crackers and vanilla frosting! Just a day in the life of a world traveler...

The big win this Wednesday marked the end of our sports fanatacism--this family probably thinks all we do up north is watch sports, because between Final Four lacrosse and the Stanley Cup Finals, it seems like we're always eager to flip on a game. Through it all, though, we've converted the Comeauxs into Blackhawks fans :)

This weekend we attended a few family events, including a pizza party where we had Deano's Cajun Pizza--spicy pizza with crawfish or shrimp, veggies, and lots of jalepenos on top. We met the rest of the family members, including Meme and Papa (the grandparents) and Mandy and Dave's brother Scott. We still can't really understand how one family can have this many awesome, loving people! We had a barbecue on Saturday afternoon with the family, too, where we got to try dirty rice and some delicious sausage, which went with some beef and chicken shishkabobs. People in Louisiana absolutely love their food--they'll all tell you that whenever they're eating, they'll always talk about a different kind of food!

Another thing we've learned about people here is that families (at least this one) like to stick together...we live on the same road as a bunch of Mandy's relatives, and Papa, who is a grandfather, lives right next to his sister, who lives next to his other sister, who lives three doors down from his OTHER sister!

On Saturday, we got to walk down the road to our neighbors' house that really looks like a castle and swim in their pool. The owners offered for us to come swim whenever we want, which is awesome because not only does that mean we have a pool within a few minutes of our house, but there's a 14-foot waterfall that you can jump off of into the pool! (see picture). The people here are unbelievably nice--the neighbors with the pool first turned on the fountain water for us, then brought us out an ice bucket full of cold drinks! Just when we thought this couldn't possibly get better, she comes out again--"I made y'all some plates!" Pork chops, noodles, and salad. Where are we?!

After the pool we went to look at some of the old plantation houses. At Magnolia Ridge in Washington, LA, a cute town with tons of antique shops, the owners have opened up the grounds of their plantation house to the public. We got to see the house from the outside and walk around on the three miles of trails. Now, even though this blog is called "Blondes in the Bayou," we created the blog before we found out that the real terminology is "ON the Bayou." Too late to change it, I guess, but we took a picture of ourselves IN the Bayou at Magnolia Ridge just so we could actually be IN it (even though we're standing on a tree, Stacey fell in, so it counts).

Another thing about Louisiana is that the rules of the road are practically non-existent. The speed limits are outrageous, ranging from 55 at a MINIMUM to 70 on side roads. Jonelle is constantly leaning over to check the speedometer when Stacey is flying through residential areas at 59 mph--only 4 over! At the same time, every turn is taken at about .4 mph; even though everyone on the road is going 70, Louisianians find it all right to slam on their brakes and make turns as slow as is humanly possible. P.S. All this takes place in a giant pick-up truck, because everyone and their mom owns a Ford F-150 or the like.

So we've been told about a certain kind of nasty swamp-dwelling rodent called the nutria rat, and we're on the lookout for them. They are the size of a beaver but with rat-like tails, and they have orange teeth!! Someone supposedly brought the species to the area because they thought the cajuns would want to eat them. They don't. But now, since Cajun country is incredibly overpopulated with nutria rats, you can make a profit by hunting the nutria rat. We're thinking about it as a side job to scrape up some extra cash.

Well we are off to Ireland tomorrow! Tearing it up in the deep sea and Egypt and panning for gold on the Oregon Trail later this week. Be sure to check out the nutria rat on google images..its sick.

:)

Oh, and here we are eating crawfish!! De-LICIOUS. For the Marylanders, this was the closest Stacey could come to a crab feast :) (The guy on the left is Phillip, Mandy (who we're staying with)'s son.)

First Day with the Kids

Hey guys! So today was our first day with the kids and man were they cute! We had five different classes of about 5-13 kids, with each class consisting of kids around the same age group. We made passports to go with the "Around the World" theme, enabling them to be world travelers. We finished with some musical chairs and freeze dance (see video). They were surprisingly some of the most well behaved kids of their age that either of us have worked with...southern manners (yes ma'am, no ma'am). Hopefully it continues.

So today we were driving to the gym and, looking up, noticed that every tree and electric line was covered in what looked like vines. Upon closer inspection we found that mardi gras beads were covering everything! The mardi gras parade of Lafayette happens on Johnston Street, one of the main drags of Lafayette. We also saw a bike lodged in a tree about a hundred feet tall. Apparently they didn't clean up after that weekend!

When we were at the mind-blowingly huge gym (Red Lerille's- look it up..it's fantastic) we each worked out separately for about an hour and found ourselves suffering from a withdrawal from each other's company. Upon starting our ab workouts, we both started gossiping and gave up on abs because we just missed each other too much. We quickly realized that we had NOT been apart for that long since we met at the Indy airport!

Louisiana 101

We started work this week at the Thensted Center, a place that helps the poor in the area (specifically children and the elderly) through counseling, an after-school program, a thrift store, and the Summer Enrichment program we'll be helping to put on. The program starts tomorrow, but we've been working this week to plan activities for the kids and decorate the classroom. The ladies we work with said the room has looked the same for the past few years, so we're hoping the kids will be really excited about its new look (we'll post a picture tomorrow!)
During the next seven weeks, we'll have to get to work around 7 (!) and we'll leave around 3. The kids get there between 7:30 and 8 and we play outside with them for an hour or so. After that, we serve them breakfast and then we'll see a few groups of kids in our classroom before we serve lunch. We'll probably have the kids we haven't seen yet in the afternoon before a 2:45 dismissal.
In our classroom, we've decided to structure our activities around the theme "Around the World." We figured it would be a good way to bring together science experiments, art projects, foreign language study, outside games, and even cooking and dance into one theme. Turns out it was probably a great idea--when we told Sister Betty about our idea, she told us a story about a volunteer who had come from India to help out at the Thensted Center. When she told the kids that she had traveled all the way from India, one of the boys said, "Oh, did you drive here?" Hopefully this will get them excited about different cultures and expand their knowledge of the world around them!
The people down here, even if few still speak French, are like the French in a lot of ways. Like the French, these people definitely know how to cook! On our first night with Mandy (our "Mom" for the summer) we tried "boudin," which is a sausage made with rice and spices. Sounds gross, but you're supposed to squeeze it out of the casing to eat it--you can squeeze it onto a piece of bread and eat it like a sandwich, or just eat it plain. Jonelle wasn't aware that the casing isn't really supposed to be eaten...but Mandy assured us that having eaten the casing won't kill her :) The sausage was awesome, and we tried sweet potato pie for dessert: equally awesome! We're having a crawfish boil tonight at Susan's, and we're so excited to try this cajun specialty.
We've also learned that the legal system here in Louisiana is still more like the French system. Apparently, if you get a speeding ticket here and you know someone in the court system they can help you get rid of the ticket, no consequences! We also heard of a service provided by an attorney in which you can buy your way out of community service hours. They also seem to have a different definition of drinking and driving--our friends were telling us about these Drive-Thru daiquiri places where you can essentially get any mixed drink in a styrofoam cup with duct tape around where the top goes on. As long as the cup is sealed with tape and the straw is out of the cup, it isn't considered an open container!
As far as the French language goes, some people we've met have had friends who went to French immersion school. The state tried to phase out the language but is now realizing its cultural importance and working to keep it around. Most of the roads in Lafayette are French names, like Rue d'Evangeline and General Mouton Ave. Stores also have French names--the donut place is called Meche's, and the local grocery stores are Janise's and Champagne's. It's also assumed that names follow french pronunciation--on our first night, we were confused when Susan was talking about someone named Richard; she said, "It's spelled like ree-shard but it's pronounced rich-urd." In the same way, David is Daa-veed, Hebert (as a last name) is ayy-bear, etc.
We have to head out, but we'll send an update tomorrow about how we liked the crawfish boil and our first day at work!

We're here!

Hey everyone! We've created this blog to keep everyone in the loop about our amazing experience down here in Southern Louisiana. After tons of sunshine in the car (with plenty of sweat thanks to no air conditioning!), crossing through 7 states in 2 days and the Mississippi River 4 times, we finally arrived in Lafayette. We first met Phillip, a rising sophomore at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, whose mom Mandy we'll be staying with for the summer. After that, we got to cool off and relax at the Comeaux's, who will be our alumni sponsors for the summer. Susan, a Notre Dame alum, made us a delicious dinner and some homemade ice cream cookie sandwiches. In the first 48 hours here, we've quickly learned that the food has a little more kick than we're used to--not only were the burgers spicy, but you could even taste some spice in the chicken salad we had for lunch the next day!
We went on a bike ride around Lafayette after dinner and got to see an adorable college town. On campus at the University we saw our first alligator in their very own cypress swamp!
Today was our first day at the Thensted Center in Grand Coteau, LA, where we'll be working in the summer program. We have the rest of the week to plan what to do with the kids and decorate our classroom. It was really nice meeting the nuns who work there, as well as Tidy and Julia who work to run the center.
After work we decided to take on the 95 degree weather and brutal humidity and attempt a run outside. Let's just say we lost the battle.

We'll plan to post once a week or so or when something big happens...as they say down here, we'll see y'all later!