Take me back to New Orleans

So it has occurred to me that some of you might be mildly interested in hearing a bit about the New Orleans/Gustav situation. I had planned to get back into posting regularly once I was back in the swing of things in New Orleans (because, let's face it, a year in New Orleans can certainly be just as interesting and hazardous as a year in Paris). I was gearing up to get you all up to date on my first few days moving into my new apartment and starting classes, and then Gustav hit. So let's begin at the beginning! We'll get to the juicy bits (read: evacuation story) later.

The week before my departure for New Orleans is a little fuzzy. I was originally scheduled to fly out on August 23rd, which gave me only four days before the start of classes to furnish my apartment. My roommate, Mary, had already been living there for a couple of months, so she'd taken care of a lot of it, but I didn't have a stick of furniture for my own room. I also had a lot of other things to worry about - petitioning for credit for my classes, finding a work-study job, finding a second job, meeting with my academic adviser, meeting with my thesis adviser, declaring my Linguistics major, meeting with the Honors program people... so many meetings! I had managed to fit it all into those four days, along with buying a bed, picking up some donated furniture from a friend, and tabling at an event with the student health organization that I am a part of.

Unfortunately, due to a family matter, I had to change my flight to Monday, August 25th. So now I had approximately a day and a half to do all of those things.

On Monday, my friends Sarah and Carolyn drove me to Logan Airport at an ungodly hour. I had slept for a mere three hours the night before. I was very early for my first flight, but finally got on it and it took me to Atlanta (still no direct flights from Boston to New Orleans). My second flight, in Atlanta, left the gate on time but due to some pesky tropical storm known as Gustav, we had to wait on the tarmac to be rerouted around the storm, which took about an hour. Finally we took off, arriving in New Orleans about an hour late. My roommate Mary picked me up and took me to our apartment. I didn't have a key yet, and Mary had to run back to class (it was her first day of law school) so I sat around in the apartment, acquainting myself with it, unpacking, playing with the cats, and enjoying the air conditioning. After Mary got back from class we went and picked up my key from her friend. We also went grocery shopping and picked up a dresser and a desk from a friend of mine in New Orleans who is getting new furniture and decided to donate her old stuff to me. When we got back Mary had a migraine so she crashed and I started to bring the furniture in but I was very tired. Luckily some random Asian man who is our neighbor took it upon himself to carry all of my furniture up to my apartment. Very nice. I was too tired to put it together, though, so I crashed.

Miss Lily playing in the un-set-up furniture


Tuesday morning I set up my furniture and then had an advising meeting at 9, where my adviser told me that I'm doing great, I signed my Application for Degree, and my credit hour allowance was extended to a whopping 25. My laptop is currently out of commission, so I headed over to one of Tulane's computer labs. I was fiddling with calendars and checking email and stuff until I realized that my job interview was at 12 and not 12:30. I realized this at 12:01. I dashed across campus to Stern, which is a big sciencey building that I have never been in, and tried to find the department. Nearly impossible. But eventually, at 12:10, I stumbled upon the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. I went in and had my interview. It went really well and they told me I would hear from them by Wednesday.

Miss Lily (up top) and Mufasa George Rockefeller enjoying the playground of my new desk.


After my interview I had lunch with my good friend Johnny, who I met when I was 15 at my father's college reunion and who was abroad in Japan all year, and we were joined by Jen and Laura, two girls who did the JYA in France with me.

I went home after that and a friend of mine, Ly (pronounced "Lee"), who is an RA brought, over a futon (sans frame) that one of her residents left behind after moving out. Mary and I put it up against the wall but it didn't feel very couch-like.

Mary playing with Mufasa


Then it was time to obtain a bed. This is where the real adventure begins (sort of). Mary and I hopped into the car and headed over to MattressFirm, which is where Mary bought her bed. I called my bank and upped my daily withdrawal limit to $1000, which is high as they would let me go, because I needed a bed and I also needed to pick up the stuff I had put on hold at Bed, Bath and Beyond. As Mary and I headed into MattressFirm, I mentioned to her that I could spend $450 and no more on a bed, because I needed the rest of the money for my Bed, Bath and Beyond stuff. So we went into the store, and there was only one guy working there (who turned out to be the assistant manager). We walked in, looking a bit overwhelmed, and he asked us how he could help us. I just said to him, "I'm looking for a full bed, cheap." He walked me right over to the clearance section, and pulled out a mattress, which he said was the most comfortable for its price. I tested it out, along with a couple others and he was right - it was the best one. It was $400, and the frame was $40. "Perfect!" I said, "That's exactly the right price!"

Of course, when we sat down to add it all up, with taxes and delivery, it cost closer to $550. So Mary and I scrapped the delivery idea and made the assistant manager guy promise to help us tie the mattress and box spring to the top of Mary's truck. Even without delivery, though, it came to about $475, which I still couldn't afford. Plus, for some reason, they didn't have the cheap frame I wanted. So I was talking to Mary, trying to figure out what we could do. I just didn't have the money to spend that day, and she couldn't drive me back out to the store anytime soon. We were kind of stuck. Suddenly the assistant manager just says, "How much do you have? $450? I'll make it work." And he magically made it all cost $450, including the more expensive bed frame. Just like that. And then he carried it all out to Mary's truck and masterfully tied the mattress and box spring to the top. And when I asked him if there were anyone I could call and tell what a great job he did, he said, "No, I'm the assistant manager. Just hearing that is enough." What a nice guy! I swear he would have come home with us and carried it inside if we asked.

So then we drove across the street to Bed, Bath and Beyond. They packed up all my stuff for me (including a mattress pad that was nicer than the one I'd chosen, but for the same price, because they were out of the one I'd chosen), and rang it up, but it still cost more than I'd planned, so I magically picked and chose things that I didn't really need and brought the price way down. It was really my day for being thrifty! Of course now I am going to have to go back and buy myself a second set of sheets sometime soon, but I can do with just one for now.

We headed home and the aforementioned Johnny effortlessly helped us moved my bed inside and set it up. I owe him dinner.

The rest of the night was low-key. Maybe later I'll write about the next day - first day of classes!

Mufasa on my new bed


Mufasssssaaaaaa!