Arrivals And Expectations- Joey Sison

We arrived in New Orleans a little after midnight on Saturday. All I could think about as we got closer were the countless images of houses reduced to piles of garbage that had been shown in the documentary we watched. Everything but the bridge we were on was enveloped in darkness, but I could see that there were not large amounts of buildings around. We briefly introduced ourselves to the couple in charge of Olive Tree, where we're staying, and I haven't had to remind them of my name once, which is really cool. That seemed like I used too many commas. As we toured the Ninth Ward the next morning, it was obvious that many houses and areas still had not been touched since Katrina had hit because they were still in disrepair and had the spraypaint markings. Many places in the area had been rebuilt and it seemed to be pretty developed, but the residential areas only had a few houses that were surrounded by tons of open space. So even though there has been some progress, it isn't enough to get to the point to where many of the previous residents could move back and start their lives over again. Afterwards, we toured the French Quarter, which had some really fancy places such as upscale restaurants and hotels to some... less fancy ones like the erotic cake store and other fun places. We had some really great Creole food on Bourbon Street, and I hope we can return to try more. I'm very excited to help out with rebuilding this week.