Tartuffe

I'm going to see the Tulane production of Tartuffe tonight, with the lighting designer of the show. Should be a good time.

5 More Pictures

I took a break from Greek today to ride around downtown. I took some pictures on the outskirts of the Central Business District, when I had an okay view of part of the skyline (no part is prettier than any other), and I took one picture on Magazine Street where I saw something you don't see everyday--a SWAT vehicle. I guess I could see it everyday, though, if I commuted down Magazine, since it looks abandoned and no longer functioning.
I saw it on Saturday for the first time, coming back from the Crescent City Farmers' Market. Today's trip was a more leisurely route, and I brought the camera so I could show you.

3 Pictures

See the Library, the Graduate Carrels room, and my carrel (where several of you have called me!).

Busy

I've been busy. Classes started a couple weeks ago (just after the last time I wrote here), and they've been my main concern, while my in-between time has been put towards meeting the other students in the program.
I won't go into the details of the classes here, because I'm sure they would be dull to most of you. In short, I'm taking four classes: Ancient [Attic] Greek (four times a week in the morning), Skepticism, Plato [The Republic], and Heidegger [the Nietzsche lectures]. The latter two are thinkers who operate in ways somewhat familiar to me (although I make no claim to understand either), whereas Skepticism is my first real foray into "analytical philosophy," which is a modern version of philosophy that's, let me say, not quite my interest. Greek is kind of nice--a technical class more than anything, and since it isn't five hours a day, five days a week (as was my intensive introduction to Greek this summer), it feels easy. We're translating one of Plato's shorter dialogues, the Crito. These classes keep me well busy.
To facilitate my studies, the library on campus offers carrels to grad students--essentially my own little cubicle inside the library, which I can stock with 75 books for a year, if I so choose. So far, I've got five on the shelf. My carrel has a luscious curtain separating me from all the other grad students with carrels. The only problem with it--a problem on campus generally--is that it is too well air conditioned. Outdoors it is, as you can imagine, quite hot and quite humid quite often. Air conditioning would be refreshing if a) I wasn't drenched in sweat and b) I didn't have to sit still. Unfortunately, both are almost always the case, so I fear catching a chill. I have yet to place judiciously a sweater or two around campus. Today, wet from the rain (it was a miserable day here which I won't dwell on, having already dwelt within), I sat in my carrel with my luscious curtain around my legs and feet. More permanent solutions to this are currently in the works.
On days when it doesn't rain, I bike to and from campus. It's incredibly convenient. On days, like today, when it does rain, I can take the street car, which isn't too bad if it's prompt (which 'twas today).
Anyway, things are going swimmingly here (yes, sometimes near-literally [did i make that joke already on here?]), so worry not, fear not. And I haven't caught the swine flu yet either, because I do not touch my eyes or mouth after I haven't washed my hands. I hope you too are taking your hygiene seriously.
So goes the report.

Wet One Way or Another

I've been on the bike a bunch since my last post. It's so hot here, that whenever I go out, even for the smallest ride (to the store, for instance), I come back having sweat profusely.
Yesterday, however, I went on a long and interesting ride with my friend S*, and we got caught in an awful storm. Riding through the French Quarter, a drizzle became a deluge, and we sought shelter under one of the many balconies there. A while later, it abated, we rode on, and made it about four blocks before the rain regained its strength and sent us under another balcony. Already wet, and encouraged by a lightening in the cloud cover, we set off again when the rain abated again, and this time we left the close-built sanctuary of the Quarter for wider, less balconied streets. Through Midcity, past the art museum, to and through City Park we rode for almost an hour, and then aimed for our respective homes again. This was the worst, wettest part. The roads we took returning were busier and hole-ier, and the rain was steady now. It soaked us from above, but I was lucky enough to receive extra water-treatment, thanks to a car and a pothole filled with water.
I could make it sound worse, and it was, but I won't.

In other news, I bought my books, met one T*, a fellow grad student, and made potential plans to go out tonight and meet more fellow grad students.

*Names changed to protect the innocent.

1 Horsepower

I'm back in the saddle again
Out where a friend is a friend
Where the longhorn cattle feed
On the lowly gypsum weed
Back in the saddle again

Ridin' the range once more
Totin' my old .44
Where you sleep out every night
And the only law is right
Back in the saddle again

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin' to and fro
Back in the saddle again
Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again


I got the bike out today, finally. Yes, I rode safely. Yes, I wore a helmet. And yes, I was bookin' it. The roads here are not very smooth, so I did more looking at the street than looking around. It was very nice to ride in nearby Audubon Park, on a path that circles the pond in the middle. I also rode by the river, but I'm not sure how I got to where that was. More on that (and possibly pictures) tomorrow or something. Today, though, was a perfect day for biking. It didn't rain, even though it looked threatening in the morning, and it turned into a clear, warm, slightly breezy day. (Definitely the hot kind of warm, but not really bad.)

After the park, I aimed for the Warehouse District, and I don't think I got there. I followed Magazine Street for a long way, and passed through some charming stretches of shops, but then arrived at a large sign reading DO NOT ENTER, and turned around. Magazine was the bumpiest of my routes today.

I also rode to Winn-Dixie, and bought some Hubig's New Orleans Style Pies, which are a local delicacy. They are about as good for you as Pop-Tarts, although a Pop-Tart in its wildest, passion-induced dreams could never know what it is to be a Hubig's pie. They're very good, and I've only had one flavor, Apple, so far.

That trip to the Winn-Dixie completes my tour of the major grocery stores around here, I think. I still have one more small one to visit.

Perhaps delicious beans and Brussels tonight.

Going Places

Most of my adventures don't seem to me much worth the telling, so pardon the spare account--also I've been walking around all day (as you will soon learn!), and I don't have too much energy for this.

First I hit Tulane on business. I had to find my mailbox and its contents. That easily done, I toured the campus more thoroughly than I did the first time. It's a very nice campus, complete with quadrangles and sculptures and student centers and all the rest (of the things I did not have at Roosevelt). There are not many students about, but that makes me wonder more about the few that are.

Then I took the streetcar toward downtown and the French Quarter, with my sights set on a place called The Museum of the American Cocktail. It took awhile, though, because a streetcar broke down right in front of ours, so after a powwow of drivers and badges, they threw it in reverse and took us down the other track to pass the stalled car. Despite the delay, there was little impatience on display from the other passengers.

I found the museum, which is inside another museum (the Southern Food museum) in the corner of a mall. I learned some things. Did you know that the type of cocktail ingredient known as "bitters" was originally any flavored prescription syrup? Well, it's true.

From the Riverside Mall, I began to skirt around the French Quarter, to get some sense of its size and what becomes of it. I did that for awhile, and by then I was very hungry, so I found some jambalaya and ate it. I still haven't seen the Quarter on a weekend night, which I assume is its peak business time.

I also purchased an antenna for my TV, so you'll soon hear about the local programming.

That was mostly my day: Lots of walking, not enough eating. I'm going to rectify that now.