ALA in NOLA

I’m in New Orleans. I’m at the India House hostel, which has WIFI. I’m gearing up for a day of hanging around, then going to a YALSA thingie this evening.

So, the drive went really quickly, because there are four of us in my crew, and we yakked all the way here.

Driving into the city, we began to see signs that things are NOT OK. (I mean that mostly architecturally.) We’re staying in the midtown area, and it is a bit sketchville. I’m taking photos, and will upload them Tuesday night (to Flickr). The NOLA area of midtown I saw last July was by no means new buildings and maincured lawns, but now everything has a deserted feeling, and there are a lot of large piles of trash and stuff outside a lot of the houses. (I assume it’s the stuff that people purged from their homes because it’s water damaged.)

When we got the hostel, there were probably 15 people on the front porch. Apparently, the power had gone out. A transformer had blown a fuse. The hostel had rigged enough lights to see, and they said the power comany was on its way.

It’s not that I felt actively unsafe, it’s that it’s a bit barren. We’re travelling as a group, and we befriended a bouncer who stays in the hostel who to took the trolley (all pub tran is free till the end of the month) with us and walked us to a restaruant.

We played the “ooh, ooh, I bet they’re a librarian” game. Decending from a tour bus, carrying tote bags, wearing sensible summer sweaters made out of cotton.

When we got back to the hostel (after having a drink in Pirate’s Alley), the power was back on, so we retired to our room, turned on the air, and promptly crashed.

We’re about to go down to the French Quarter, find the convention center, register, then see what kind of sweet free stuff we can get. I think I’ve promised a free tote bag to about 14 people, so I’ll have to be diligent.