Black Friday

The Friday after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday" in the States. The thanksgiving calmness is over and it's crazy shoppingtime! In fact, a lot of malls open at midnight or in the early morning hours. Bargain hunters are waiting in line for the shops to open because a lot of them grant special deals. I went with my roomies Carmen and Mirta to Lakeside mall to check out what is going on - however around 10am and not in the early morning. Surprisingly, it seemed like most of the really crazy action was over and the most fanatic shoppers were sleeping blissfully already. There were a lot of people indeed, but not as many as we expected. And some shops, for example American Eagle and Abercrombie had really good deals, they had 40 % off on everything. However, I have been shopping enough lately so I managed to buy only a small christmas present ;)

After checking out the mall we went to visit the Metaire cemetery. I have to say that I'm usually not a fan of "cemetery-tourism" but as the cemetries in New Orleans are very unique and famous it's a thing to do when being here. Since the city is more or less built on a swamp and the water-level is therefore very high, the deceased have to be buried above ground, mostly in elaborate stone crypts and mausoleums. They look like this:

Ok now I think I worked up the most things about last week I wanted to share with you guys. I hope everything is fine in good old Austria and you had a nice first advent sunday. I'm getting a little bit nostalgic right now when I think about the beautiful christmasy Vienna :) Have a good week cuties!!

Thanksgiving

Thursday morning, Renate Maria and me went downtown. We took the ferry to get to the other side of the Mississippi river, this part of the city is called Algiers. When walking around in this neighbourhood, we realized that this must be a less wealthy area. Or maybe that's just where normal the middle class lives and we are getting used to all those impressive mansions uptown?

St.Louis Cathedral from a different perspective

 some houses seemed to be still desolated from Katrina

Then we walked around through French Quarter, had coffee and beignets in Café du Monde again, listenend to street-musicians...

 

Also, Thursday was finally the "real Thanksgiving-day"... Thanksgiving is the most important family holiday in the United States. Families from all over the country come together to celebrate. The highlight is of course the dinner, traditionally turkey and numerous side-dishes such as sweet mashed potatos, corn-bread and different salads.

Certainly, my girls and me didn't wanna miss the possibilty to do a real Thanksgiving dinner too ;) We invited some friends and had a good time!

Thanksgiving week

Hey lovelies!

I'm having Thanksgiving-holidays at the moment (Wed-Sun). Since we all kind of spent far too much money during our fall break, we decided that it might be the best choice not to travel but to stay in New Orleans and use the time to discover the city a little bit more. I feel like there are so many places we haven't seen yet!

Tuesday evening Renate, Maria, Miriam and I went out for a dinner to Jacques-Imo's, a popular restaurant on Oak Street which serves typical creole and cajun cuisine. I really liked the way the restaurant looked and its ambiance with paintings all over the wall and ceiling and colorful lights. Everyone enjoyed the food as well!

funny sign outside

in the front my vegetable-curry, in the back Renate's alligator-cheesecake

corn-bread, so good!

After the dinner, we went to Maple Leaf Bar where different bands are performing every night. On Tuesdays the Rebirth Brass Band plays, which what I heard is the best. It was already the second time I saw them and I was enthusiastic again! This is New Orleans :) 

I found a video on Youtube so you can get a better picture of the music and atmosphere!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhwoGVbY9xU

with 3 bandmembers

This weather is perfect for me!

Hey lovely people!

I know I'm saying it over and over again but I can't help I'm just so super-enthusiastic about this weather here! I mean we have end of November now and that's how I went to university today, it's amazing!

Po-Boy festival

It seems like in New Orleans there are festivals for pretty much everything. Sunday, it was "Po-Boy-Festival"-time. A Po-Boy is kind of a very traditional sandwich here in Louisiana. It is usually filled with either meat or seafood, but since I don't eat that I tried a sweet version stuffed with banana-foster bread pudding which was delicious as well. However, what Renate and I particularly enjoyed was the awesome live music again!

Maria's birthday & Thanksgiving Dinner

Friday was my roomate Maria's 21 birthday so we threw a party in our house. Since it's so big it is perfect for parties, I think we could easily host 100 people in there ;)

Before the party started we decorated the house a little bit, it looked really nice!

Unfortunately we kind of forgot to take pictures during the party... (I'm serious haha!)

Saturday, my roomates and me were invited at an american friend's house for a Thanksgiving Dinner. Everbody brought something to eat so in the end there was plenty of tasty and typically american food to try. Yummy!

Coffee with Krisi

Since my gorgeous friend Krisi is in town at the moment we met yesterday for coffee, beignets and a good chat in Cafe du Monde. 

awesome news

Hey lovelies! 

Big news: I received my extended visa today... Now it's offical and certain.... I AM GOING TO STUDY HERE FOR ANOTHER SEMESTER :)))) You can't imagine how happy and excited I am to get this chance!

It was not easy for me to follow my own gut feeling in this matter since I know that some of you might not be very pleased with this decision (what I can of course understand in a certain degree!) However I appreciate your trust in me a lot as well as your support! 

Love,

your Lisa

Audubon Park & Fridays at the Quad

Just a short walk from our house and directly located next to Tulane University there is a big and amazingly beautiful park – Audubon Park. It’s such a lovely place to walk, run or just sit at the water and enjoy nature.

After taking a walk in the park today, Renate and I went to “Fridays at the Quad”. It’s an event on campus hosted almost every Friday by the university with live music and free food. It’s always nice to stop by to meet some people, sit in the sun and chat a bit.